 By 1346 the island was chartered to John of Islay , the Scots Lord of the Isles . It is possible that during the early medieval period the island was used as a hunting reserve by the nobility ( hence the ' taboo name ' referred to above ) . John of Fordun indicates that Rùm was " with excellent sport , but few inhabitants " and " a wooded and hilly island " in 1380 . Two hundred years later Skene noted that 
