There are some drawbacks to mountain ascents that may help the visitor more willingly to forego them. How often the view from a summit is entirely blotted out by clouds or mist, or marred by the distance being lost in haze! How often the fine morning that induced the expedition is followed by a stormy afternoon! To these must be added the frequent injury to health caused by the unusual strain on the systems of persons unaccustomed to mountaineering, and the possible risk of being lost in mist. It is hoped that tourists will be content with the shorter climbs recommended in Part IV. Artists tell us that landscapes seen from lower elevations are more thoroughly picturesque than the bird's-eye views from mountain tops. Again, I entreat botanists and others looking for wild flowers and plants to abstain from rooting up the rare or beautiful things they may find, and from trespassing in places where their presence is obviously not required. The mania for removing every fragment of an uncommon plant has grown much of late years,--witness the extermination of the edelweiss from some of its best known habitats on the Swiss Alps. Who does not remember places whence our own rare holly-fern has within the past few years been eradicated? A few years ago that comparatively scarce fern the sea-spleenwort (_asplenium marinum_) was abundant within three hundred yards of the Gairloch Hotel; now it is unknown there. A gentleman fond of botany planted some uncommon ferns not natives of Ross-shire in a wood in Gairloch parish; they were soon discovered by tourists staying at a neighbouring hotel, who ruthlessly removed the whole. Instances of this kind have brought the British tourist into disrepute in many parts of the world. It is in the spirit of these remarks that I beg to introduce the reader to the charms of Gairloch and Loch Maree. PART I. RECORDS AND TRADITIONS OF GAIRLOCH. CHAPTER PAGE I. Early History 3 II. The Tragedy of Isle Maree 7 III. The Mackenzies of Kintail 11 IV. Ewan Mac Gabhar, the Son of the Goat 14 V. The MacRaes of Kintail and Gairloch 19 VI. The MacBeaths 21 VII. The M'Leods of Gairloch 24 VIII. The Macdonalds in Gairloch 27 IX. Hector Roy Mackenzie, First Laird of Gairloch 29 X. John Glassich Mackenzie and his Sons 36 XI. John Roy Mackenzie 38 XII. Expulsion of the M'Leods from Gairloch 43 XIII. Alastair Breac, and his Son and Grandson 49