From July 1805 a licentiate of the Presbytery of Caithness, the Reverend Dr John MacDonald was sent by Sir John Sinclair to travel the north-west in search of Ossian’s poems. This he did during September-October 1805; Sinclair called him his ‘Poetical missionary’. (Adv.MS.73.2.15, folios 128-129). His experiences were frustrating, however, as is shown by his letters from Portree and Fort Augustus (Adv.MS.73.2.15 folios 139, 146). The result was the present manuscript. Sinclair paid him £11 (Adv.MS.73.2.15, folios 154, 156; Adv.MS.73.2.24, folio 122).

1 folio excised between pages 3-4, 2 folios between pages 25-26; in each case traces of writing remains on stubs, but the text as it stands is complete. All the poems except one are preceded by an introduction or ‘argument’ in English.

The contents are as follows.

(i) ‘Poems of Ossian, collected by Jo MDonald in the western Parishes of Strathnaver, Ross & Invernessshire in Septr. & Octr. 1805’. (Page i.)

(ii) Index, with details of reciters. (Page 1.)

(iii) ‘La dhuinn air Tulach Soir’, 403 lines. (Page 3.)

(iv) ‘Ossian uasil Mhic Fhinn’, 21 stanzas. (Page 19.)

(v) “La do Fhionn ar bheagan slōigh”, 26 stanzas. (Page 24.)

(vi) “Dheibht an’ toiseach na Carbaid”, 3 stanzas. (Page 29.)

(vii) ‘La do Phadric an Tuir’, 21 stanzas. (Page 30.)

(viii) ‘Innis duinn Ossian narich’, 29 stanzas. (Page 35.)

(ix) ‘A Chlerich dhan na salm’, 20 stanzas. (Page 41.)

(x) “Sgeul th’ agam air Fionn fior-ghlic”, 15 stanzas. (Page 46.)

(xi) “Och a shithean sin ‘s a thulaich”, 13 stanzas. (Page 50.)