Donald MacKinnon (Celtic scholar)

Donald MacKinnon
portrait of Donald MacKinnon
Born	(1839-04-18)18 April 1839 Kilchattan, Colonsay, Argyll, Scotland
Died	Balnahard, Colonsay, Argyll, Scotland
Nationality	Scottish
Occupation	Professor of celtic
Known for	Celtic Studies
Spouse(s)	Catherine MacPhee MacKinnon (m. 1873) (1842–1917)
Children	5 Malcolm * Catherine (d. 1949) * Mary (d. 1960) * Neil (d. 1884) * Duncan (d. 1918)

Donald MacKinnon (1839–1914), born on Colonsay, an island in the Scottish Inner Hebrides, was a Celtic scholar, the first elected Professor of Celtic languages, literature, history and antiquities at Edinburgh University, a chair he occupied from 1882 to the year of his death in 1914. He is known particularly for his edition and translation of the so-called Glenmasan manuscript, and also catalogued the manuscripts in the Advocates Library collection.

Education

He enrolled in the local Sean Sgoil (The Old School), and at the age of eighteen, attended the Church of Scotland Training College. He was Clerk to the Church of Scotland's Educational Scheme (1869). Continuing his study at Edinburgh University he obtained the degree of M.A. in 1870. Later he became clerk and treasurer to the School Board of Edinburgh.

Writings

He began publishing essays in An Gaidheal (which ran from 1871 to 1877). Later he wrote his observations entitled "Place Names and Personal Names in Argyll", in the The Scotsman (Newspaper) Nov–Jan 1888, in eighteen serialised parts.
He edited, translated, and annotated the fifteenth century Glenmasan MS. (formerly Adv. Lib. MS. LIII, now National Library of Scotland (Adv.MS.72.2.3), an important codex containing a later romance version of the Deirdre story besides other material. A list of his works is given in the #Bibliography section.

Genealogy

Some recently published writings by Sheets and Ray indicate a resurgence of interest in the connection between the MacKinnons who migrated to Canada and the family of the professor in Scotland who was their kinsman.

Bibliography

• Culture in Early Scotland, D. Mackinnon ed., Wiliams & Norgate, London, 1892.
• MacKinnon, Donald. "The Glenmasan Manuscript", in The Celtic Review.
  • (ed. & tr.; cont. in subsequent volumes)
  • CELT Corpus (University College, Cork) Gaelic / English
• On the dialects of Scottish Gaelic (1886)*
• News Cuttings (1889) Internet Archive (incomplete collection of his serialised articles)

References

• CELT Corpus
• (w/ photograph of his portrait)
• John W. Sheets, "National Culture of Mobility: The Colonsay-Canada Connection" in , excerpted at The Corncrake Archives 24, "The Colonsay-Canada Connection, Part 3".
• • The Gambolier, 25 November 1914, pp. 64–66 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University) [cited by Archives Hub as biographical authority]
• ;
  • @ author's page

External links

• Collection of Professor Donald Mackinnon (1839–1914) (Archives hub at the center of great research)