Dùn Aluinn

Dùn-Àluinn (1912) by Iain MacCormaic (1860-1947) was the first full length novel in Scottish Gaelic. It was fist published in weekly serial form in the People's Journal May - September 1910. Iain MacCormaic had also published a novella, Gun d'thug i speis do'n Armunn a few years before. The name is sometimes anglicised as "Dunaline".

It was closely followed by Angus Robertson's An t-Ogha Mòr, which had actually been serialised prior to Dun Aluinn's publication, and so vies for the position of first novel.

Plot summary

It is about the horror of the Highland Clearances, and the heir of a despotic landlord, Cailean Og, who is disinherited. The most interesting character is the kirk minister who makes a sermon about social rights. For a novel of its period, it is fairly cosmopolitan, and the action ranges to locations as exotic as gold mines in New Zealand.

References

• THE FORGOTTEN FIRST: JOHN MACCORMICK’S DÙN-ÀLUINN