Martin Martin (Scottish Gaelic: Màrtainn
MacGilleMhàrtainn, ?-1719) was a Scottish
writer best
known for his work A Description of the Western Isles of
Scotland (1703). This book is particularly noted for its
information on the St. Kilda
archipelago. Martin's description of St
Kilda, which he visited in 1697, had also been published some years
earlier as
A Late Voyage to St. Kilda (1698).
A native
of Bealach, near Duntulm
, Skye
, his work has some authenticity thanks to the fact
that he was raised in Gaeldom. Dr
Johnson, however, believed him to be credulous, and indeed,
some of his descriptions of
second
sight and other superstitions appear to be this way.
He appears to have come from the Highland
middle class, the
tacksmen, who were factors on
lairds' estates.
His brother may have been tacksman at
Flodigarry
on Skye.
Martin graduated
MA from
the
University of Edinburgh
in 1681.
Nothing seems to be known of him in his later
years, except that he entered Leiden
University in 1710, and there graduated as MD, afterwards residing in London
until his
death, unmarried, in 1719.
Both Johnson and
Boswell read his book
and took a copy of it along with them on their famous tour in 1773.
Johnson
felt Martin had failed to record the more interesting aspects of
life at the time, and suggested that this was because Martin was
unaware of just how different the social structure of the Western Isles
was in comparison to the modern world.
See also
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