Urquhart and Glenmoriston
Olden Times in a Highland Parish

[166]

Landing of Charles II — He is supported by the Laird of Grant — Patrick of Clunemore at Worcester — The Fate of his Followers — Cromwell’s Soldiers in the North — Glencairn’s Rising for the King — Lochiel and Kenmure in Urquhart — Middleton supersedes Glencairn — Middleton pursued by Monck — Monck in Glenmoriston and Kintail — Middleton Defeated — Dalziel of Binns and Himself in Glenmoriston and Strathglass — The Chisholm tried by Court-martial, and Fined and Imprisoned — The English place the First Ship on Loch Ness — The Story of the Event — Peace and Prosperity — The Restoration — The Caterans Let Loose — The Hanging of Hector Maclean — The Burning of Buntait — Dispute between Glenmoriston and Inshes — Glenmoriston Burns the Barns of Culcabock — He seizes Inshes and keeps him Prisoner — Is Apprehended by the Robertsons of Struan — The Dispute Settled — Donald Donn and Mary Grant — Donald’s Career, Capture, and Death

After the execution of the King, the Scottish adherents of the Solemn League and Covenant invited his son, Charles the Second, to come over from Holland, and reign in his stead. Charles landed at Speymouth in June, 1650, and was enthusiastically received. His adherents were routed by Oliver Cromwell at Dunbar; but a new army sprang up, and followed him into England. The Laird of Grant sent him a regiment of 1400 men, under the command of his brother, Patrick Grant of Clunemore [167] and Clunebeg, in our Parish, and provided with victual for forty days. At the battle of Worcester, fought on 3rd September 1651, the Scots were totally defeated. Patrick made his way back to Urquhart, but few of his men were so fortunate. Many of them fell in the battle. Some were seized and sent to the American plantations. Others perished in the attempt to reach their homes through an unfriendly country, whose language they neither spoke nor understood.

After Worcester Cromwell’s soldiers marched into Scotland, and over-ran the country. At Inverness they planted a garrison, for the purpose of overawing the North. For a time the remote clans held out for King Charles, Angus Macdonald of Glengarry being especially zealous. He travelled through the Cameron and Macdonald countries, and Urquhart and Strathglass, stirring up the people against the Usurper. His mission was not without success; and when, in September 1653, the Earl of Glencairn unfurled the royal standard, he was joined by Lochiel and many Highlanders. The Earl was a brave soldier, but an indifferent general, and, instead of making a rapid rush on the English with his army of 5000 men, he wasted his time and his energy in aimless marches. In January 1654, he sent Lochiel — the famous Evan Cameron — and Lord Kenmure, to occupy our Parish and Strathspey Military Memoirs of the Great Civil War, 227.  In the following March, he himself visited Glen-Urquhart and Strathglass, with 1150 horse and foot Court-martial proceedings against The Chisholm, at Erchless Castle.He was [168] soon superseded in the chief command by General Middleton, whom we last saw fighting against the Royalists in Glenmoriston, but who was now himself on the side of the King.

