Our Western Hills: How to reach them; And the Views from their Summits: By a Glasgow PedestrianAnonymous
History
Our Western Hills: How to reach them; And the Views from their Summits: By a Glasgow Pedestrian
Anonymous
Hiking -- Scotland; Scotland -- Description and travel
Turning now from the east side of the loch to its west, from what
might be called its Montrose side to its Colquhoun side, we have in
close succession not far off the splendid mansion houses of Cameron,
Auchendennan, Auchenheglish, and Arden. Immediately above Arden is
Glen Fruin (the Glen of Sorrow), coming down from near Garelochhead.
It has the ruins of an ancient castle of the Colquhouns, and it was
here that a fierce conflict took place between the Macgregors and
the Colquhouns in 1602, when the latter were routed with a loss of
200 men, the Macgregors only losing two, one of them, however, being
John, the brother of the chief. It is this battle which is popularly
called “The Field of Lennox.” It is said that the Macgregors also put
to death in cold blood some 80 youths, popularly called “the Students
of Dumbarton,” who had gone out to see the fight. A short time before
this Sir A. Colquhoun had appeared before James the Sixth at Stirling,
and complained of the cruel murders committed by the Macgregors, and to
give emphasis to his complaint he was attended by a considerable number
of women who carried the bloody shirts of their husbands and sons. The
king gave him a commission to repress the crimes and apprehend their
perpetrators, and the battle of Glen Fruin was the result. And this in
its turn led to the king issuing letters of fire and sword against the
Clan Gregor, to the confiscation of their lands. Their clan name was
proscribed by Act of the Privy Council. But the Acts passed against
them were repealed in 1775. Till then, however, the members of the clan
usually took the name of various landed proprietors. Thus, the famous
Rob Roy, who died in 1736, was Campbell, after the family name of his
patron, the Duke of Argyll.
Not far up the glen from Arden there is the hill of Dunfion, which is
said to have been at one time the residence of Fingal, and traces of a
fortress said to have been built by him are still pointed out. Two and
a-half miles farther up you can see Ross Dhu (the black promontory), on
which is the tower of the ancient castle of the Luss family, and their
mausoleum near it; the mansion-house standing on a promontory almost
surrounded by water.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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