Donald Monro (dean)

Donald Monro (or Munro) (fl.c.1550-1575) was a Scottish clergyman, who wrote an early and historically valuable description of the Hebrides and other Scottish islands and enjoyed the honorific title of “Dean of the Isles”.

Origins

Monro was the eldest son of Alexander Monro of Kiltearn, by Janet, daughter of Farquhar Maclean of Dochgarroch. His father was a grandson of George Munro, 10th Baron of Foulis (Chief of the Clan Munro).^[1]

Career

Monro was nominated to the Archdeaconry of the Isles in or shortly after 1549^[1]. In that year, he visited most of the islands on the West coast of Scotland and wrote a manuscript account of them, which was first published in 1774^[2], together with his brief genealogical account of various branches of Clan Macdonald.

Monro must initially have been a Roman Catholic, but following the Scottish Reformation in 1560 he adhered to the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. At some point between 1560 and 1563 he was appointed as parson of Kiltearn and he was also minister at Alness and Lemlair. In 1563, he witnessed a charter, styling himself “Archdeacon of the Isles”, and in the same year he was appointed by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to act as Commissioner of Ross. Notwithstanding some criticism in 1570 of his ability in Gaelic, his commission was extended from time to time until 1575, when a successor was appointed.^[1]

He is traditionally said to have lived at Castle Craig and to have crossed the Cromarty Firth to perform his duties at Kiltearn.^[3]

The date of his death is unknown, but he had died by 1589, when his cousin Robert Munro was parson of Kiltearn.^[1]

External links

• Description of the Western Isles of Scotland (William Auld, Edinburgh, 1774)

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Alexander Ross, The Reverend Donald Munro, M.A., High Dean of the Isles, in The Celtic Magazine (volume 9, 1884), at pages 142 to 144.
2. ^ Description of the Western Isles of Scotland (William Auld, Edinburgh, 1774); further editions were published in 1805, 1818 and (with scholarly apparatus) in 1961.
3. ^ Dictionary of National Biography, volume 38 (1894)