Sorley MacLean / Somhairle MacGill-Eain

Sorley Maclean (Somhairle MacGill-Eain) is reckoned to be one of the finest poets Scotland has had. That he was not better known beyond his native land is probably due to the fact that he wrote almost exclusively in Gaelic, though bilingual editions of his poetry, published since the 1970s, have widened his appeal.

Born on the island of Raasay in 1911, Maclean came from a family steeped in Gaelic culture. He fought in World War Two in North Africa before becoming a teacher in Mull, Edinburgh and Plockton, and continued in that career until his retirement.

The publication of his first book of poetry, 17 Poems for 6d, with the poet, Robert Garioch, marked his entry into the world of Scottish letters. Three years later, a collection of love poems called Dàin do Eimhir agus Dain Eile (Poems to Eimhir) appeared; it remains one of the key texts of 20th-century Scottish poetry. Maclean’s output, unlike some other of the poets of his generation, was not prolific but his books and poems have become iconic. The best known, the elegiac ‘Hallaig’, is a moving poem on the Clearances. (For those interested in hearing Maclean read from one of his poems, and he had a very distinctive voice and diction, the folk group, Capercaillie, have recorded a version of ‘Calvary’ on an album by their lead singer, Karen Matheson.)

He died in 1996 at the age of 85 and is buried in Skye, south of Portree.