page_title: Rùm
section_title: Duart and Munro
hierarchical_section_title: Rùm / History / MacLeans / Duart and Munro
caption_attribution_description: English: Red Deer on Kilmory Beach Just as we arrived at Kilmory we saw a sequence of Red Deer crossing the beach.
context_page_description: Rùm, a Scottish Gaelic name often anglicised to Rum, is one of the Small Isles of the Inner Hebrides, in the district of Lochaber, Scotland. For much of the 20th century the name became Rhum, a spelling invented by the former owner, Sir George Bullough, because he did not relish the idea of having the title "Laird of Rum".
  It is the largest of the Small Isles, and the 15th largest Scottish island, but is inhabited by only about thirty or so people, all of whom live in the hamlet of Kinloch on the east coast. The island has been inhabited since the 8th millennium BC and provides some of the earliest known evidence of human occupation in Scotland. The early Celtic and Norse settlers left only a few written accounts and artefacts. From the 12th to 13th centuries on, the island was held by various clans including the MacLeans of Coll. The population grew to over 400 by the late 18th century but was cleared of its indigenous population between 1826 and 1828. The island then became a sporting estate, the exotic Kinloch Castle being constructed by the Bulloughs in 1900. Rùm was purchased by the Nature Conservancy Council in 1957.
context_section_description: In 1493, John Garbh's heirs (the MacLeans of Coll) became direct vassals of the king, as a result of John MacDonald's realm becoming forfeit. This brought them into conflict with the heirs of John Garbh's elder brother (the MacLeans of Duart), who believed themselves to be the leaders of all MacLeans. In 1549 Donald Munro, conducting a survey, noted that although the island "pertained" to Coll it "obeys instantlie" to Duart, a situation that continued for some time.
  Munro also reported that, at the time, Rùm was highly forested, with an abundance of deer. Munro goes on to argue that the best way of slaying the deer would be when they are moving uphill (when gravity is against them), their principal home being in the heights. Contemporary with Munro, substantial stone walls were built in the glens to funnel deer into pens.
  When Lachlan Mor became leader of the MacLeans of Duart, he pursued the feud with vigour. In 1588, he had the fortune for some remains of the Spanish Armada to arrive in his lands (Mull); Lachlan offered them refuge in return for a supply of 100 soldiers. So it was that in 1588 Lachlan Mor attacked the Small Isles with the aid of Spaniards, and slaughtered its population, sparing neither women nor children. Rùm's character as a hunting reserve, and the low numbers of its former population, meant that there was little long term impact, once Rùm was repopulated. A contemporary, Skene, noted that
  
  Romb is ane Ile of small profit, except that it conteins mony deir, and for sustentation thairof the same is permittit unlabourit, except twa townis. It is... all hillis and waist glennis, and commodious only for hunting of deir... and will raise 6 or 7 men.
  The king imprisoned Lachlan (in Edinburgh) for his actions, but he escaped, and faced no further punishment. A later report for the king indicated that the island was repopulated by members of Clan Ranald
caption: The beach is composed of white machair, not snow; the photograph was taken in July
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