Where was Sorley MacLean born?
Sorley MacLean
Òsgaig on the island of Raasay
Sorley MacLean was born at Òsgaig on the island of Raasay on 26 October 1911; Scottish Gaelic was his first language. Before he went to school at the age of six, he spoke very little English.[5]:23[6]:194 He was the second of five sons born to Malcolm (1880–1951) and Christina MacLean (1886–1974).[7] The family owend a small croft and ran a tailoring business,[8]:16 but they later gave up the croft to move to a better house, which proved detrimental to their finances when the Great Depression took a high toll on the tailoring business.[9]:10 His brothers were John Maclean (1910–1970), a schoolteacher and later rector of Oban High School, who was also a piper;[7][5]:27 Calum Maclean (1915–1960), a noted folklorist and ethnographer; and Alasdair (1918–1999) and Norman (c.1917–c.1980), who became general practitioners. Sorley's two younger sisters, Isobel and Mary, were also schoolteachers.[10][7][11] His patronymic was Somhairle mac Chaluim 'ic Chaluim 'ic Iain 'ic Tharmaid 'ic Iain 'ic Tharmaid; he could not trace his genealogy with certainty to the eighth generation.[1]:211