Follow up
I asked at the Islay History Museum for someone who might be able to illuminate this issue and was directed to the (now retired) principle historian in the museum. He knew nothing about any of it and he is the most significant historian on the island (which has a population of a mere 3,000).
It has been lost, I'm afraid, as I left this history with him earlier this year with his promise to tell of anything he unearthed.
Anyone interested in this wonderful island can find a very satisfactory essay on Wikipedia, which also touches on the history of the Dalriada. This essay will help to establish the reason for an armoury on the island for hundreds of years and the strong probability that Mortuary hilts were, in fact, made there.
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