Episode 2 - The Parley

Grantown Museum curator Dan Cottam continues his search to find out if the skull in the handed down through generations of Grants is the one in the legend committed to paper in 1857.

While the medieval legend that surrounds it edges closer to bloodshed, Dan explains the rise of the Grants as a clan from the 13th century onwards and examines the evidence for their possible origins. He also examines the facts behind the legend. Could it be a clever bit of propaganda for the clan?

The Grant lad and the Macgregor girl parley at night with the MacGregor chief and his men. Will their thirty men stand up to this wrathful band of clansmen?
Human remains conservator Cat Irving from Surgeons Hall Edinburgh rings to share her findings on the age and sex of the skull based on her osteological examination.

Dan examines the significance of cattle, land and power in medieval Scotland. He explains the complex relationship between laird and his people as a result of the feudal system established by the Vikings and the Normans.

And, as the storyteller tells of plans for a surprise attack, do we have a contender for the skull?

 If you love Highland clan history and want to find out more about historical characters in this story, like the MacGregor, sign up to Grantown Museum's newsletter. Go to grantownmuseum.co.uk/legends and click the newsletter link. 

Credits

Dan Cottam - Presenter and Grantown Museum curator

Jac Phillimore - Producer

Isobella Hubbard - Storyteller

Cat Irving - Human Remains Conservator, Surgeons’ Hall Museum, Edinburgh

This project was delivered in partnership with The Space and Museums and Heritage Highland. 

 It is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to National Lottery players.

Transcript

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Dan Cottam - Grantown Museum Curator: 0:03

A skull found in a Harrods box with a legend to tell. It's the sort of thing most people would get excited about. But for me, given I'm running Grantown Museum in the Scottish Highlands, this discovery of a possible medieval head relating to local clan history, it's a once in a lifetime sort of thing, and it's all I can think about. The Grant family have held onto it for generations apparently, passing it down as the skull of a clan chieftain. But is it? I'm determined to get some answers about who the skull really is, and understand more about why it's being kept. In this podcast, I'll be talking to human remains experts to uncover the secrets of the skull. We'll also hear more of the medieval legend and explore what a story handed down for centuries can tell us, not least what clan life was like in medieval Highland Scotland. You're listening to the Legend of the Highland Skull, episode two.

Isobella Hubbard - Storyteller: 1:16

The runaway lovers and babe in arms face the arrival of the girl's father. The fearsome MacGregor chief is furious his daughter has fallen for a powerless young lad from Clan Grant. The ambitious boy is an unsuitable match for his daughter, and the chief swears to find the runaways and punish them both. Refusing to run anymore, the couple decide to meet the chief face-to-face in the hope they can change his mind.

Dan Cottam - Grantown Museum Curator: 1:47

I'm Dan Cottam. I've been working in Grantown Museum for 10 years. In that time, I've come to know Clan Grant's history pretty well. In the legend, the Grants appear to be an inconsequential clan, an unfit match for a descendant of royalty, MacGregor's daughter. And that is, for me, one of the most interesting things about this story. We don't know exactly when the legend is supposed to have taken place. That's often the way with legends. But from various clues, we can suppose it predates the 1300s. Over time, the Grants would rise to become one of the most powerful families in Scotland. They were often accomplished politicians and skilled in playing a two-sided game. In 1296, the Grants of Stratherrick would support Robert the Bruce during the first Scottish War of Independence and would continue supporting the winners gaining lands and favour for their loyalty and service to the Scottish crown. By the 16th century, they were close friends to the Scottish monarchy. We know the Grant chief was playing cards with Mary Queen of Scots when her lover Rizzio was murdered in the next room. So if we think about why this legend, whether true or not, has been told for centuries, to me, it looks like a very useful origin story for Clan Grant. The tale bolsters a blood connection between the Grants and the MacGregor Clan through the baby boy in the story, and the MacGregors had ancient and legendary ties to the old kings of Scotland as far back as the ninth century. Any claim on royal lineage would elevate status and prove legitimacy to land ownership. This story directly linking the Grants to the MacGregors does that very nicely indeed. But actually there are various theories of where and who the Grants originated from. Some think origins lay with a Danish ancestor or Haking Grant of Norway, who settled in Scotland around 960 AD. I tend to go along with the thinking that the name is French, coming from Norman settlers. There are certainly quite a few Le Grands around in Britain in medieval times. Right after the Battle of Hastings in 1066, the Normans invaded England and then slowly moved north up to Scotland. It's actually pretty hard to connect all the Le Grand at that time in history. Records are scarce, and Le Grand means the big in French, which would have been a common way to describe someone, Big Gregor, Big Alistair, et cetera. So we can't really put all of these early Le Grande together as one family at this stage in history.

Isobella Hubbard - Storyteller: 4:32

So is your theory about the Norman heritage just a hunch, Dan? Or is there more to it?

