Clan Hatreds and the Campbells

     George Sassoon 's piece about the hated Campbells delighted WAISers. He has mitigated my ignorance of the geography of Scotland. He writes: Lochbuie is at the head of a broad bay on the south coast of the isle of Mull, at 56 deg. 21' N and 5 deg. 52' W.
     Well, I mulled over the map and found the Island of Mull. When George drove past Inveraray, he must have taken a ferry across the Firth of Lorn to reach the mainland at Oban, then driven to Diamally and headed south, passing the Campbells' lair and heading toward...heaven knows where, all along narrow mountain roads. Incidentally, the sacred island of Iona is just off the tip of the Ross of Mull. Heaven knows what a Ross is. Well, children, that's the end of the geography class. George tells us about the history of the Island of Mull:
     The local clan is the Macleans or Maclaines. They took over the island from the indigenous clans about the year 1400, there being two brothers who built castles at Duart at the SE corner of the island, and Lochbuie. A deadly rivalry developed between them and their descendants. Generally the Lochbuie branch use the Maclaine spelling and the Duart ones Maclean. Shirley Maclaine the film actress at one time wanted to buy and restore Lochbuie Castle. Duart castle was ruined for a long time but early this century was restored after a whip-round among clan members, and the present chief lives there. The present Lochbuie chief is in S. Africa but revisits occasionally.
     During the 1745 rebellion the Duart lot sided with Bonnie Prince Charlie so were stripped of their estates. The Lochbuie branch sat on the fence, also intermarried with the Campbells who were on the English side, so retained theirs until about 1910, when the then chief ran into enormous debt and the property came into the hands of my maternal grandfather, Sir Stephen Gatty. From him it went to the Garton and Corbett families, though in the 1940's my mother and my uncle bought back the bits which I have today.
     In addition to the Castle, Lochbuie also boasts the Maclaine Mausoleum and a small stone circle by way of antiquities. The stone circle was investigated by Prof. Alexander Thom of Glasgow University. He concluded that it had been used to investigate a small wobble in the Moon's declination, by sighting along the profile of a certain hill. Thom and his son sailed all around the west coast of Europe surveying these megalithic monuments.
     Of course the Glencoe Massacre was probably the worst in Scottish history, because of the treachery involved. But there are many others, such as when the entire population of the Isle of Eigg was killed by being herded into a cave and fires lit at the mouth to suffocate them. This was in the course of normal clan warfare so slightly more excusable, even though women and children were among the victims.
     It was only in the 1960's that a chief of the Duart Macleans came to lunch with the Corbetts at Lochbuie, saying it was first time that one of his family had been there on peaceful business for centuries.
     If you have a large-scale map of Scotland you will see an inlet of the sea to the east of Lochbuie, with a narrow entrance, shaped a bit like San Francisco Bay. The entrance was the frontier between Duart and Lochbuie country. Both sides had gibbets along the shore either side - the water is only about 200 yd. wide -and kept stocks of hostages from the enemy branch of the clan. If some offence was given, they would string one of them up. When I was a boy an old man told me that he had seen the post holes where these gibbets had been, but I was never able to find them.
     There are all sorts of other stories about Lochbuie, such as Ewan of the Little Head who was killed in battle by his father. His headless corpse remained in the saddle and the terrified horse roamed the island for several days with it still in position. A ghost of the headless rider and mount is often seen when a Maclaine of Lochbuie dies.
     My closing remark: John, in answer to your question as to where the island of Eigg is, it's one of the small Hebrides, south of the much bigger Island of Skye. And Jane, you asked where the McLeans fit into this. Well they must have been fighting Irish. Well, children, that's the end if the history class. And stop fighting; I'm tired of it. As the anthropologist said "And now we are civilized." Or are we?

Ronald Hilton - 10/3/99