The Book of the Dean of Lismore, a miscellany of Scottish and Irish poetry, is the oldest collection of Gaelic poetry extant in Scotland. It was compiled between 1512 and 1526, chiefly by Sir James MacGregor, the Dean of Lismore , and his brother Duncan.
The manuscript, which is preserved in the National Library of Scotland, begins with a fragmentary Latin genealogy of MacGregor chiefs and contains the Chronicle of Fortingall to 1579 and a Latin list of Scottish kings to 1542.
It concludes with a series of heroic tales and ballads from both the Ulster (Ulaid) cycle and Fenian cycle of Irish legend, and it also contains miscellaneous poems by 44 Scottish and 21 Irish authors. The poems are written in literary Gaelic, in spelling based on vernacular usage, with phonetic additions to the Gaelic alphabet, probably common in part of the Scottish Highlands.
Professor Donald Meek speaking about the Book of the Dean of Lismore .