The Great Fraser Yew

It is often thought that clansmen were recognised by their tartan. Not so. Tartans reflected regional preferences and the local availability of dyes. But all clansmen wore a plant badge: the MacDonalds heather, the Robertsons bracken, the Campbells bog myrtle and the Frasers wore yew. The significance of the Frasers' choice was lost on me until this last weekend when I walked out with some fellow guides to the Great Fraser Yew on the south side of Loch Ness. The Frasers arrived in the Highlands in the fourteenth century and the yew had already been there for about one thousand years by then. Young yew trees grow up around their dying parents and so, if left undisturbed, each tree will steadily expand. The Great Fraser Yew is now more than thirty yards in diameter.

The old trunk is hollow, moss covered, crumbling away. But its offspring form a cathedral around it. A hundred clansmen could gather here unseen. And this was indeed the principal gathering place for the Frasers of Stratherrick. How natural that, before a battle, they should put a sprig of yew in their bonnets as a symbol of fraternity; an impromptu idea perhaps, now enshrined in clan lore.

The walk in takes an hour or so over some fairly rough country. But there are rewards there, especially for Frasers; rewards that go beyond the lovely views of Loch Ness, the eerie uniqueness of the ancient tree, and the distant sound of men responding to a call to arms. To know more you need to go.

Castle Lachlan

I was by Loch Fyne this weekend, a place which prompts thoughts of oysters, (the world's best, they say) and of Campbells (for many years Scotland's most influential clan) . Inveraray Castle, seat of the Duke of Argyll, Chief of Clan Campbell, dominated this area before there was even a road from the rest of Scotland. And the clan, which steadfastly opposed the Jacobites, was similarly dominant throughout Argyll.

It was therefore bold, to say the least, of Clan MacLachlan a small clan with lands on the opposite side of the loch, to support the Jacobite Risings in 1689, 1715 and 1745. The seventeenth chief led his clan at the Battle of Culloden and was shot off his horse by a canon ball. It is said that the news of the battle was brought to Strathlachlan by the dead chief's riderless horse.

As punishment for joining the rising, Castle Lachlan, surrounded on three sides by the sea, was bombarded by the Royal Navy. It is now an evocative, and puzzling, ruin - an old 15th century keep to which two significant towers have been added and an internal courtyard formed. Windows have become doors and latrines perhaps turned into chimneys. And for those not intrigued by architectural history, the views of Loch Fyne are stunning. Well worth a visit.


Close by is Kilmorie Chapel where
the MacLachlan chiefs are buried.
The gravestone of Marjory MacLachlan, the 24th chief, is shown in this picture.

Cash for a Peerage Prompts Clan Slaughter and Two Pipe Tunes

We were contacted yesterday by a lady called St Clair from West Palm Beach, Florida. She will be here for The Gathering in 2009 and wishes to visit Inveraray Castle (below) where her 3 x great grandfather was a gamekeeper. Well, Inveraray Castle in the south west of Scotland is the seat of the Duke of Argyll, chief of Clan Campbell; the Sinclairs, on the other hand, come from Caithness in the far north east. Back in the early 19th century people did not move around that much and so this struck me as interesting.

I speculate that this may have its roots in an affair of 1680. The Sinclair Earl of Caithness was short of cash and sold his lands and title to Sir John Campbell of Glenorchy. The latter's claim was however disputed by George Sinclair of Keiss and Glenorchy marched north to settle the matter. The armies met in the evening of 12 July at Altimarlach, but it was too late to join battle. What happened next is open to debate but it seems the Sinclairs were able to lay hands on significant quantities of whisky in Wick. Next day they were ill-equipped to take on the Campbells and the Wick River was packed so full of Sinclair bodies that the Campbells were able to walk across it dry-shod.

Glenorchy became Earl of Caithness and laird of those lands for six years, during which time it seems that many Sinclairs took up the offer of employment down in Argyll. This, the last clan battle, also gave rise to two pipe tunes composed by the Campbell piper Finlay Ban MacIvor on the way north to Caithness: 'The Campbells are Coming' and 'The Breadalbane Gathering'. Play either of these in Wick at your own risk!

But all this may explain why our 2009 St Clair client is making a special journey to the seat of Clan Campbell.

Scotland: sustainable tourism destination.

Television in Britain is punctuated with the advertisements of companies parading their green credentials to sell more products. Nothing wrong with that. But here in Scotland we are going further and parading our nation's green credentials. The Scottish Government has committed itself to a target that "Scotland will be Europe's most sustainable tourism destination by 2015". Happily we are starting from a strong position since a recent poll of 60,00 enquiries at www.responsibletravel.com ranked Scotland as the top European eco-destination.

Yesterday I was at Cameron House on Loch Lomond with other members of Scotland's 'Tourism Innovation Group' to discuss how this bold objective can be translated into the management of individual destinations and tourism sectors.


The goal is an ambitious one but here are a series of first steps already taken towards that destination.

• Climate Change Scotland - the Tourism Innovation Group's carbon offset scheme for Scottish tourism with the investment remaining in Scotland (the first such national scheme).
  
• The 4 Bs initiative - Boat, Boot, Bike, Bus - in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park.
  
• Cairngorm Mountain - National Centre for the Mountain Environment.
• Carbon Neutral Biggar - Scotland's first carbon neutral village?
• Trees for Life - restoring the Caledonian Forest (Glen Affric forest regeneration, above).
• Visit Scotland's Sustainable Tourism Unit.
• Wild Scotland and its innovative Best Practice Guidelines

And every tourist to Scotland can contribute
to our objectives. Using accommodation with membership of the Green Tourism Business Scheme is now madatory for Scottish Government employees travelling on business.

Please make it mandatory for you too!

Beginnings

The beginning of Scottish Clans and Castles was in February 2001 when I booked two clients to stay at Castle Stuart - a place that, over the years, has probably given more pleasure to our clients than any other lodging. The authenticity is important (that's why people choose it) but what they write about when they leave is the food, the atmosphere and, above all, the warm welcome from the Stuart family

The land was given by Mary Queen of Scots to her half brother, the first Earl of Moray. But he was murdered, as was his son, so it was the third Earl of Moray who built the castle in 1625. He had plenty money to make a statement with his new property and Castle Stuart was the finest in the Highlands in its day. However the ravages of time, history, and a few ghosts conspired to prompt its demise and it was unroofed in 1835.

In the late 20th century it was restored by a family of Stuarts from Canada and it is they who are your hosts today.

A Happy New Year to anyone who reads this. I hope that I can amuse and interest you with my 2008 observations!