Letter: A battle lost?

Donald MacLeod's letter (5 March) reminded me of a Gaelic scholar who told me that "Gaelic" speakers on The Islands of the Foreigners (Lewis in particular) spoke with almost the same vocal intonation as the Norwegians in Vest Agder, from whence many of their ancestors came.

Anyone who has been to western Norway or Iceland can see clearly how place names match up with those in the Hebrides and western coastal mainland areas. Even that great Gaelic scholar and poet Sorley MacLean had a Norse forename: the Gaelicised version of Sumarlidi, meaning summer traveller.

It's ironic to contemplate that if the Lowland (mainly Anglo-Brythonic) Scots had not scraped a victory at the debacle at Largs in 1263, then the Hebrides may have remained part of Norway.

Bearing in mind the now devastated ecology, economy and culture of the Hebrides, compared to the vibrant and rich one in Vestlandet in Norway, perhaps winning the so called Battle of Largs was a mistake.

RON GREER

Blair Atholl

Perthshire