The sentence is grammatically complete.
It has a predicate (raibh … ar na mná) and a subject (lán).
The meaning must be deduced from the context.
There is "
lán" (not "a lán") in this version:
https://wikisource.org/wiki/Page:An_t-oileanach.djvu/42So, it does not mean "a lot" but "(the) full".
And in the context of the rising tide, it is probably "
lán mara" (full of sea, a synonym for high tide)
bí ar has many meanings, so unfavorable conditions can be "on" someone.
Here it is "lán", "full" (high tide) which is "on" the women.
The women had to endure the tide and had to stay on Oileán Bán until the next morning.
(
B’éigean dóibh fanúint mar a raibh aca. Dubhairt a raibh timcheall gurbh’ é a stáitse go maidean é, a line before)
In the English translation
Islandman , it is:
Quote:
Some of the girls on the strand ran off to carry the news to the men on the fields that the women were cut off by the tide on the Island.