An Ancient Scottish Barony
Baron of the Bachuil
By the Grace of God
Saint Moluag and the Isle of Lismore
The Baron of the Bachuil is among the oldest dignities in Scotland, reaching back to the sixth century and the mission of Saint Moluag. A nobleman of the Dál nAraidi of Ulster, Moluag trained at the great monastery of Bangor in Ireland before crossing to Scotland, where in 562 he founded his church on the island of Lismore in Argyll. His pastoral staff, the Bachuil Mór, became the emblem of his authority and the most treasured relic of his community.
The Coarbs and the Bachuil Mór
On the saint’s death his office passed to his coarbs, the hereditary successors who served as Abbots of Lismore and guardians of his staff. The dignity was bound not to land but to the relic itself: whoever kept the Bachuil Mór held the authority of Moluag. The Parliament of Scotland recognised the Coarbs in 1399, and in the later language of feudalism they became the Barons of the Bachuil, a style they carry to this day.
From MacLea to Livingstone
The keepers were chiefs of Clan MacLea, in Gaelic the Maconlea, earlier rendered M’Dunlea, a name tracing to the ancestor Dunsleve and, beyond him, to the royal house of Aedh, King of Ailech, in the eleventh century. In the turbulent middle of the seventeenth century the family took the Lowland name Livingstone, a prudent step after James Livingston of Skirling secured a lease of the lands and teinds of the bishoprics of Argyll and the Isles. The two names, MacLea and Livingstone, have been carried together ever since.
The Charter of 1544
Written record of the line begins on 14 April 1544, when the Master of Argyll, who had lately acquired the feudal superiority of Lismore, confirmed John McMolmore vic Kevir as Coarb of the Blessed Moluag, in respect of himself, his father, grandfather and the forebears before him. From the first surviving Lismore parish register of 1777, the descent can be followed in unbroken succession to the present Baron.
A Unique Barony
Unlike a feudal barony, the Bachuil is allodial: its authority rests in the relic, not in any royal grant of land. The Baron bears the rare style ‘By the Grace of God’, recognised by the Lord Lyon, and his arms are crowned by a cap of maintenance lined with vair, a singular privilege.
The shield quarters a red lion, a hand grasping a cross-crosslet, and a salmon above wavy bars, set behind two of the great staffs borne in saltire. Two stags support it; the crest shows Saint Moluag himself, haloed and cloaked, holding his staff. Its mottoes are Cnoc Aingeil, “the hill of fire”, and ni mi e ma’s urrain dhomh, “I will do it if I can”.
The Living Line
The recent barons are well recorded. The Reverend Alexander Livingstone of Bachuil received a charter of the barony and the keepership of the staff from the 8th Duke of Argyll in 1848. His grandson William Jervis Livingstone was killed in a rising in Nyasaland in 1915. William Jervis Alastair Livingstone of Bachuil, born in 1914, matriculated the arms and saw the barony formally recognised by the Lord Lyon in 2003.
Today the dignity rests with Niall Livingstone of Bachuil, Coarb of St Moluag, Abbot of Lismore, and Chief of the Name of Livingstone and Clan MacLea: a living link to Celtic Christianity and to Scotland’s pre-feudal order, at once a barony, an office of faith, and a family inheritance carried forward by the golden staff of the saint.
Barons of the Bachuil, Succession
The coarbs of St Moluag have kept the Bachuil Mór since the sixth century. Written record begins with the charter of 1544, and the line can be followed without break from the first Lismore parish register of 1777 to the present Baron.
Coarbs of St Moluag
- — John McMolmore vic KevirConfirmed Coarb of the Blessed Moluag by charter of the Master of Argyll, 14 April 1544, in respect of himself and his forebears; the Coarbs had been recognised by the Parliament of Scotland in 1399.
Livingstone of Bachuil: the recorded line
- — John Livingstone of BachuilRecorded with his wife Sarah MacLachlan in the earliest surviving Lismore parish register, from 1777.
- — Coll Livingstone of BachuilBorn 1773; married Mary Carmichael.
- — Rev. Alexander Livingstone of BachuilBorn 1817; granted a charter of the barony and lands of Bachuil, with the keepership of the staff of St Moluag, by the 8th Duke of Argyll in 1848.
- — William Jervis Livingstone of BachuilBorn 1865; killed in a rising in Nyasaland, 1915.
- — William Jervis Alastair Livingstone of BachuilBorn 1914; Chief of Clan MacLea; matriculated the arms and saw the barony recognised by the Lord Lyon in 2003; died 2008.
- — Niall Jervis Coll Livingstone of BachuilThe present Baron of the Bachuil and Chief of Clan MacLea, since 2008.
A Title Carried by Devotion
Few dignities in the British Isles carry a weight as ancient or as singular as the Bachuil. Where other baronies rest on royal grants and landed estates, this one rests on a relic: the golden staff of a 6th-century saint. The Livingstones of Bachuil have kept faith with that charge across fifteen centuries, making the barony not merely a title but a living act of stewardship.