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  • Uilleam Ros
    William Ross
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Uilleam Ros
William Ross

1762 - 1791

Memorial stone to Uilleam Ros in the churchyard at Gairloch
POEMS
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English
Uilleam Ros (William Ross), known as the Gairloch Bard, was born in Broadford, Isle of Skye, in 1762, and educated in Forres. His mother belonged to Gairloch; his father was from Skye, a pedlar, and Ross accompanied him on his travels round the West of Scotland and the Lowlands before taking the position of schoolmaster in Gairloch at the age of 24, when the family returned to live there. He excelled in Latin and Greek, and successfully carried out his duties as the local teacher for all of his short life, while also acting as catechist and precentor in the parish church. To his education and accomplishments he could add a good voice and some skill on the flute and violin.

Ros had a natural talent for poetry. Schooled  in the tradition of Gaelic verse, he composed praise-poems about his home area and its people. He wrote also in praise of whisky, and, of course, about love. Ros had met and fallen in love with a girl in Stornoway, and his rejection by her was said to have led to his early death – a story perhaps encouraged by John Mackenzie, who first collected Ros’s poetry. It is true that his best love poems are about her. Derick Thomson writes, in his Introduction to Gaelic Poetry (EUP, 1990):

William Ross died in 1791, a long time indeed after Mòr Ros’s marriage in 1782, too long no doubt to give credence that he died of love for her. Yet the legend has its own truth, or so it seems when we consider the ways in which his poetry differs from that of his fellow Gaelic poets of the eighteenth century. His personality seems the most vulnerable, and he either wears his heart on his sleeve or pretends he hasn’t got one: two reflexes of the same emotional disturbance. This subjective element, and more especially the conscious manipulation of it, was new in the poetry of the century, though perhaps not entirely original.

Ros is said to have burned his own poems; texts of 1804 were taken from oral versions,  and later collected by John MacKenzie, with a translated edition edited by George Calder and published by Oliver & Boyd in 1937.

Ros succumbed to tuberculosis when he was 28, and is buried in the churchyard at Gairloch. A monument to the Bard was erected in 1850.

Gaelic

Rugadh Uilleam Ros anns an t-Srath san Eilean Sgitheanach ann an 1762 agus fhuair e foghlam am Farrais. Bhuineadh a mhàthair do Gheàrrloch; bha athair na Sgitheanach agus na cheannaiche-siubhail, agus bhiodh Uilleam tric a’ siubhal còmhla ris mun cuairt taobh siar na h-Alba agus dhan Ghalldachd mus do ghabh e dhreuchd mar mhaighstir-sgoile an Geàrrloch aig aois 24, nuair a thill an teaghlach a dh’fhuireach ann. Bha e air leth math air Laideann agus Greugais, agus bha e na thidsear soirbheachail fad a bheatha ghoirid, aig a’ cheart àm ag obair mar cheistear agus neach-togail an fhuinn ann an eaglais na paraiste. Bha deagh ghuth aige a rèir choltais, agus sgilean air an fheadaig agus an fhidheill.

Bha tàlant aige airson bàrdachd. Air a bhogadh ann an traidiseanan bàrdachd na Gàidhlig, rinn e bàrdachd mholaidh mun sgìre aige agus na daoine a bha ann. Sgrìobh e cuideachd òran molaidh don uisge-bheatha agus, mar a bhiodh dùil, mu ghaol. Bha Ros air coinneachadh ri agus air gaol a ghabhail air tè an Steòrnabhagh, agus thuirt cuid gun robh seo na adhbhar airson a bhàs cho òg – sgeulachd a sgaoil Iain MacCoinnich, a chruinnich bàrdachd Rois an toiseach. Tha e fìor gur ann mu deidhinn a bha na dàin ghaoil às fheàrr a sgrìobh e. Sgrìobh Ruaraidh MacThòmais, an Introduction to Gaelic Poetry (EUP, 1990):

Dh’eug Uilleam Ros an 1791, fada às dèidh Mòr Ròs fear eile a phòsadh an 1782, ro fhada às a dhèidh airson toirt a’ chreids’ gun do dh’eug e air sgàth ’s a’ ghaoil a bh’ aige oirre. Ach tha fìrinn air choreigin anns an uirsgeul, tha coltach, nuair a smaoineachas sinn air na dòighean anns a bheil a’ bhàrdachd aige eadar-dhealaichte bho bhàird Ghàidhlig an 18mh linn. An taca riutha, tha a phearsa so-leònta, le a chridhe follaiseach no cleithte gu faoin: dà thaobh air an aon bhuaireadh fhaireachdainnean. Ged nach b’ e rud gu tur ùr a bh’ anns an rùrachadh seo am measg fhaireachdainnean, cha robh e pailt ann an dàin an linn seo.

Thathar ag ràdh gun do loisg Ros na dàin aige fhèin. Chaidh dàin Rois a sgrìobhadh a-mach an 1804, ach ’s ann bho bheul-aithris a fhuairear iad, an àite sgrìobhaidhean a’ bhàird. Chaidh iad sin a chruinneachadh le Iain MacCoinnich, le eadar-theangachaidhean bho Sheòras Calder, agus chaidh an cruinneachadh sin fhoillseachadh le Oliver & Boyd an 1937.

Dh’eug Ros dhen chaitheamh aig aois 28, agus chaidh a thiodhlacadh an cill Gheàrrloch. Chaidh carragh-cuimhne dhan bhàrd a thogail an 1850.

Read the poems

  • Achmhasan an Deideidh, a Deudach Dhomhnuill Fhriseal
  • Òran Eile

Further Information

BBC Alba Làrach nam Bàrd

From the Library Catalogue

Publications by Uilleam Ros
William Ross

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