The book Arran; - Cook Clan

114 THE BOOK OF ARRAN
Brown plundering of 164(6, as set forth in the previous
chapter. Cowal or other Browns ^ are an element in the
population of the north end ; a little colony of them colours
the tiny graveyard by the wayside between Catacol and
Loch Ranza.
All the Arran raiders, in fact, are represented locally in
name—MacDonalds a few, MacAlisters many, though a
diminishing number. The special habitat of the MacAlisters
is the Shisken district, and the forefathers of the name lie
in ranks in the windswept cemetery at Kilmorie or in the
old Shisken ground by the clamorous Clachan burn. There
are said to have been ' big ' and ' little ' MacAlisters. The
term ' big MacAlisters ' and ' little MacAlisters ' is unknown
in Arran. The term ' Clann Alastair Bheag ' was applied
to ' Sliochd Iain Odhar ' (Sallow John's tribe), that is the
little clan MacAlister (of Arran), to distinguish them from
' Sliochd Iain Dubh ' (Black John's tribe), that is the Mac-
Alisters of Loup, etc. We have already seen one way of
their coming as settlers ; another report is that MacAlisters
came over to Shisken from their home country in the south
side of Loch Tarbert to fill up places vacant by a destructive
visit of the plague in 1666. The year preceding is that of
the Great Plague of London, but there is no record of the
infection having passed to Scotland. But the MacAlisters
had been so often a plague to the island that it was fitting
such a forerunner should prepare a place for them. Other
families credited with occupying these sorrowful vacations
are Thomsons and MacMillans, while Bannatynes came from
Rothesay. But no doubt there was normally, from time to
time, an infusion of Kintyre and Cowal blood in Arran.
The ecclesiastical connection between Saddell and Shisken
would be one channel. Several families of the name of
Thomson are descended from Lachlan MacTavish or Thomson,
1 Represents Gaelic M'llle-dhuinn (donn, 'brown'), or it may be a mere
epithet.