Donn Country : A 300 year legacy
Rob Donn and Tongue
Tongue House was the seat of Lord Reay, Chief of MacKay, where Rob Donn was often summoned to account for questionable activities such as poaching deer and composing Jacobite verse. After one such incident, he adjourned to the inn below the church with his friend George MacLeod, Lord Reay’s piper, commenting:
Thèid mise an dèidh Sheòrais
Oir is còir dhomh bhith ’m fagus da,
Oir is bràithrean ann an ceòl sinn,
An còmhradh beòil ’s am feadaireachd.
I will go in search of George
Because I ought to be in his company,
Since we are brothers in music,
In the language of mouth and chanter.
Tongue was also the home of Iain Thapaidh (John ‘Happy’ Sutherland), schoolteacher at Ribigill, whose lack of musical ability and other failings made him a frequent target of Rob Donn’s satires.