Here are the best tales from Scotland's most prolific Lowland Clans

Today’s column is something of a quick romp through the stories of several Lowland clans, a round-up of the best tales with information on the origins of each. Apologies to all those I have not been able to feature, but I am sure if you have a clan name that you wish to research then you will find the necessary information out there on the internet. The best place to start is the website of the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs, which will show if your clan is listed with a chief recognised by the Lord Lyon King of Arms.

As I have shown in previous weeks, there are some clans who do not have a recognised chief – these are known as armigerous. One of those clans is Clan Forrester, which is recognised as a clan by the Lyon Court, but does not have a chief.

John Forrester from Irvine emailed me to say: “I have read your articles and got great enjoyment from them. I am now reading your articles on border clans which are very interesting. I wonder if you could mention the Forrester clan, which were very involved in that period. This would be very much appreciated.”

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Happy to oblige, John, and the Forresters are indeed a most interesting clan, as shown by the clanforrester.org website. As the name suggests, the clan originated with people whose job was to maintain and control forests and in particular, the Royal Forest of Torwood, which was their domain in mediaeval times. They may even have had that task as far back as the Druidic age.

The Torwood stretched almost from Stirling to the outskirts of Edinburgh, and the Forrester family – there are records of the name and variants of it in the 13th century – held Torwood at the time of the Battle of Bannockburn, in which they fought for King Robert the Bruce. Sir Adam Forrester, who is acknowledged as the clan’s founder and first chief, established his base at Corstorphine; now well within Edinburgh, but back then, a village on the outskirts, in the latter half of the 14th century. The Forresters are linked to Corstorphine to this day.

Sir Adam was a burgess of the city, Alderman and then Provost in the 1370s, and built a chapel at Corstorphine, in which he and his descendants were buried. His son, Sir John Forrester, was of sufficient rank to be one of the official welcoming party when King James I returned from captivity in England in 1424, and was made Keeper of the King’s Household. The Forresters continued to serve the monarch and also split into branches, so that two different Forrester knights were killed at Flodden in 1513, while seventh clan chief Sir James Forrester died fighting the English invaders at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh in 1547.

Earlier, one Alexander Forrester was confirmed in the Barony of Corstorphine by King James V. It may have been this Forrester who was alleged to have been a participant in the plot to kill David Riccio or Rizzio, secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots. Almost a century later, the Forresters aligned with Charles I against Oliver Cromwell and paid a hefty, nay ruinous, price in fines when Cromwell conquered Scotland.

To my main Forrester tale: further bloody murder took place in 1679 when James Baillie, having succeeded his father-in-law as Lord Forrester, took his own niece, the beautiful and married Christian Hamilton as his mistress. The local kirk session disapproved and its records noted: “This day was advice of ye session required about James Lord Forrester and Christian Hamiltoune spouse to Andrew Nimmo their living and cohabiting in one house together as also annent his fall in fornication with one Bessie Ritchie. The Session in respect that his Lordship is a person of Qualitie Thinks fitt that the advise of the presbytirie be first sought.”

BEFORE the case could be considered at a higher level, Christian Nimmo took fate into her own hands. Her lover had turned against her and was said to have called Christian his “whoor” (sic).

She rushed to confront him in Corstorphine and though she said she had been defending herself against the drunken Lord James who had rushed at her with sword drawn, however it happened, the Lord of Forrester ended up impaled on that weapon which was then being held by his mistress.

The self-defence argument failed to convince the jury at her trial, and despite pleading pregnancy – she was not – and even escaping from jail, Christian Nimmo was eventually beheaded at the Mercat Cross in Edinburgh on November 12, 1679. A White Lady is said to still haunt Corstorphine, and is the name of the local outlet of JD Wetherspoon.

Like so many Lowland Clans, plenty of Forresters emigrated abroad, while at home the Corstorphine Forrester line died out with the claim to being clan chief passing through heiresses and eventually into the family of the Earls of Verulam. According to the Clan Forrester Society website, its patron is the 7th Earl of Verulam, the banker John Duncan Grimston. He would appear to have the best claim to be Clan Chief, but would need to change his name to Forrester under the Lord Lyon’s rules.

Clan Colquhoun does have a recognised chief, Sir Malcolm Colquhoun, 33rd laird of Luss. The Colquhouns are relatively small in numbers in Scotland but usually as Calhoun or Cahoon there are many clanspeople in the US – the use of “qu” in the name tends to indicate Scottish origin.

The Colquhouns can claim to be both a Highland and Lowland clan, as their ancient territory bestrides the Highland Boundary Fault, where it passes through Loch Lomond.

