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Page 52
2 History of the Western Highlands and Isles of Scotland, by Donald Gregory, pp202-3
3 John Cameron, minister of Dunoon and Kilmun, started life as a Catholic but adopted the Protestant faith. He was the father of John Cameron (1579-1625), sometime Principal of Glasgow University, a famous divine of his day. He is said to have been a younger son of Donald, eldest son of Ewen MacAllan or Allanson of Lochiel, and therefore uncle to his pupil Allan. From John Cameron are said to descend the family known as 'the Camerons of Worcester.' (See Chapter Ten, p. 220).
4 In and around the burial ground at the Church of Kincardine in Strathspey, there grew some plants of the Dwarf Elder (Sambticits ebtihis), a plant otherwise unknown in that district. The Strathspey tradition is that a daughter of Lochiel married a Stewart Laird of Kincardine at the end of the 15th century. Lochiel sent with her a bodyguard of twelve of his clansmen to protect her on her journey and that these men settled in that country, being known as the 'Blue Bonnetless Lads' because they did not wear the head-dress common in that country, but a flat steel cap.
When Lochict's daughter died, she requested that she should be buried in the soil of her own country, and Kincardine sent to Lochaber and had soil brought from there so that she was buried in a grave filled with Lochaber soil. Some seeds of the Dwarf Elder were in the soil, and plants established themselves in this one spot. They were known locally as 'The Baron's Lady's Flower.' The Dwarf Elder flourished there until recently when it was destroyed by some chemical spray. It is hoped that it has now been re-introduced from plants grown in Lochaber.
The Camerons who settled there flourished and became a numerous tribe. The Cameron tradition is rather different from that of Strathspey. It is claimed that the leader of the bodyguard was none other than Donald M'Ewen M'Connel (the Täillear Dubh), but that he did not settle there but returned to his own country. This would mean that the marriage was later, probably about 1530 to 1550. The tribe was known as 'Sliochd nan Gillean Maola Dubh' (The Race of the Bald Dark Lads).
5. This encounter was probably the result of the repudiation of the agreement between Erracht the tutor, and Macintosh.
6 This was a reference to the arms of Clan Chattan and Macintosh, whose crest is a Cat, salient, proper, and whose motto is, 'Touch not the cat bot a glove.'
7 It is supposed in this story that Allan MacDonald Dubh's mother was a Macintosh, but this is not so. She was a Maclean of Duart, and in any event as Allan's father was dead in 1569 and Allan took command of the clan in 1577 he would not have been a baby at the time of the story.
8 He returned some years earlier for he signed a Bond of Assurance in 1577 as 'Allane Camrone, Lard of Locheill,' and was thierein described as 'Chief and Captain of Clan Chamroun.'
9. The Loyal Clans, by Audrey Cunningham, pp. 114/5.
10. Introduction to Memoirs, pp. 45/6.
13. R.P.C., 25th February, 1612.
14. Tlze Loyal Clans, pp. 125-6.
15 and 16. Allan Cameron of Lochiel wrote several letters to Sir John Grant of Freuchie and his son James in addition to those quoted in the text. The earlier concern attempts to come to terms with Macintosh, and the later attempts to come to terms with the Government. These letters are to be found in William Fraser's Chiefs of Grant, Vol. It, pp. 40, 42-47, 5), 76, and on page 529 an account of the Raid of Moyness of 1645. These letters were written from various places-The Moy, Isle of Locheyle, Tarbat in Sunart, and Lochzeill.
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