page_title: Muck, Scotland
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Muck, Scotland / History / Early history
caption_attribution_description: English: Gleann Mhairtein Gleann Mhairtein, Isle of Muck, looking north-west. The islands of Canna and Rum can be seen on the horizon.
context_page_description: Muck is the smallest of four main islands in the Small Isles, part of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland.
context_section_description: A thumbnail scraper found at Toaluinn on Muck indicates possible occupation in the Neolithic Era. This appears to have continued into the Bronze Age, if a dagger found on Muck, and dating between 800 and 400 BC, is anything to go by. A number of cairns, of ambiguous date, are scattered around Port Mòr, and elsewhere on the island. At some point in the Iron Age, a natural stack - Caistel nan Duin Bhan - in a commanding position near Port Mòr, was fortified by construction of a thick wall around the summit; it remained in use until medieval times.
  According to local traditions, after Columba, a 6th-century Irishman, established a campaign (based at Iona) to Christianise the region, he himself visited Muck. A field adjacent to the ancient graveyard in Kiel was historically named Dail Chill Fionain (the field of Finnian's Church), in reference to Columba's tutor; the undated remains of an ancient chapel lie within the graveyard, which also contained two inscribed slabs which seem to date from this period. The name of Glen Martin is likewise traditionally ascribed to a hermit who supposedly lived there at this time.
caption: Glen Martin
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