Categories
Folklore People

Jura 180 year old

Jura man, Gillouir MacCrain saw 180 Christmasses in his own home.

http://www.islay.org.uk/2016/08/31/gillouir-maccrain-lived-to-180-christmasses-on-the-isle-of-jura/

Was he 180 years old when he died in 1645? Was he just *really* into Christmas?

Most likely, the Diùrachs were playing a trick with the traveler, Martin Martin when he visited in 1705. Gaels celebrated “Big Christmas” (An Nollaig Mhòr) and New Year, “Little Christmas” (An Nollaig Bheag). Gillour was probably 90 or so.

Gillouir’s niece Mary has a headstone near his and was thought to have died at age 128 in 1856. In reality she died in December 22nd 1855, and was *only* 118.

https://marccalhoun.blogspot.com/2013/03/
Mary MacCraine’s [sic] entry in register of deaths in 1855.
Categories
Rural Life

Waterloo Souvenir

Skye crofter, Jonathan MacLeod (d.1874) was shot in the leg at Waterloo and lived with the bullet in his calf for ~60 years. When his son Angus was interred with him at Kilmartin, his grandchildren found the bullet in the earth, 72 years after it had been shot.

Image
“Waterloo Gordons and Greys to the Front” by Stanley Berkeley
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Kilmartin Cemetery on Skye where Jonathan and Angus MacLeod are buried.
References

Dundee Evening Telegraph. 24th March 1887. pg. 2
1887 MACLEOD, ANGUS (Statutory registers Deaths 112/2 7)