Middleton was not a man to be despised, and General Monck, whom Cromwell had just appointed Governor of Scotland, resolved personally to take him in hand. Having arranged that he should be joined by Colonel Morgan, who was stationed at Brahan, and by Colonel Brayne, who had been dispatched to bring 2000 men from Ireland to Inverlochy, he marched northward with a force of horse and foot, which included his own regiment, now the famous Coldstream Guards. At Ruthven, in Badenoch, he received the intelligence that the Royalist leader was “about Glengarry’s bounds;” and he started in pursuit on 20th June. On the 21st he reached Glenroy, where he burnt the houses of the people. Learning that Middleton was in Kintail, he hastened along the Great Glen, and through Glenmoriston, into the Seaforth country. He there found that the Royalists had turned southward in the direction of Glenelg. He gave up the chase, devastated Kintail with fire, and then crossed the mountains to Glenstrathfarrar, where he was met by Colonel Morgan on 1st July. The fact that he is next found at Dunain on the 23rd would appear to show that from Glenstrathfarrar he proceeded up Strathglass and down Glen-Urquhart. The Chisholm had been giving trouble, and it was probably thought that a demonstration at Comar would have had [169] a quieting effect upon him. From Inverness, Monck proceeded southward by Slochd-Muic, while Middleton crossed Corriarrack into Badenoch and Perthshire. On the 19th, however, he was surprised and defeated by Morgan at Lochgarry, near Drumuachdar, and he became a fugitive among the mountains. Unpublished despatch by General Monck to Cromwell, in Library of Worcester College, Oxford. This despatch — a long document of great interest in connection with the history of the Highlands — is, with other despatches from Monck, to be published in the volume for 1891-92 of the Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness.He was in Glenmoriston in September, along with General Dalziel of Binns, afterwards of persecuting notoriety, and three hundred men. From there they went to Strathglass, where they were hospitably entertained by The Chisholm. For this offence against the Commonwealth that chief was, in April 1655, tried by court-martial, fined £50, and imprisoned in Edinburgh. Court-martial proceedings, at Erchless Castle.He was released on giving bonds for his future good conduct, and permitted to return to his own country. The Chisholm’s passport, which is still preserved at Erchless, is in the following terms: “The Laird of Chissolme beinge discharged his imprisonment by the General (Monck] his especiall order, and haveinge given bonds remaininge with mee accordinge to his Honor’s directions, I therefore desire hee with his two servants and three horses may freely passe to the place of his abode beyounde Invernes, and returne without let or molestation, they behaveinge them selves peaceably and quietly. Given under my hand and seale at Edinburgh, this 31st May, 1655.
“HEN. WHALLEY, Judge-Advocate.
“To all whom it may concerne.”

The Highlanders were slowly but surely brought to acknowledge Cromwell’s power. The Laird of [170] Grant gave several bonds for the peaceable behaviour of himself and his tenants; and similar undertakings were given by Glengarry and other Western chiefs. See Glengarry’s bond for £2000 in the Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, Vol. XJV, 74. But the soldiers of the Commonwealth were not satisfied with mere pledges. They took means to open up the country and place it more effectually under their own influence. Having built the Citadel, or Sconce, at Inverness, and planted a garrison at Inverlochy, they to some extent anticipated the promoters of the Caledonian Canal by placing the first ship on Loch Ness, and establishing regular communication between the eastern and western seas. The manner in which the vessel was brought to the loch is recorded by two writers of the period. Richard Franck, a literary trooper in Cromwell’s army, who saw the ship, discourses on the wonderful achievement with amusing extravagance in the following dialogue between himself (Arnoldus) and his friend Theophilus         

The other writer who refers to the event is a Highlander — the Rev. James Fraser, minister of Wardlaw, or Kirkhill. Even he, Royalist though he be, warms into enthusiasm over the wonderful doings of the English. They “brought such store,” he writes, “of all wares and conveniences to Inverness, that English cloth was sold near as cheap here as in England. The pint of claret went for a shilling [Scots]. They set up an apothecary shop, with a druggist’s; Mr Miller was their chirurgeon [surgeon], and Dr Andrew Moore their physician. They not only [174] civilised, but enriched, the place. They fixed a garrison at Inverlochy, and carried a bark, driven upon rollers, to the Lochend of Ness, and there enlarged it to a stately frigate, to sail with provision from one end of the Loch to the other — Mr Church, governor, and Lieutenant Orton, captain of this frigate, and sixty men aboard of her, to land upon expeditions when they pleased. I happened myself, with the Laird of Streachin, to be invited aboard by Orton, where we were civilly treated. It were vain to relate what advantages the country had by this regiment. Story may yet record it, but I only set down in the general something of what I was eye witness.” Wardlaw MS., quoted in Dr Carruthers’ Highland Note-Book

Indeed, the presence of the English was an unmixed blessing to the inhabitants of the district of Loch Ness, who now enjoyed a greater measure of security and justice than had fallen to the lot of themselves or their fathers since the days of Randolph, and Lauder, and Sir Robert Chisholm. For the first time for three centuries the men of Urquhart found themselves able to lie down at night with the assurance that their cattle and the fruits of their labour would not ere morning be in the hands of the Western clansmen. The Laird of Grant and his tenants appreciated the repose that had thus strangely overtaken them, and comported themselves so peaceably that General Monck, on 10th February, 1658, issued an order permitting them “to keep their arms [175] for their defence until further order, they doing nothing prejudicial to his Highness and the Commonwealth.” The only person in the Parish who was not at peace was the minister, the Reverend Duncan Macculloch; for the heritors and parishioners deprived him of his glebe and refused to pay his legal stipend, with the result that he got into trouble with his creditors, and neglected the duties of his holy office. The extreme sectaries who had brought peace, but not liberty, to others, had no sympathy for poor Presbyterian Duncan Macculloch; and the unchristian conduct of his persecutors probably met with their hearty approval.

