Clan MacGregor: Rob Roy and the Children of the Mist

Overview — the clan that was outlawed by its own name

No Scottish clan has a story quite like Clan Gregor. Proud, ancient and fiercely independent, the MacGregors ended up landless and hunted — for nearly two centuries it was a crime simply to bear the name. They became the “Children of the Mist,” living in the hills and glens of the Trossachs and Breadalbane, and they gave Scotland its most famous outlaw-hero: Rob Roy MacGregor. Travel the Trossachs and Callander and you’re deep in their country.

“Royal is my race”

The clan motto is “‘S Rioghal Mo Dhream” — “Royal is my race” — from a proud (if unprovable) tradition that the MacGregors descend from Gregor, said to be a son of the 9th-century King Kenneth MacAlpin. Their heartland was in the wild country of Glenorchy, Glenstrae and Glenlyon, on the borders of Argyll and Perthshire. “MacGregor” means, simply, “son of Gregor.”

Losing the land — and becoming outlaws

Here’s the tragedy. As more powerful, better-connected neighbours — above all the Campbells — expanded across the Highlands by charter and law, the MacGregors, who held their land “by the sword” rather than by paper, were steadily dispossessed. Landless men have to live somehow, and the MacGregors turned increasingly to cattle-raiding and feud — which only gave their enemies the excuse they wanted.

Glen Fruin & the proscription of the name

It came to a head at the Battle of Glen Fruin in 1603, just above Luss on Loch Lomond, where the MacGregors routed the Colquhouns with heavy slaughter. The Colquhouns took their bloodied shirts to the king — and King James VI’s response was extraordinary: he proscribed the very name MacGregor. To be called MacGregor became a capital offence; the clan was hunted, its people forced to take other surnames to survive. The proscription ran — with one brief lifting — until it was finally repealed in 1774. Few clans were treated so harshly by the state.

Rob Roy MacGregor — the outlaw hero

Out of all this came Rob Roy MacGregor (1671–1734), the clan’s most famous son. Born at Glengyle, at the head of Loch Katrine, he was a respected cattle drover who was ruined, outlawed, and turned freebooter and folk-hero — a sort of Highland Robin Hood, feuding with the Duke of Montrose and slipping through the hills the redcoats could never quite catch him in. He died at Balquhidder and lies in the Balquhidder kirkyard (about 13 miles north of Callander), his grave slab carved “MacGregor Despite Them.” Sir Walter Scott’s novel Rob Roy (1817) sealed his legend, and the films have kept it alive ever since.

MacGregor country on our travels

• Loch Katrine — Rob Roy was born at Glengyle at its head; the whole loch is MacGregor country.
• Callander — the gateway to the Trossachs, with Balquhidder and Rob Roy’s grave a little to the north.
• Luss — above it, Glen Fruin, where the 1603 battle sealed the clan’s fate.

← Back to Scottish Clans · see also the Castles of Scotland.

Battles — won and lost

The most notable actions the clan fought, and how they ended:

• Glen Fruin (1603) — vs the Colquhouns — WON
• Inverlochy (1645) — vs the Campbells (for Montrose) — WON
• Killiecrankie (1689) — vs the government — WON
• Sheriffmuir (1715) — vs the government (Rob Roy present) — DRAWN
• Prestonpans (1745) — vs the government — WON
• Culloden (1746) — vs the government — LOST

Victory over the Colquhouns at Glen Fruin triggered the clan’s proscription; Rob Roy MacGregor is its enduring legend.

The clan lands

Orange markers = the clan’s chief castles, seats and territories; where we have a page, they link through.

Sources

• First-hand: our own travels through the Trossachs (own photos)
• The Clan Gregor Society
• Clan Gregor — Wikipedia · Rob Roy MacGregor — Wikipedia