|
The road and railway run southeast through the broad valley of Strathfillan which, with linking Glen Dochart, is now the home of large prosperous hill farms although some, such as Innshewan or
Auchlyne, still retain the ancient names of habitation. Strathfillan has a modern face of green fields, fat cattle and many sheep, but it also has a long pedigree that tells of large populations and many townships, now
long gone.
 There is good hill walking in this area and from the southern end of
Strathfillan there is an impressive view of the prominent hills clustered to the south of the A85: Ben More (great mountain), its flat-topped neighbour, Stob Binnein (Stob an Immeoin, peak of the anvil)
and Cruach Ardrain (heaped up high hill), with its northern face now shrouded in forestry. Continuing on the road travelling eastwards towards Killin, the ruins of a small castle on an island can be
seen in Loch Dochart. It doesn't look much, but it was important in its time, one of seven castles built or renovated by Sir Duncan Campbell of Glenorchy, who died in 1631. He was better known as the Black
Laird or Black Duncan of the Cowl, this last tag from an old portrait of him. He was a close friend of James VI and greatly extended eastwards the lands owned by the Glenorchy Campbells. He took this small castle
from the MacNabs and as well as his clan's original powerful base at Kilchurn, in Argyll, he controlled Achallader Castle, north of Bridge of Orchy, which he took from the Fletchers; Balcardine, north of Oban;
Finlarig Castle, at Killin; Balloch (later Taymouth) at the east end of Loch Tay and the Stewart holding of Edinample Castle at Loch Earn.
But Black Duncan was not altogether vile. He was one of our first conservationists, laying down rules for the management of stock, repair of dykes, protection of river banks, control of red deer and other game and the
dates when livestock could be moved to graze on higher ground. He introduced rabbits and fallow deer and paid his tenants to plant trees, fining those who interfered with the regeneration of the woods. He was a
villain, but he also revelled in the beauty of nature; and today the great woods of Breadalbane follow the example he set in the l7th century. Black Duncan was a man of many moods and his shadow, often
benevolent, still falls on Breadalbane. Black Duncan's family were responsible for The Black Book of Taymouth, which, with the Breadalbane Papers - a collection of family charters, muster rolls, inventories,
and family history - is a valuable source for historians. When the whirlwind army of the Marquis of Montrose and his renowned second in command, the war leader of Clan Donald, Alasdair MacColla, swept through
Breadalbane in 1645, burning and killing in their bid to win Scotland for Charles I, they took Glendochart Castle from the Campbells. The MacNabs tricked their way inside, and when the King's cause was lost and
the Campbells re-exerted their sway over their blackened and pillaged lands, the MacNabs paid dearly for their rashness.
The MacNabs took part in another gory clan spat when a group of them crossed the winter hills from Loch Tay to nearby Loch Earn. There, by means of a boat that they had brought with them, they stealthily
approached a small island offshore, Eilean nan Nadiseach (the Neishes isle). They massacred the Neishes and cut off the chief's head, an event commemorated in their heraldry, which gave the clan their motto,
Dread Nought. Tradition has it that as a result of angry conversations before the band set out, a Highland
proverb was coined, "Tonight's the night if the lads were the lads". The Neishes offence was that, reduced to the status of a band of thieves, they stole provisions from MacNab messengers. The route that the
MacNabs reputedly took can still be walked from Loch Tay to Loch Earn, Strathearn. In the l9th century spars from the boat they carried were found in the peat bogs. They apparently deserted it on the way back.  |