The period of repose which the people enjoyed came all too soon to an end. Oliver Cromwell died in September, 1658, and after the short and troubled government of his son Richard, Monck marched from Scotland to London and brought about the Restoration of King Charles the Second. That event took place in May, 1660, amidst great rejoicings; but no sooner did the tidings of the King’s return reach the Highlands than the “louss and ydle men” sprang from the leash which had so long restrained them, and began their old work of harrying and cattle-lifting. Reavers from Glengarry, led by Donald Bain and his son John Mac Donald Vic Gorrie in Achluachrach, carried away cattle from the Laird of Grant’s tenants; for which spoil the Earl of Glencairn, now Chancellor of Scotland, ordered Alasdair Macdonald, and his ward, Alasdair Mac Angus Mhor in Achluachrach, on whose [176] lands the Bains lived, to make restitution to the sufferers. The Government, also, issued a commission to the Laird of Grant authorising him, and such as he should appoint, “with their assisters and followers to search, seik, tak, and apprehend all such sorners, broken men, thieves, robbers, and others disturbers of the peace of this Kingdome, at anytyme comeing, within any place of the bounds wher the said Laird of Grant hes power or may command; and for that effect, in cace of resistance, with full power to the said Laird of Grant and his forsaids to convocat ane sufficient and compitent number of armed men, not exceiding the number of fourty, for takeing and apprehending of the forsaids persones; and being taken and apprehendit, to put them in sure waird, firmance, and captivity in any tolbuith or wairding-place within this kingdom,” where they were to be kept until they were tried and punished according to law. Chiefs of Grant, II, 21; Domestic Annals of Scotland, 3rd Ed., II, 263.

The salutary effect of these proceedings was to a large extent counteracted by the King’s desire to please those chiefs who had been faithful to him in the day of his adversity. To gratify them, the Citadel of Inverness was, in 1662, razed to the ground — the Laird of Grant assisting in the work of demolition. Crime and disorder immediately followed the disappearance of this last symbol of Cromwell’s power and protection. The Earl of Moray, Sheriff of Inverness-shire, made some efforts to restore respect for the law. At his request, Hector Mac Alasdair, a notorious [177] cateran of the Clan Maclean, and one who had slain and robbed in various parts of the country, was apprehended by The Chisholm, and hanged. Hector, however, had relatives and friends who resolved to avenge his death. His sons, John Maol, Allan, and Donald, with Donald Mac Ewen Vic Kenneth, in Badenoch, and about sixty others, made a descent on the lands of Croichal and Mauld, in May, 1663, and in the dead of night lifted forty cows belonging to Chisholm and his tenants, and drove them, by Glenmoriston and Fort-Augustus, into Badenoch. The Chisholms followed in close pursuit, and tracked the cattle across Corriarrack. They recovered twenty. The rest were hamstrung by the raiders, who escaped to the mountains. In November, they appeared on The Chisholm’s Glen-Urquhart estate of Buntait, “under cloud and silence of night,” and gave “four great barns, full of corn, and two houses,” to the flames. This was but an earnest of what was yet to come. On the 24th of March, 1664, the same resolute avengers again appeared, and filled the poor people’s cup of suffering to overflowing, by “treasonably burning all the houses and barns that were in the hail half daach [davach] of Buntait, extending to the number of twenty-two houses and barns, and burning both oxen, sheep, and gaits [goats] that were in the said houses, and cruellie wounding the people that were within the same.”

