The Ancestral Lands of Clan MacFarlane

Arrochar

Arrochar is a pretty village that sits at the head of Loch Long on the Cowal peninsula in Argyll and Bute in the Scottish Highlands. It’s a popular destination for hikers as it’s overlooked by the Arrochar Alps, a group of mountains that includes several Munros and the smaller, but uniquely shaped summit of the Cobbler.

The area was the seat of Clan MacFarlane for over five centuries, and before that, the settlement of Arrochar was a target for Viking raiders who used its proximity to Loch Long and Loch Lomond to target inland settlements.

In 1697, the first part of Inverioch House was built in Arrochar by John, the 19th Clan Chief. You can still see a stone over the front door today to commemorate this date. The house was later renamed Arrochar House, then The Cobbler Hotel, and it’s now The Claymore Hotel.

In the early 1800s, Arrochar was a popular tourist destination for day-trippers from Glasgow thanks to the arrival of paddle steamers on the Clyde, which would travel along Loch Long before transferring at Tarbet for a tour around Loch Lomond.

Much later, between 1912 and 1986, Arrochar was the home of a torpedo testing station. In 1944, it tested over 1200 torpedoes, with a record of 62 in one single day.

If you visit Arrochar today, you’ll find plenty of MacFarlane graves in the parish cemetery.

Inveruglas Castle

Not far from Arrochar (roughly 5.5 miles north) is Inveruglas, a hamlet that sits on the A82 trunk road between Glasgow and Inverness. It sits on the northwest shore of Loch Lomond, and you can see Inveruglas Isle from the bay. Once upon a time on this island sat Inveruglas Castle, the seat of Clan MacFarlane.

Today the castle lies in ruin, having been destroyed by Cromwell supporters sometime between 1649 and 1660, but it still dominates the small island. The castle was a rectangular tower with differently sized round towers at the northeast and southwest corners.

You can visit the castle and the island by taking a boat trip - or if you’re an intrepid adventurer, you could even kayak or paddleboard out to it!

Eilean-a-Vow

This small island (sometimes also called Ellan Vhow) in Loch Lomond is also home to a ruined castle which was built as a replacement for the ruined Inveruglas Castle. The island is 0.08km long and 10 metres at its highest point.

There are a couple of stories about where the name comes from. Some think that it comes from the submerged rocks that lie under the water close to the island, and the original form of the name was actually Eilean a’ Bhogha or “the island of the submerged rock”.

More fun, though, is the story that the Chief of Clan MacFarlane made a solemn vow when building his castle here that he wouldn’t let any more hostile clansmen pass down the loch.

The entire island is protected as a scheduled monument by the Scottish Government under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979, due to its associations with the MacFarlane Clan Chiefs, as well as its importance as an example of medieval island strongholds.

Although the castle was still inhabited in 1724, by 1814 it had sadly fallen to ruin. The north wall of the castle is mostly collapsed, although the east and south walls are reasonably preserved. The Ellan Vhow Preservation Fund has been set up to support archaeological study and preservation of this historic site, although you can also visit this island by taking a boat tour or hiring a boat for a self-guided tour (just watch out for those submerged rocks!).

Loch Sloy

Loch Sloy is a hard-to-reach lake that sits beneath Ben Vorlich in Dunbartonshire. Today it’s part of a hydroelectric facility that can be seen from Inveruglas, but back in the days of Clan MacFarlane, it’s where they took the inspiration for their war cry from.

The war cry of “Loch Sloy!” was taken directly from the name of the loch, which is where the clan members used to gather. A five-mile hike from the road, it’s tricky to reach, making it the perfect place for the clan to gather to plot their cattle raids on their neighbours, the Colquhouns.

Luss, on the western banks of Loch Lomond, is a pretty village that was one named Clachan dhu or “dark village”, likely due to the shadow of Ben Lomond which dominates the view north over the loch.

Although it was once home to the MacFarlane enemies, the Colquhouns, there’s also a memorial stone to the Chiefs of Clan MacFarlane in the Luss Kirk graveyard, once the only church in the whole Arrochar area. The inscription reads “After Death Remains Virtue” and “Here is the place of burial appointed for the Lairds of Arroquhar, built by Johne Mackfarlan Laird thereof 1612”.

The church is worth exploring for anyone visiting Luss, with an attractive ceiling made from Scots pine rafters, as well as beautiful Victorian stained glass windows.

Exploring Luss and feel like it all looks a little familiar? Well, it will be if you were a fan of the TV soap Take the High Road (later renamed to High Road), which aired during the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s as Luss was the filming location for the soap, standing in for the fictional village of Glendarroch. If you want to catch a glimpse of the village and get a feel for what MacFarlane life was like, the show is still available on the STV Player!

Gartartan Castle

Gartmore is a village in Stirlingshire that sits on the A81 from Glasgow to the Trossachs. Here you’ll find Gartmore House, and in the gardens of this impressive house is Gartartan Castle. Built for Malcolm Macfarlane of Gartartan, it’s an example of an unusual 16th-century Z-shaped castle.

It fell into disrepair when Gartmore House was built in the early 18th century, and stone was taken from the castle to create a boundary wall for the house. You’ll spot some MacFarlane graves in this site, as the father of James MacFarlane, author of the Clan History 1922, was born at Gartmore, and his grandfather John and great-grandfather Malcolm are buried here.

We hope you enjoy exploring some of the most historic sites associated with Clan MacFarlane - and in the meantime, why not discover your perfect piece of clothing in your favourite MacFarlane tartan?