Dan Cottam - Grantown Museum Curator: 4:38

Well, yes. There are also stories of a Gregor Le Grand in Stratherrick, and records of his probable sons Robert and another Lawrence Le Grand acquiring the lands there, with Lawrence becoming the Sheriff of Inverness in 1263. It does seem uncanny that this name Gregor pops up as that of the swaddled child in the couple's arms. Was this the same person or is this historic fact being woven into the stuff of the storyteller in order to add providence to a tale? And if the Clan Grant have Norman heritage… all the more reason to tell a story some clever propaganda that ties their Norman family history to the MacGregors and their royal lineage. Dan Cottam, curator at Grantown Museum. Please leave a message

Cat Irving - Surgeons' Hall Human Remains Conservator: 5:26

Hi, it's Cat Irving from Surgeons' Hall in Edinburgh again. I've got a bit more information about the skull. So I've been having a look at the skull to see if we can tell whether this is a male or a female skull. Now, it's not 100% accurate, especially when I'm just eyeballing this rather than putting measurements through, you know, various calculations and things like that. But having a look at this, you know, we can see things like the slope of the forehead, the shape of the eye sockets. We can look at the mastoid processes which are the, the lumpy bit of the bone behind your ear. And while from the skull you can only get about an 80% accuracy on sex estimation, you know, it is a spectrum so there is always a gray area in the middle, I would say this is very likely to be a male skull.

Dan Cottam - Grantown Museum Curator: 6:13

Well, that leaves us still on the right track for the head to be a clan chieftain. What else can we learn from this skull? I still have so many questions. I'd love to get an idea what sort of life this person lived or how old the person was when they died, even how they died.

Isobella Hubbard - Storyteller: 6:31

If I could just interrupt your musings and get back to the legend. It's night time when the MacGregor chief and his men finally arrive at Clash an Dunan where the newlyweds have fortified themselves. A parley is held by torchlight in the deep wooded ravine. That old word parley, from the French"to talk," feels inadequate here. There's more hostility and posturing of violence than talk. It's the bit you see in movies where the lead characters come face-to-face and square up to each other. Fire and sword are threatened. The Grant boy declares he'll never be parted from his true love and with a menacing look of grit and determination dares the chief to do his worst.

Dan Cottam - Grantown Museum Curator: 7:17

We know this skull is male. Could it be one of these two standing there brandishing their swords and their fury in the cold night air?

Cat Irving - Surgeons' Hall Human Remains Conservator: 7:29

Hi, it's Cat from Surgeons Hall again. Looking at this skull, it's definitely an adult skull. We can tell it's an adult skull from the size, from the development of the bones, from the size of the, uh, eye sockets in relation to the size of the skull. And if we look at those sutures that hold the skull bones together, we can get a bit more precision on how old they are. So as we get older, uh, those sutures start to fuse. So if you get to be a grand old age the top of your skull will be fairly smooth with very little indication of those sutures remaining. Now, if we look at this person, the sutures are still quite clear and they're slightly loose so I would guess this is someone who's probably in their mid 20s to late 30s.

Dan Cottam - Grantown Museum Curator: 8:21

Amazing. We now know in all likelihood it's the skull of a youngish male. You might think that being so young would rule out this skull being a chief or a chieftain but actually for medieval times given you were seen to be a man by the age of 14 or 15 and life expectancy was probably around 50, we should consider someone in their mid 20s to late 30s to be middle aged. This skull could easily be a chieftain's. We also know it's at least 150 to 200 years old because we know or assume it's the same skull written about in a letter penned in 1857, the letter which was found alongside the skull in Harrods box kept by the Grants. But we want to go back further another 500 years to confirm it's a medieval clan chieftain. How do we do that? And how will the legend reveal which clan chieftain it's meant to be?

Isobella Hubbard - Storyteller: 9:14

We come back to our legend at a moment of heightened tensions. The MacGregor Chief and the Grant boy have come to talk by nightfall. Grant's loyal men circling the pair with torches. Between the trees, the firelight and the shadows, the MacGregor chief thinks the boy has 100 men with him when in reality there are around 30. Whether the chief is cowed or impressed to the couple's utter relief, MacGregor relents forgives all and blesses the union vouching to be a friend to his son-in-law should trouble arise in the future. Drinking and toasting the union gets into full swing. The legend says many a quake of whisky was emptied in celebration that night such that the owls in Clash an Dunan had never heard such revelry before.

Dan Cottam - Grantown Museum Curator: 10:12

So no blood is spilled And we have no candidate for the skull so far… and the whisky is brought out. Just a wee note here on quaichs. They’re a two handled shallow drinking vessel. The earliest one recorded in Scottish history is in fifteen forty six but that doesn’t mean they weren’t used in earlier times. In Scottish culture they are symbol of friendship and trust - the idea for that comes from the fact that they have these two handles, so in passing them you cannot draw your sword at the same time. And I think that gives you sense of just how trusting the Highlanders world was. Our history and our folklore are full of alliances secret deal making and murderous betrayal.

