January 20th 1610

Hunting the McGregors

It has to be admitted that the McGregors were a bloodthirsty and lawless lot even by the standards of the time in the Highlands. But they were unfortunate too. Though there were branches of the clan occupying lands in Glenstrae, Rannoch, Glen Lyon and Balloch they possessed no title deeds to these areas. In earlier days this would have been of no consequence but as time went by they were to discover that they were a clan, and an important one at that, with no clan lands to call their own. In particular, the Campbells had assumed ownership of land that had once been occupied by McGregors. Their reaction tended to be to hold by force those areas to which they felt they had a moral right. At a time when the authority of the crown was beginning to be accepted in the Highlands the McGregors chose to live by older and more primitive standards and the consequences were bound to be tragic.

Because of their lawless behaviour the Privy Council in 1589 drew up a list of 140 McGregors who were to be hunted down and brought to trial. The edict was not particularly successful but it had the effect of making outlaws of all members of the clan. They roamed the countryside reiving and killing until in 1602 they attacked the Colquhouns at Luss. “The laird of McGregor wt 4 hunder of hes name and faction enterit in the Lennox qr he maid spulzie (spoil) and slaughter to the number of 60 honest men besyde women and bairnies. He spared nane qr he came.” Other reports tell of 140 killed with 600 cattle, 200 horses, and sheep and goats driven off as part of the spoil.

This time the McGregors had gone too far and the clan was prescribed utterly. They were commanded to change their name under pain of death and all who took part in the slaughter at Luss were sentenced to death. In the next six months nearly fifty men were hung in Edinburgh.

The Chief of the clan, Allister McGregor was tricked into going to England to seek a pardon and was then arrested at the border and hung in Edinburgh on January 20th 1604. But worse was to come. The Privy Council demanded “the extermination of that wicked, unhappy, infamous race of lawless lymmaries callit the McGregour till they were uterlie exterpit and rooted out,” and the real killing days started. The Duke of Argyll led the hunt and for three years, from 1610, he hunted down the unfortunate remnants of the clan. Even their wives and widows were not spared, being branded on the face with a red hot key and sent away with their children to the Lowlands. It was not until the mid-18th Century that the Acts against the McGregors were formally repealed.