Dunvegan Cup

The Dunvegan Cup is a wooden ceremonial cup, decorated with silver plates, which dates to 1493. It was created at the request of Caitríona, wife of John Maguire, lord of Fermanagh in Ireland. The cup is an heirloom of the Macleods of Dunvegan, and is held at their seat of Dunvegan Castle in Scotland.

There are several traditions attributed to the cup, describing how the Macleods obtained it. But scholars believe that the cup was acquired by the clan sometime in the 16th or 17th century. The Macleod chiefs have several other notable heirlooms kept at Dunvegan Castle, such as the Fairy Flag and Sir Rory Mor's Horn (all three pictured right). The Bute Mazer is another medieval Scottish ceremonial cup.

The Dunvegan Cup is a wooden ceremonial cup, made of wood and elaborately decorated with silver. It is square shaped at the top and rounded at the bottom, and stands on four legs. Sir Walter Scott examined the cup and, in 1815 in The Lord of the Isles, gave its measurements as: 10.5 inches (27 cm) in height on the outside, 9.75 inches (24.8 cm) in depth in the inside, 4.5 inches (11 cm) the extreme breadth over the mouth. In around the 1850s, Alexander Nesbitt gave similar measurements, and added that it was 5.5 inches (14 cm) at the broadest point of the cup, which is somewhat below the middle.

The cup is constructed mostly of wood. Scott thought it was possibly oak. Nesbitt later surmised that the wood was either yew or alder. The cup is covered with mountings of silver, wrought in filigree and decorated with niello and gilding. The mouth of the cup has a rim of solid silver-gilt, 2 inches (5.1 cm) in depth.

On the outside of the rim is an engraved inscription in black lettering in two lines. The spaces between the letters are hatched with fine lines, which intersect diagonally. The angels of the rim have strips ornamented with niello. The inside of the rim is plain by comparison; except for the letter I.H.S. repeated on all four sides. This is a Christogram representing Jesus Christ. Each side of the cup has varied designs of triangles and circles. R.C. MacLeod considered these to be representations of the Trinity and Eternity. Ian Finlay described the circled, six-pointed stars as not unlike those on the outer-side of the Domnach Airgid, which is held in the National Museum of Ireland. Empty sockets on the outside of the cup are thought to have once held stones, or glass. Several somewhat smaller sockets still hold beads of coral. The silver legs are in the form of human legs; and are ornamented with a twisted wire which runs down the front. The feet wear shoes, which are covered in niello, and the legs are gilt. Everywhere except the rim, the silver is very thin, and in consequence has suffered a great deal of damage over the years. The cup has been classified as a mether, a communal drinking cup used at ceremonial events, by its square shape at the top and rounded bottom.

According to F.T. MacLeod, the first published accounts of the cup were made by Sir Walter Scott, and Sir Daniel Wilson in the early 19th century. F.T. MacLeod noted that three earlier visitors to Dunvegan Castle— Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, and Thomas Pennant— made no mention of having seen the cup. Scott mentioned the cup within the explanatory note on the following lines, in The Lord of the Isles.

"Fill me the mighty cup!" he said,

"Erst own'd by the royal Somerled:
Fill it, till on the studded brim
In burning gold and bubbles swim,
And every gem of varried shine