Isobella Hubbard - Storyteller: 10:59

Emboldened by whisky, the Grant boy seizes on the chance to tell his father-in-law of the hassle he and his wife have had from a neighboring chieftain of Clan Comyn who has been trying to get the couple and their entourage off his land. What about launching a surprise attack on the Comyn stronghold just a few miles away? Seizing this chieftain's territory would secure lands for the Grants, and extend the influence and power of the Grant MacGregor alliance. Surely together with the Grant lad and his men, the invincible MacGregors would have no trouble taking it…?

Dan Cottam - Grantown Museum Curator: 11:39

Sometimes the whisky does the talking. The Comyns are a powerful clan at this time, and I'll come to talk about them a bit more in the next episode. There's no doubt that Grant's plan is ambitious. It might even seem reckless, but actually there was nothing unusual about pillaging and plundering in this way in medieval Scotland. Resources were sparse in the Highlands and hard-won against a difficult climate. Being generally hilly, not everyone would have good land around them for growing crops, but they could find land to graze cattle in the summer. Problem was, there wasn't enough grass to keep cows fed over the winter, nor could they keep their meat fresh to feed themselves. They were forced into a system of selling off animals in the winter, driving them south down to markets. Tenants would give livestock to the local landholder as rent so chieftains would end up with thousands of cattle to take to market to turn into cash. The more land you have the rights to, the more tenants, and therefore, the more heads of cattle you have to take to market. So cattle became the main commodity in the highlands. But cows aren't the easiest things to keep safely. It was fairly easy to drive them onto your land and claim them as your own. So let the looting begin! But how was it possible to police this in a big spread out mountainous area?

Isobella Hubbard - Storyteller: 13:03

Yes, let's not forget the Scottish Highlands are still thickly forested at this point making it difficult to spot marauders.

Dan Cottam - Grantown Museum Curator: 13:11

This is where the feudal system was really clever. Let's start at the top. The monarch couldn't possibly control all of his or her land and everything on it, so he gave control of large areas to his family and most loyal supporters who promised to keep law and order in that place and reap the rewards of the bounty of the land. They had hunting rights and also kept taxes coming into the king or queen's coffers. They in turn divided that land amongst their family and friends who did the same for their land. The word clan is just another word for family. The heads of the large and powerful families were the chiefs of the clans, and they then divided their land between the lesser chieftains. This was a fundamental change. Before the Normans people in the Highlands had no concept of land ownership. People belonged to the land; the land did not belong to the people. So if I'm on my small piece of land, I get a lease or few that allows me to farm and build a home, and in return, I'll give the chieftain some of my

produce: 14:14

cattles, goats, chickens, et cetera And I'll promise to do pretty much whatever the chieftain tells me to do. Turn out to fight in times of trouble, help to build a bridge, a mill or a road, or become a security guard for everyone's cattle. The chieftain promises to protect me and my livestock from marauding neighbors, but I'll be asked to take my turn in the security force in exchange. And so it went up the chain. The nobles at the top promised their monarch thousands of men who were contracted to fight in support of whomever they choose. The more people you had living on your land, the more cattle you had, and the more armies you could call upon, so the more power you had. Taking power meant raiding either taking cattle or like our Grant lad proposes, taking over the whole running of an estate and its people, and that meant the ultimate risk. Kill the chieftain or be killed yourself. It will be interesting to find out a bit more about the condition of the skull and whether there is an obvious cause of death when we catch up with our Surgeons Hall human remains expert.

Isobella Hubbard - Storyteller: 15:24

Well, it does feel like some of the characters in this story have a taste for recklessness. The MacGregor chief is impressed by his new son-in-law's daring and agrees to combine forces to launch this surprise attack on the Comyn chieftain and his clansmen. Will this plan change the course of history in favour of the Grants or turn out to be a foolish mistake?

Dan Cottam - Grantown Museum Curator: 15:48

And could this common chieftain be a candidate for the skull?

Isobella Hubbard - Storyteller: 15:53

Well, someone's head sits in a box. You've been listening to The Legend of the Highland Skull, episode two. Stay with us to find out more of the skull's secrets. Coming up in the next episode, a biomolecular and medieval archeologist gets her hands on our skull to analyze it in a lab.

Dr Sam Leggett - University of Edinburgh Archeologist: 16:14

Beheading and separating a head from the rest of the body usually was used in terms of execution, so for very high level crimes like treason, and it was sort of a desecration of the body that was again sort of a punishment about what would then happen to your soul in the afterlife as well.

Dan Cottam - Grantown Museum Curator: 16:32

The reasons why people in history have held onto human remains are really interesting.

The question is: 16:38

Can we find out any more information about the skull and about the life this person lived?

Isobella Hubbard - Storyteller: 16:44

Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed the podcast so far, leave us a review and please recommend it to your friends. You can find out more about the history and landscape surrounding this legend by subscribing to Grant Museum's newsletter. Go to Grantmuseum.co.uk/legends. This podcast is produced for Granton Museum by Jac Phillimore. It's presented by the museum's curator Dan Cottam, and the legend is read by me, Isobella Hubbard. The project was delivered in partnership with the Space and Museums and Heritage Highland. It is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund thanks to National Lottery players, and you can find out about other heritage work supported by the lottery at heritagefund.org.uk