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A short history of Breadalbane
While on holiday in the Crianlarich and Tyndrum area you will no doubt visit such places as Glen Coe, Loch Lomond, Glen Dochart or Loch Tay, to take pictures, enjoy a picnic, breath in the fresh air and marvel at the tranquility of it all ... but it was not always so peaceful! Neighbouring landowners squabbled, travelling warriors clashed swords, and bandits rustled cattle. History and legend is abundant, and the full story is not easily told in a few paragraphs. To get some boring dates
out of the way let's list the cast in chronological order: Iron-age Celts
(300BC); warrior Fingal (umm ...once upon a time!); Ossian the Bard (300AD);
St Fillan (700AD); Robert the Bruce (1300); Macnabs, Menzies and sundry
clans (1400 onward); James IV (1500); Mary Queen of Scots (1550); Black
Duncan Campbell (1600); his son Robert of Glenorchy (1650); Rob Roy (1700);
George I and General Wade (1720); Sir Robert Clifton (1730); Bonnie Prince
Charlie (1745); an Englishman who steals a bell (1800); Queen Victoria
and Albert (1840); ... to mention but a few!
"Breadalbane"
means "the high country of Scotland"
and our journey should start with a look the geography, because
it was the glens and rivers which made travel into the Highlands possible.
From Ben Lui above Tyndrum, the streams to the west feed into rivers flowing
west, while those to the east form the head waters of the Tay: starting
off as the Connonish, becoming the Fillan and then the Dochart before
flowing into Loch Tay and the great River Tay which delivers more fresh
water into the sea than any other British river.
Just south of Tyndrum you can get close to the river, where the West Highland Way crosses at Kirkton. Here you will find the ruins of St Fillan's Priory and St Fillan's Holy Pool. St Fillan brought Christianity from the monastry of St Columba on Iona into Breadalbane; he preached and healed here along Strathfillan, and all through Glen Dochart as far as Killin. He had a stance or seat at Suie, and constructed a mill on the Falls of Dochart at Killin. The Mill has been renovated and today is a Tourist Information and Folklore Centre. There are a number of artifacts or relics relating to St Fillan, including the healing stones at Killin, the Bernane Bell and the Quigrich (Crozier staff-head) in the National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh. There are several
stories relating to these artifacts; one fairly recent story - 200
years ago! - concerns the removal of the bell by an English tourist,
to be recovered by the Bishop of Brechin 70 years later.
St Fillan's Priory also
has a connection with Robert the Bruce.
After his defeat at the Battle of Methven, Bruce took a small band of
his men to Glen Dochart and receieved sanctuary from the Abbot of St Fillan.
Alasdair Macdougall of Lorn, a son-in-law of the Red Comyn whom Bruce
had earlier slain, discovered where Bruce was hiding and set out to ambush
him. A confrontation took place at Dalree (Dalrigh, the King's field)
where Bruce narrowly escaped with his life after a remarkable display
of strength and courage against heavy odds. He fought off and killed three
assailants at close quarters but lost his mantle and a magnificent brooch;
the brooch became a trophy for the Macdougalls and was in fact shown as
such to Queen Victoria on her Scottish visit to Taymouth Castle, Kenmore.
More recent history is mentioned
here very briefly: |
Following the river down
Strathfillan to south of Crianlarich, it flows into Loch Dochart where
you will clearly see a castle (now ruined) on an island in the loch. The
island is called "Eilean Iubhair" and there is a legend concerning the
warrior Taileachd who lived there and the famous warrior Fingal
(sometimes called Fionn) who challenged each other for the affections
of a fair maiden. The trial involved backward leaps between the island
and the shore, but on one of Fingal's attempts he slipped and fell into
the water. Taileachd, siezing his chance to make certain of victory, cut
off his adversary's head, but almost immediately regretted his hasty action
knowing how revered Fingal was, and fled carrying the head with him. The
headless torso was carried down-stream to be found by his followers some
way below the Falls of Dochart, where they buried him and marked his grave
with a stone. The stone is there to this day and the place is called Cill
Fhinn or Killin. 
Travelling towards Killin
along Glen Dochart, you will come to Corrychaoroch where a stone-built
gable is all that remains of a house that belonged to Rob
Roy. After Rob Roy's falling out
with the Duke of Montrose over money stolen, he had to escape from his
home in Balquhidder but was welcomed by the Earl of Breadalbane. Temporarily
settled in Glen Dochart, while at times venturing back over the hills
to take cattle from under the nose of Montrose, Rob Roy the outlaw continued
to have adventures and frequently harrassed the king's soldiers. There
is one story which tells of how he tricked several soldiers into being
tied up in a small house near Tyndrum.
Continuing to Killin, the
bridge at the entrance to the village over the Falls of Dochart makes
a stepping-stone of a rocky wooded island called Inch Buie which is the
sacred burial ground of the MacNab clan. There have always been local
feuds between Scottish clans: the MacGregors, the Menzies, the MacNeishes,
the Campbells, the MacNabs, ... and many others, have added their mark
in history. The Folklore Centre at the Killin Mill has more detail if
you wish to follow this up.