The legal writs which give these particulars the writs are preserved at Erchless Castle aresilent as to the distress that must have followed [178] these visitations. The Chisholm did what he could to get the poor comforts of the law for the sufferers. Proceedings were promptly taken at the instance of the Lord Advocate and himself against the offenders, who were cited to appear in Edinburgh on 8th June 1664. They did not obey, and were declared rebels; and on the 16th, a commission was issued in the King’s name, charging Lord Lovat; Lord Duffus; Alexander Fraser, tutor of Lovat; Kenneth Mackenzie of Coul, and his son; The Chisholm; Hugh Fraser of Foyers; Hugh Fraser of Belladrum; John Chisholm of Buntait; John Grant of Glenmoriston; and John Grant of Corrimony, factor of Urquhart, to convocate the lieges in arms, and to apprehend the rebels, and pursue them to the death. “And,” adds the King, “if in pursuit of the said rebels, their assisters or complices, there shall happen fire-raising, mutilation, slaughter, destruction of corns or goods, or other inconveniences to follow, we . . . will and grant, and for us and our successors decern and declare that the same shall not be imputed as crime and offence to our said commissioners, nor to the persons assisting them in the execution of this our commission.” Commission at Erchless Castle.

Untoward circumstances impeded the action of the commissioners at the very outset. The Chisholm, to whom it naturally fell to lead them against the outlaws, was, unfortunately, deep in debt; and, powerful though he was in his own glens, and among his own people, he had to confess that he could not [179] venture beyond the bounds of his estates without running the risk of incarceration by his creditors. He petitioned the King for “a protection for his person while he is putting the said commission in execution.” Copy petition at Erchless.The result is not known, but the probability is that it was not found expedient to suspend the debtors’ laws, even in favour of a Highland chief armed with the King’s mandate, and that the burners of Buntait escaped through the pecuniary embarrassment of their principal pursuer.

The Government, in appointing John Grant of Glenmoriston — the Iain Donn of his contemporaries — one of the commissioners, acted on the time honoured policy of setting a thief to catch a thief. Ere the ashes of the barns of Buntait were cold, the barns of Culcabock, near Inverness, were given to the flames by the fiery Iain Donn. The Lairds of Glenmoriston had, as we have seen, been proprietors of Culcabock, including Hilton and Knockintinnel, from the days of Iain Mor, the first of the family. Their immediate neighbours were the Robertsons of Inshes, a wise race who made money, and lent it out at interest. When Patrick Grant of Glenmoriston died, in 1642 or 1643, he was owing John Robertson of Inshes “great sums of money.” Patrick’s heir, Iain Donn, was at the time a minor, and he remained for years under the tutelage of his uncle, Grant of Coineachan. Inshes, apparently before Patrick’s death, began legal proceedings for the recovery of his money; obtained a decree of apprising of [180] the baronies of Culcabock and Glenmoriston, the effect of which was to convey the estates to him, subject to Iain Donn’s right to redeem them by payment of the debt within a certain fixed time; and in January, 1645, was infeft in both baronies. Inshes also apprised Balmacaan (which Glenmoriston held in wadset), and Glenmoriston’s other Glen-Urquhart possessions of Clunemore and Culnakirk. In reference to these he wrote his Edinburgh legal adviser in 1646 — “You shall consult with your advocates concerning the lands of Urquhart, belonging to Glenmoriston, for I comprised Bellamaka, the Chine, Culin-kirk, and the mill. This Bellamaka pays yearly 400 merks, holden of the Laird of Grant. He is to redeem at Whitsunday for 3000 merks. See what course you will have me to do thereanent.” The mill was, as it still is, situated at Lower Milton, which formed part of the lands of Culnakirk — Mr Fraser. Mackintosh’s Letters of Two Centuries, 53.He entered into possession of Culcabock, and let the lands to tenants; but he was unable to take the same course with the young debtor’s estates in our Parish, and, so far as these were concerned, he rested on his conditional title, until the lapse of time should make it absolute. He was not allowed to rest in peace. Grant of Carron and other friends of Glenmoriston interested themselves in the business, and devastated the lands of Inshes. Robertson, however, still adhered to his claims, and on his death, about 1661, they were taken up by his son William, who was infeft in the apprised lands in 1662. But Iain Donn had now reached manhood, and the loss of his Inverness possessions, and the danger which threatened the estate of Glenmoriston, roused him to action. He began in the spirit of compromise. He proposed to relinquish all claims to Culcabock if young Inshes would pay [181] him eight or nine thousand merks, and discharge all claims upon Glenmoriston. Robertson, who had a legal title to both estates, declined the offer. Grant, finding his peaceful overtures of no avail, resorted to sterner measures. On the night of 4th January 1664, the citizens of Inverness, who had not yet finished the festivities of the New Year, were attracted towards the south-east by a great glare in the sky. Two barns at Culcabock, containing one hundred and sixty bolls of corn belonging to Inshes’s tenants, and to forty bolls of which he was himself entitled, as his “ferme,” or rent, Letter, Inshes to the Bishop of Moray, dated 21st January, 1664, in possession of Mr Fraser-Mackintosh, M.P.were in flames, and beyond salvation. Night shielded the incendiaries, and they escaped; but Iain Donn and his friends were suspected, and Inshes openly accused them of the crime. “I am sorry,” wrote Forbes of Culloden to him, on 10th February, Letter in Mr Fraser-Mackintosh’s possession.“for that miserable loss you have sustained, but cannot think anywise of what you write concerning the actors; and though you seem to wonder at these of Glenmoriston, always the Lord will discover it in His own time, and I hope they shall suffer for it.”

