Born at Aultnacaillich in Strathmore, Sutherland, he was illiterate and never learnt to speak English, but was strongly influenced by the poetry of Alexander Pope, which he heard in translation into Gaelic by the local minister, the Rev. Murdo MacDonald. His own poetical abilities were picked up early on by Iain MacEachainn, a tacksman who would patronise the former cowherd. In return, Rob Donn praised and delineated MacEachainn and his family in his poetry, in a way normally reserved for nobility in Scottish Gaelic poetry.