According to the authoritative history of the clan, The Chiefs of Colquhoun and their Country by William Fraser, published in Edinburgh in 1869, “Maldouen of Luss obtained from Alwyn Earl of Lennox a grant of the lands of Luss; and it is upwards of six hundred years since another Earl of Lennox granted the lands of Colquhoun to Humphrey of Kilpatrick, who afterwards assumed the name of Colquhoun.”

That all happened in the 13th and 14th centuries, and the west side of Loch Lomond is still the clan’s territory. The Colquhouns feature regularly in Scotland’s history, not least because they were one-time governors of Dumbarton Castle, but it is something which happened to them in 1603 that I find most interesting.

Clan Gregor had their lands to the north and east of Loch Lomond, and the two clans had long been in conflict. Sir Walter Scott, no less, contended that two starving MacGregors had killed a young sheep belonging to a Colquhoun tenant, and the Laird of Luss, Alexander Colquhoun, had them arrested and executed.

William Fraser is more accurate, writing that the MacGregors raided into Colquhoun territory and carried off livestock as well as killing some of Colquhoun’s clansmen. Alexander Colquhoun, who took the newly-widowed women to Stirling to show King James VI their men’s “bluidie sarks”, and soon to become King James I of England, the monarch gave the Colquhouns “letters of fire and sword”.

Not waiting for their capture, some 300 MacGregors marched into Glen Fruin to be met by a Colquhoun force at least double that number. The MacGregors knew the Glen intimately and planned a pincer movement into which the Colquhouns proceeded.

One swift charge broke them and the battle became a massacre. Between 140 and 160 men on the Colquhoun side were slaughtered for the loss of a handful of MacGregors. King James VI proscribed the MacGregor name, but the damage to Clan Colquhoun lasted for decades.

The clan continued to have a presence in Scotland’s development, and many clan chiefs had important roles down the centuries, notably Sir Iain Colquhoun, 7th Baronet, who was a First World War hero who became Lord Rector of Glasgow University and co-founder of the National Trust for Scotland.

Another clan which is technically a Lowland clan but has its seat near the Highlands is Clan Burnett, now preferring to call itself the House of Burnett. This clan has numerous branches, with their territories located across Scotland, but it is the Burnetts of Leys who are the senior branch.

Like so many clans with Continental origin, the Burnetts may have originally been the Burnards who are named among those who came to Scotland and settled in Roxburghshire in the time of David I who reigned from 1123 to 1154. An Alexander Burnard went north to Deeside and was given land around Banchory by Robert the Bruce in reward for his services.

Interestingly, it is reported that the family took up residence on a crannog in the Loch of Leys, and they have been known as the Burnetts of Leys ever since. Another connection to the Bruce is that he gave the Horn of Leys to the Burnetts – it remains their emblem.

Generations of Burnetts played a large role in Scottish affairs, but it is Crathes Castle which is the chief adornment of the family. Still owned by the Burnetts but now run by the National Trust for Scotland, it remains the clan seat and it is simply wonderful, with the painted ceilings a particular favourite of mine. You really have to see the Castle to believe it.

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Once described as the greatest living Englishman, the late racehorse trainer Sir Henry Cecil’s mother Rohays was the daughter of Sir James Burnett of Leys, 13th Baronet, and thus Cecil was born in Aberdeen. He knew his Burnett heritage well and every time his Warren Place stable sent out a Group 1 race winner, he flew the flag of Burnett of Leys from his flagpole – a piece of Scottish heritage that lorded over Newmarket on many occasions.

The current Chief of the Name and Arms of Burnett is James Comyn Amherst Burnett of Leys, Baron of Kilduthie.

Clan Kennedy is often thought be an Irish family, and there is no doubt the ancestors of the most famous of the Kennedys, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, came from Ireland. But the Irish Kennedys and the Scottish Kennedys are different clans, the former being originally O’Kennedy and hailing from an area of Ireland known in ancient times as Ormond – lords of that name are traditionally held to have been based in what is now County Tipperary.

The Scottish Clan Kennedy is a totally different family. Very much a Lowland Clan, they originated in the district of Carrick and by the 12th century the family was exalted enough for its chief Gilbert Mac Kenedi to have witnessed a Royal charter by King William I, the Lion. By the time of King Alexander II (reigned 1214 to 1249) Gillespie Kennedy had become the steward of Carrick, and thus the family were integral to the Lordship of the de Brus family. They sided with Robert the Bruce throughout the Wars of Independence and when the first Stewart King, Robert II, came to the throne he made John Kennedy of Dunure chief of his name, effectively making him the recognised clan chief, with the current chief being David Thomas Kennedy, 9th Marquess of Ailsa and Earl of Cassilis.

There are several Kennedy branches. Arguably the most famous member of the clan was Lieutenant General Sir Clark Kennedy of the Moray branch who commanded the Royal Dragoons at the Battle of Waterloo and captured the Eagle of France’s 105th Regiment.