Inshes, who was a clerkly young man, and a Master of Arts, could also write piously when occasion demanded. He wrote to the Bishop of Moray, on 21st January, Letter in Mr Fraser-Mackintosh’s possessionthat the “malicious burning” is an act “so barbarous as all Christian and honest men will abhorre, and requyres that such course [182] be taken thereanent as may rather be ane eyesore than ane encouragement to the wicked;“ and he follows up this reflection by the practical suggestion that the Bishop should order a collection to be made in the parish churches within the diocese for behoof of his injured tenants. “Honoured and loving Friend,” replied the Bishop, with becoming sympathy, “yours I receivit, showing of your great, loiss, which ye have susteinit by the burneing of your biggings [buildings] and comes, which trulie affectes my mynd to heir the lyk insulencie committit in the land, and in speaciall haveing fallen upon you, or any of yours, which I most willinglie wold repair if ther were any convenient way to doe it. And as to your desyre in committing the perticular to the province” — that is, to have a collection made —   “it is a thing that is not usuall nor hansome, and there fore it cannot be done efter that maner. But once the nixt week [is past], I purpose, be the Lord’s mercies, to see you at Inverness myself, at which we shall speak of it, and consider if ther can be any other way that may doe better. Till which tyme, I committ you, with the rest of our relationes, to the protection of the Almightie God.” Letter in Mr Fraser-Mackintosh’s possession.

The “other way,” if devised, was not effectual. The Laird made no concession to Glenmoriston, and the latter dealt him another secret blow. On 20th March, “the great barn-yards of Culcabock, belonging to Inshes,” writes the contemporary minister of Kirkhill, Wardlaw MS., quoted in Dr Carruthers’ Highland Note-Book.“and three men, were all set on fire. [183] Eleven stacks, about ten at night, all irrecoverably burnt. It made such a dreadful flame as put Inverness in a consternation, being so near.”

Robertson, however, still continued to hold out, and his opponent now resolved to seize his person, and keep him captive until the terms offered him were agreed to. Glenmoriston sought the aid of his relative, Bailie Finlay Fraser of Inverness, to whom he wrote on 12th August: “Worthy and much Respected Cousin — If you remember, when, as I sent your messenger to the Goodman of Inshes, you told me that Inshes could not meet with me upon our particular till Lammas were past. Now, I request he would be pleased to be at Castle Spiritual [Caisteal Spioradan, at the east end of Loch Ness] upon Saturday, being 20th instant, when I shall bring three or four friends, whereby we may take Inshes by way of ceremony in our particular, and afterwards it may happen his friends may move some occasion of settlement. Thus, till your positive answer, I remain, your very loving Cousin, — J. GRANT.” Letter printed in Inverness Courier, 5th March, 1845.

