SAINT MOLUAG AND BACHUIL

 

Moluag, an Irish Pict, was born about 520. In 562 he crossed to Lismore and there founded a centre for Christian teaching in the West and North East of Scotland. He died in 592 on 25th June, now his commemoration day.

To view Saint Moluag's Pastoral Staff, contact Bachuil +44 1631 760256 or e-mail bachuil@talk21.com

Bachuil

Cnoc Aingeal, a Bronze Age cairn near Bachuil

Alastair Livingstone, current Baron of Bachuil, holding Saint Moluag's staff, which in 1974, after a long absence in Inveraray, was restored to the home of the Baron of Bachuil.

 Saint Moluag's Pastoral Staff is variously called the Bachuil Mòr (Great Staff), the Bachuil Buidhe (Yellow Staff) or the Caman Oir (Golden Shinty Stick). It is reputedly made of blackthorn and today measures 2 ft 9 in (0.79 m). At one time it was encased in metal and perhaps studded with jewels. Now only fragments of metal adhere to it.

Custody of the staff was entrusted to a family who became almoners to Lismore Cathedral and Barons of Bachuil. A Latin Charter of 1544, still held by the family, confirmed immemorial possession of their lands and the Magnum Baculum of Saint Moluag.

Over a period between 1650-1750 many of the family for some reason altered their name from MacDhunsleibhe (or MacLea) to Livingstone. A Lyon Court judgement in 1950 declared that the custodian of the staff is the co-arb of Saint Moluag and a baron in the Baronage of Argyll and the Isles.

Valerie Livingstone's embroidery showing the Isle of Lismore, Bachuil, Saint Moluag and his staff.