This blackthorn walking stick belonged to the famous Scottish Gaelic bard Iain Lom MacDonald (1624 – 1710). He carried it by him after the Battle of Inverlochy in February 1645. He lost his sword during the battle, but managed to fight his way home to Keppoch, near Roy Bridge. Iain was the most outstanding of the Keppoch bards. Lom is the Gaelic word for bald; his nickname rather than a surname. Iain was a Stuart loyalist all his life and Charles II made him his poet laureat. When his young clan chief was murdered, he endured great danger and hardship to bring the guilty to justice, cutting off the heads of the murderers. Today there is a monument beside the Inverness Road at Tobar nan Ceann, The Well of the Heads, where Iain washed his grizzly trophies before presenting them to MacDonnell of Invergarry.