The Bailie appears to have gone about the delicate business entrusted to him with the tact and zeal which his affection to his cousin demanded; and, with the innocent assistance of Brodie of Brodie and John Forbes of Culloden, a meeting of the lairds was brought about on 23rd August — not at Caisteal Spioradan, but at Inverness. Inshes was accompanied by “three civil gentlemen”— to wit, Alexander Cuthbert, Provost of Inverness, Robert Ross, [184] ex-Provost, and Culloden. Glenmoriston had a retinue of a dozen or sixteen men; but these he concealed in an ale-house until their services were required. The gentlemen passed the afternoon pleasantly enough in one of the “closes” of the Highland Capital; but no great progress was made with the work of reconciliation, and, just as they were about to separate, Iain Donn suddenly called his men, and pulling Inshes off his horse, galloped off with him to Glenmoriston. Next morning, Culloden, greatly shocked, wrote Sir Hugh Campbell of Cawdor, giving an account of the affair. “My Lord Brodie,” said he, “having spoken to me the other day at the burial, anent the particular of the Laird of Glenmoriston and Inshes, and wished me to interpose with Inshes for a settling, to the end that any composition [compromise] which might have been had should have come your Honour’s way, I do profess this was the only cause why, in a manner, I insinuated myself in that affair; whereupon a tryst is drawn on, and having spent the whole afternoon yesterday in the close, even as we were parting, and some of us come a pretty way off, without as much as a cross word, or the least occasion of offence offered, Glenmoriston, with the number of twelve or sixteen men, whom he had all the time lying down in an ale-house near the place, rushed forth upon the young man Inshes, just as he was taking good-night of the laird, and turned him off his horse, and carried him prisoner to the Highlands, as would appear, till they extort that from him by violence which friends could easily have [185] persuaded him to have given. This wicked and barbarous kind of procedure, under pretext of friendship, and even while friends are travelling betwixt them for an accommodation, should (I think) be argument sufficient to persuade all gentlemen to resist it, and particularly your honourable self. Wherefore I have thought fit to give you notice, knowing you have influence upon these men, to the end your Honour may use your own moyen [influence] with them, and in your own way, to get the poor man released, who, I hear say, would have been content to have made yourself or any honest man judge to what satisfaction he should have given them. The sooner this be done the better for preventing of their further barbarity. I need say no more, only the abuse is so gross, and the preparative of so bad a consequence, as of itself it calls for the assistance of all good men, condign punishment inflicted upon the offenders, even to the terror of others who might offer the like again.” Thanes of Cawdor, 317; Inverness Courier, 5th March, 1845.

Cawdor, who was related to Glenmoriston, interested himself in the matter, and in the end Robertson undertook to pay his captor seven thousand merks, and was released. But Iain Donn’s offence was too heinous to be ignored by the authorities, and by order of the Privy Council he was apprehended by the Earl of Moray, Sheriff of Inverness-shire. He contrived to escape, only to be captured and taken to Edinburgh by the Robertsons of Struan, who had, in true Highland [186] fashion, espoused the cause of their northern clansmen. The circumstances of his arrest and subsequent release, are related in a letter addressed by James Fowler, of Inverness, on 16th October, 1666, to Inshes, who was then in Edinburgh: “I doubt not but ye have heard of Glenmoriston, that he was apprehended by the Robertsons of Athole, and carried to the Justice-General, who taking pity on him, and also the gentlemen that apprehended him taking pity on him, did dismiss him, upon his bond to appear at Cluny, in Badenoch, against the 2nd of November, with two of his friends, when they are to meet him with two of their friends, for taking cognisance in the assault and debate, and for removing of the same. The forfeit is six thousand merks. You would do well to advise with your friends in Athole, and send an express to them; for once that people has espoused your quarrel, they will not see you misused, but will serve you to the full. Therefore, they should not be met with ingratitude or forgetfulness.” Letter in Mr Fraser-Mackintosh’s possession.

The negotiations for a settlement now proceeded smoothly, and early in 1666 they were brought to a successful termination. Iain Donn agreed to relinquish whatever right he had to Culcabock, while Inshes granted to him a bond for seven thousand merks, undertook to discharge him of the con sequences of his illegal conduct, and gave up all claim to the barony of Glenmoriston Memorandum, holograph of Inshes, in Mr Fraser-Mackintosh’s possession.The agreement [187] was duly carried into effect. Inshes, on 25th May, 1666, “fully, freely, perfectly, lovingly, and finally” discharged Glenmoriston, and his tenants and servants, and promised to “entertain love, peace, and amity” towards them, Deed with Mr Fraser-Mackintosh;and on 9th March, 1668, Glenmoriston granted Robertson a formal deed of corroboration of his right to Culcabock; and thus the long-standing quarrel happily came to an end. Iain Donn lost the Inverness possessions of his family, but he saved Glenmoriston and his lands in Glen-Urquhart, which Robertson’s apprising had been threatening for upwards of twenty years.

