Hi, Scott,
I do get into trouble...but knowing what our ancestors suffered, it is rather difficult to
note the 'highland' nostalgia in Scotland without a bit of scepticism. One summer
in the early fifties an elderly lady, born a MacLeod, said to me in her home up behind the
church in Fort William, pointing out her living room window, "...down there in
Lochaber Bay the people were packed into ships like slaves...."
Also, John Prebble in his book, "Culloden", stated: "... Some of
Scott's companions were officers of the highland independent companies and taking
their example from him, they had no mercy on the Jacobite clans. One was the son of Grant
of Knockando who, with two hundred men, marched and burned and plundered his way from Moy
to the head of Loch Arkaig. There, on the isthmus close to Achnacarry where Clunes Hill
rises like a green pyramid from the pine and fir,lie burnt the house of Cameron of
Clunes[Donald Cameron of Clunes, my gggg mc], 'stript his wife and some others naked
as they came into the world, and deprived them of all means of subsistence except five
milk goats'.....
And, as we already know, the 'Butcher' stated in a letter to Newcastle:
"I mean, the transporting of particular Clans, such as the entire Clan of the
Camerons and almost all the tribes of the McDonalds and several other lesser
clans...". The Butcher Cumerland believed that prisons and mountains should be
flushed clean of all Jacobites[Prebble]. Some of the Grants and Campells were
Hanoverians...
The brutality of the Hanoverians against the Camerons and MacDonalds is not forgotten by
many families to this day. A Clan gathering???? The Glengarry Highland Games takes
place once a year within the counties of Stormont Dundas and Glengarry, a great gathering.
The Gaelic famlies were able to keep their traditions on 'this' side of the
Atlantic. Scotland[unable to even be a country] might have fared better if the Camerons
and MacDonalds had won at Culloden. Of course, the lowlanders[Sassanachs] despised the
'Irish' clans. Now they 'love' highland culture. Oh laa...
Now Scotland is a province which does not even have jurisdiction over its oil wells...
So, do we need their jurisdiction 'over' the clans....? No way. We have
maintained our culture on this side of the Atlantic, even though it is nice to return to
Locharkaig, or to other areas, to see our ancestral homes. Clan associatons are great,
but the type of hype made within Scotland about highlan culture and traditions is rather
hypocritical to say the least[maybe we should attend the highland balls in Scotland...in
order to see kilts on lowlanders....]
Margaret Cameron