Amy of Garmoran

Amy of Garmoran also known as Amie MacRuari and Euphemia was a 14th-century Scottish noblewoman who was the sister of Raghnall mac Ruaidhri, Lord of Garmoran and the spouse of John of Islay. After her marriage had produced three sons, the ambitious John of Islay divorced her in order to remarry and cement his links with the House of Stewart. She then retired to her estates in the Highlands and Islands, and completed various ecclesiastical and other building projects. Her son Ranald was the progenitor of Clanranald.

Descent The descendants of Somerled, Amy being highlighted. On the left are the MacDougalls, on the right the MacRory, and in the middle the MacDonalds

Amie was a direct descendant of Somhairle mac Gille-Brighde (better known as Somerled), through her great-grandfather Ruaidhri mac Raghnaill, the founder of Mac Ruaidhri kindred.

Ruaidhri's son Ailean mac Ruaidhri possessed the "North Isles" of the Uists, and Benbecula. He is known to have attended Parliament in 1285 when the succession of Margaret, Maid of Norway was debated and to have added Barra to his lands in 1309. His illegitimate son Ruaidhri mac Ailein was Amie's father.

When her distant cousin Alexander of Argyll's support of the opponents of King Robert the Bruce led to the forfeiture of his lands, they were distributed between Aonghas Óg of Islay and Ruaidhri mac Ailein. The latter received much of Lorne and parts of Lochaber and, through his sister Christina, Garmoran and the North Isles, including the Small Isles of Rùm and Eigg. |group="Note" Bruce was however careful to ensure his interests in the west were protected and Dunstaffnage Castle was given not to Ruari, now styled the "High Chief of Lorn" but to a royal constable, Arthur Campbell. Towards the close of the Bruce's reign, c. 1325, Ruaidhri mac Ailean was dispossessed for engaging in plots perceived to be against his king's interests. Amie and Ruaidhri also had a brother called Ailean (Alan), about whom little is known.

Edward Balliol may have restored these lands to Ruari's son and Amie's brother, Raghnall mac Ruaidhri, a state of affairs confirmed by David II c. 1344, who formally granted him Garmoran and the North Isles, although Lorn was retained by the crown and Lochaber in its entirety given to John of Islay, son of Aonghas Óg. Shortly thereafter, in October 1346, Raghnall was assassinated at Elcho Nunnery near Perth, as the result of a quarrel with Uilleam III, Earl of Ross. Raghnall was the "last chieftain of the MacRuaris" The marriage took place in the 1330s, From 1336 onwards John began to style himself Dominus Insularum—"Lord of the Isles", a title that implied a connection to the earlier Kings of Mann and the Isles and by extension a degree of independence from the Scottish crown. #tag:ref|Hunter (2000) does not mention Amie by name, but refers to a Mac Ruaidhri "heiress". but John and Robert made an arrangement by which John divorced Amie and married Robert's daughter, Margaret Stewart. John is said to have obtained a papal dispensation for the divorce, which took place in 1350, just four years after Amie's inheritance.

Amie was evidently of a pious disposition and built an oratory called Teampull Mhecael at the south-eastern point of Grimsay, and rebuilt the Teampul Chalumchille on Benbecula and the Trinity Church of North Uist. MacGibbon and Ross also attribute the building of the tower of Borve Castle, located to the south-west of the island of Benbecula, to Amie and dated the work to between 1344 and 1363. She is also said to have extended Castle Tioram in Moidart.

John of Islay kept to his agreement with Robert, now King in succession to David, and his children by Margaret inherited his title and the bulk of his lands. However Amie's son Ranald, who successfully petitioned for the return of much of the Mac Ruaidhri lands, including Garmoran and the North Isles, became the progenitor of Clan Macdonald of Clanranald and Clan MacDonell of Glengarry. #tag:ref|One source states that Amie was the grandmother of John of Islay, Earl of Ross, but this seems unlikely.