The Jacobite Campbells

I drove past it again last week. South of Glencoe, scene of the infamous massacre, south of the loch-studded expanse of Rannoch Moor, there's a fast stretch of road near which stand the remains of Achallader Castle, seldom noticed seat of the Campbells of Glenorchy. A castle with a story.

  Achallader was torched by the Jacobites in the Rising of 1689, but it was still serviceable enough to host a remarkable meeting in 1691, the year before the Massacre of Glencoe. Here John Campbell, 1st Earl of Breadalbane, met the principal Jacobite clan chiefs, MacIain of Glencoe included. Breadalbane had £12,000 (worth more than £1m today) of government money with which to buy their allegiance for King William. It was agreed there that all Jacobite hostilities should be suspended but that this agreement would lapse if King James himself were to invade Britain and that should King William not consent to the terms of the deal, then Breadalbane would join the Jacobites with 1000 men!  A pretty good arrangement for the Jacobites - until the terms were leaked to King William; then all deals were off and the infamous oath of allegiance which led to the Glencoe Massacre was required.

If the 1st Earl was notoriously duplicitous, the same cannot be said of his sons. Two of them fought with the Jacobites at the Battle of Sheriffmuir, the defining battle of the 1715 Rising. Alongside them were more of the clan including the two sons of Robert Campbell of Glenlyon, the company commander who carried out the Massacre of Glencoe.

Glenkindie Arms Hotel

I don't normally highlight particular hotels or inns in this blog. We have about 700 on our database and they all have their particular strengths. But last weekend I stayed at a most remarkable place in Upper Donside, Aberdeenshire. Two years ago the four hundred year old Glenkindie Inn was a rundown pub, probably destined to become a private house or worse, a second home, but certainly nothing that would draw people into the area.

Enter Ian Simpson, an entrepreneurial chef from England, looking to start his old business. The bar is now a smart little restaurant, the rooms up above are comfortable if not luxurious.

The menu options are on the blackboard and my three course dinner was delicious, beautifully served, fully justifying the inn's newly acquired two AA rosettes.

For breakfast I went for honeyed apricots and yoghurt followed by scrambled eggs, mushrooms and bacon.  I was invited to choose my own local free range eggs, the mushrooms were actually locally gathered chanterelles and the toast came with home made jam.  Dinner bed and breakfast cost less than GBP 65.

We need more Ian Simpsons. Good luck to him.

If The Queen is to be present in your building, please contact the Protocol Team,

People sometimes ask what is the difference between the Saltire (blue and white cross) and the Royal Banner (red lion rampant) and don't seem to believe it when I say that the Royal Banner should only be flown when The King (or Queen) of Scots is present!

Well, here is the official protocol, taken from the Scottish Government website:

The Royal Banner is The Queen’s official banner in Scotland. Flags showing the Banner of the Royal Arms of Scotland (the ‘Lion Rampant’) or the Royal Arms as used in Scotland (the Quartered Arms) are Ensigns of Public Authority, and are therefore only used by The Sovereign or Her Great Officers, such as Lord Lieutenants, when acting in that capacity.

The Royal Banner is usually only hoisted above a Scottish Government building during the period The Queen is present in the building. It is not hoisted when The Queen is only passing in procession. If The Queen is to be present in your building, please contact the Protocol Team, Constitution Directorate, DG Constitution and Corporate Change to make the necessary arrangements.

The flying of the Royal Banner from a non-Government property or garden is not permissible, as it implies that the flag flyer is claiming the Royal Arms as his or her own.

The Munros of Novar

On a hill overlooking the Cromarty Firth is a striking, most un-highland monument. I guess that travellers must have been wondering what on earth it is ever since its erection in 1782. In fact it is a replica of the gates of Negapatam in South East India - originally a Dutch colony, won by the British in 1781.

Responsible for this success was Sir Hector Munro, 8th of Novar (1726 - 1805) who won fame and fortune as a British Army Officer in India. When he retired to Scotland the following year he found that in the midst of the Highland Clearances many Munros and others in the area were unemployed and hungry, so he paid them all to carry stones to the top of Cnoc Fyrish where the monument to celebrate his triumph was erected.

Tragically, Sir Hector's two sons were both killed in India, one by a tiger and one by a shark in the Bay of Bengal and the estate passed to his daughter whose descendants still own it.

And, until yesterday, that was all I knew of the Munros of Novar.

I now learn that Sir Hector's nephew, Hugh Anderson Johnstone Munro of Novar was one of the most notable art collectors of his day and a close friend of the English artist J. M. W. Turner. Munro eventually owned fifteen oil paintings by Turner and one hundred and nine of his water colours. One of his favourites, 'Modern Rome - Campo Vaccino' was sold by Munro's heirs in 1878 to the Earl of Roseberry for the astonishing price (at that time) of 4,450 guineas. It comes under the hammer for the second time tomorrow in a Sotheby's sale in London with an estimate of £12-18 million.

A blow, though, for the National Gallery of Scotland, to whom it has been on loan since 1978.

The Hanging of Neil MacLeod.

Yesterday, as part of the Nairn Book and Arts Festival, I was asked to introduce Alistair Moffat, author of  'Highland Clans'. Alistair has written a range of books, largely on Scottish history; and until last month I had read none of them.

I was intrigued by 'Highland Clans' - many of the points he makes, many of the anecdotes that he highlights, are those that I use on my own tours. But one extraordinary anecdote was new to me....

In 1597 the Edinburgh Parliament passed an act to enable the foundation of three new towns in the Highlands. One of these was to be on the Isle of Lewis, traditional land of the MacLeod clan. The name given to the company formed to establish the town on Lewis speaks volumes: "The Gentlemen Adventurers for the Conquering of the Isles of Lewis". Like those who were colonising the east coast of North America, they dug a ditch around their settlement and built a stockade. And, just as in Virginia, the indigenous inhabitants took exception. In 1601 the Adventurers retreated but legally they were still owners of  the island and they sold it to the Mackenzies who established themselves with 700 men. Neil MacLeod, chief of the clan, resisted, was arrested and eventually stood on a gallows in Edinburgh's Royal Mile.

MacLeod, a Gaelic speaker, did not understand anything that was said to him - until the hangman referred to him as bhodach, 'old man'. He knew that word and took exception, headbutting the younger man; and the crowd bayed for the blood of this savage. They got their blood of course. And the idea of Highlanders as savages continued until and beyond the Battle of Culloden in 1746 when this view of an alien people, was encouraged by government generals whose men had several times fled in the face of the Highland Charge (but stood firm on that day).

For centuries Scotland was divided. In the north, a nation of subsistence farmers spoke Gaelic, wore tartan, played bagpipes and recognised no authority beyond their clan chief. The other nation (which controlled affairs) did none of the above and they despised, feared and hated their northern neighbours.

This has led to many problems and complications. The least of which, perhaps, is whether Lewis is MacLeod clan territory or rightly belongs to the Mackenzies whose traditional clan chief took his name from Loch Seaforth on Lewis (above).