James Macpherson

JAMES MACPHERSON (1736-1796) was born in Badenoch, Inverness-shire. He studied in Aberdeen and Edinburgh and translated many poems from Gaelic which were allegedly found in different places of the Scottish Highlands, some of them published in 1760 as Fragments of Ancient Poetry Collected in the Highlands of Scotland. Very soon he had detractors who did not believe of the authenticity of the poems but also supporters, among whom Hugh Blair, who helped MacPherson in carrying out his research. Writer, politician and historian, he died in his native Inverness-shire.