Jack, have been indisposed for a wee while. (And at my age, assume I will continue in some version of that mode!). But did not want to leave our discussion of Bunessan stranded in the Bull Hole.

I have yet to see the papers presented to The Church of Scotland claiming attribution of Bunessan to my great grandfather. But I recently came across a copy of a paragraph in The Oban Times of some years ago, observing the death of my father's cousin, Annabel MacCormick. Mention is made of her grandfather, Neil MacCormick (of Tormore), having 'notated' the melody for "Child in the Manger."   You are the musicologist and will have an expert understanding of the transition to notation of music from the oral tradition. Neil Tormore was born in 1836. Mary MacDonald died in 1872. Lachlan MacBean first published his Songs and Hymns of the Scottish Highlands in 1888. (The editions of the latter I saw online do not name the melody as Bunessan which MacBean is said to have done.) I have yet to recover the link to Captain Simon Fraser's Collection.

Ah well. Perhaps I can now let Bunessan rest - for a while!

All the best.

Neil