Of the many wild adventurers who flourished in the seventeenth century the most renowned was Domhnull Donn Mac Fhir Bohuntuinn. Donald, who was a son of Macdonald of Bohuntin, in Brae Lochaber, and a contemporary of Iain Lom, who witnessed and sang of the battle of Inverlochy, looked upon cattle-lifting as legitimate warfare, and on the reaver’s trade as a gentleman’s calling. He was the Rob Roy of his generation; but he had more poetry in his soul than the famous Macgregor had, and, although his deeds brought him in the end to the headsman’s block, he died with the reputation of never having injured a poor man, or imbued his hands wantonly in human blood. The scenes of his adventures extended from Breadalbane to Caithness, and his custom was to make rapid journeys, with a few kindred spirits, by the least known mountain tracks, and to swoop down upon the cattle of the [188] lairds and tacksmen where he was least expected. He was aided and abetted by the smaller tenants and cottars, to whom he extended his protection and lavish generosity. An ardent wooer of the Highland muse, he beguiled the tedium of the march and the loneliness of the night watch by weaving delightful Gaelic lyrics — love songs principally, which, however, give vivid glimpses of the life he led.

To our Parish, as we learn from tradition and his songs, he was a frequent and not unfriendly visitor; for on one of his journeys he met and loved Mary, daughter of the Laird of Grant, who resided at the time in Urquhart Castle. Donald was a gentleman, and a gentleman’s son, and the lady reciprocated his tender feelings; but her father refused to have him for his son-in-law, and forbade all intercourse between them. They, however, found opportunities of meeting secretly on the wooded banks of Loch Ness. On one of these occasions he left his companions on the farm of Borlum, with a herd of cattle which he had lifted in Ross-shire. During his absence the owners appeared and claimed the cattle, among which was a white cow which they readily identified. The Laird of Grant, called upon to explain how the reavers had found shelter so near his residence, was very angry, and swore, “Bheir an Diabhal mise a mo bhrogan mar teid Domhnull Donn a chrochadh!” —   “The Devil may take me out of my shoes, if Donald Donn is not hanged!” Donald, pursued by the soldiers from [189] the Castle, but still anxious to be near Mary Grant, betook himself to an almost inaccessible cave in Glaic Ruidh-Bhacain, on the Ruiskich side of Alt-Saigh, which is still known as Uamh Dhomhnuill Duinn — Donald Donn’s Cave. There, safe from his pursuers and their sleuth-hounds — coin dubh Eaclailteach — black dogs of Italy — he passed his time in the company of Glenmoriston’s herdsmen from across the burn of Alt-Saigh, or composing songs in praise of Mary and the wilds that gave him shelter. But his place of retreat was discovered by his pursuers, who, unable to approach him in the cave, sent him a message, as if from Mary, proposing an interview at the house of a certain individual, who was represented to be her trusted confidant. Eager to meet her, he repaired to the house at the appointed hour. He was hospitably received by the supposed friend, who promised that the lady would soon appear. While Donald awaited her arrival, the cuach was sent speedily round, and in his excitement he drank deeply. At last, and at a signal from his treacherous host, his enemies, to the number of sixty-three, as he himself states in one of his songs, rushed in, and endeavoured to seize him. Starting to his feet, and grasping his gun, he fired at them; but the weapon also played false, and missed fire. Striking furiously at them with the butt-end of the gun, he fought his way out of the house, and ran for his life. But he slipped and fell, and was taken and lodged in the Castle dungeon. Convicted of the crime of cattle-stealing, he begged for one favour [190] before sentence of death was passed upon him — he asked that he should be beheaded like a gentleman, and not hanged. His prayer was granted, and sentence was pronounced accordingly: whereupon he exclaimed — "The Devil will take the Laird of Grant out of his shoes, and Donald Donn shall not be hanged!"

The short period which passed between his sentence and his death was occupied by him in composing songs of exceeding sadness, which tell the tale of his love and capture. At the place of execution — Craigmonie — his thoughts were of his beloved; and the legend tells that as his severed head rolled from the block, his tongue uttered the appeal, “Tog mo cheann, a Mhairi!" — "Mary, lift my head!" See Appendix E further as to Donald, and his references to Urquhart.

Chapter 10