MacGregors of Glengyle

This website presents informal & personal research on Glengyle & the surrounding area, and the MacGregors of Glengyle - a branch of Clan Gregor who lived there, and their descendants.

For those generally interested, we provide public and private mailing lists for ongoing discussion.

Glengyle

Glengyle sits at the northwestern head of Loch Katrine in the Trossachs, within Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park. Its name comes from the Gaelic Gleann Goill, meaning “glen of the stranger”. Gall (genitive Goill) is an old Gaelic word for a foreigner, later applied to Norsemen.

For centuries the glen was held by a branch of Clan Gregor - Clann Dubhgall Cheire - whose chieftains kept their seat at the head of the loch.¹

This place may be best known as the birthplace of the Scottish outlaw-turned-folk-hero Rob Roy MacGregor, and the present Glengyle House, built in the 18th century, replaced the original dwelling where Rob Roy was born in 1671.²

Nearby at Portnellan lies a historic MacGregor burial ground,³ and the surrounding glen - the old heartland of Clan Gregor, now largely empty - is a tranquil stretch reached by the private Scottish Water road that runs along the loch's northern shore.

Loch Katrine has supplied water to Glasgow since the mid-nineteenth century.

Glengyle Water flows down through the glen to feed the loch.

More on the glen itself, its watercourses, and the surrounding hills is in the Glen Gyle notebook entry.

Clann Dubhgall Cheire

The branch of Clan Gregor that held Glengyle was known by the patronymic Clann Dubhgall Cheire, the children of Dougal Ciar. Ciar is understood to mean grey or mouse-coloured.

Dougal Ciar (b. ~1458) was closely related to the chiefs of Clan Gregor. The line ran through several generations at Glengyle, Maol-coluim and Griogair among them; the family were tenants of the Buchanans by 1530 and later of the Montrose family.⁴

By the mid-seventeenth century the seat of the family was at Glengyle under Donald Glas MacGregor (c. 1620 - 1693), a Lieutenant Colonel, who married Margaret Campbell of Glenlyon. Their children included:⁵

• John MacConnel Glas (c. 1658 - January 1694), eldest son and heir, who married Christian Campbell of Duneaves and continued the chiefly line.
• Rob Roy MacGregor (c. 1671 - 28 December 1734), the third son. Rob Roy married Mary MacGregor of Comar on 1 January 1693, lived at Inversnaid and Balquhidder, and is recorded under the alias Robert Campbell during the proscription of the MacGregor name.
• Margaret and Catherine, who married into the Leckie of Croy Leckie and Graham of Brachern families.

John MacConnel Glas predeceased his father. The chieftainship passed to his son Gregor Ghlun Dubh (“Black Knee”), Rob Roy's nephew, born around 1689 and brought up under his uncle's guardianship. In 1703 Gregor secured a feu charter from the Marquis of Montrose for the two merklands of Glengyle - about 2,200 acres at the western end of Loch Katrine - passing the family's tenure from tenancy to ownership. Under the continuing proscription of the MacGregor name, the charter was taken in the alias James Graham.⁵

Gregor Ghlun Dubh married Mary Hamilton of Bardowie in 1708 and lived at Glengyle until his death in 1777.⁵

Glengyle House

Glengyle House stands at the head of Loch Katrine, built around 1707 by Gregor Ghlun Dubh in preparation for his marriage to Mary Hamilton of Bardowie. The original block has two storeys and attic dormers; the house was extended in the 19th century and again after the First World War.

More on the house, its door inscription, and the tradition of Rob Roy's birthplace is in the Glengyle House notebook entry.

Burial Grounds

Portnellan

The Portnellan burial ground sits on a small promontory on the north shore of Loch Katrine, a short distance east of Glengyle. One of the historic resting places of the MacGregors of Glengyle, it holds Rob Roy's father Donald Glas MacGregor, who died in 1702. Rob Roy himself is buried at Balquhidder.

The Portnellan Burial Ground notebook entry covers the enclosure's history and how it was raised onto a causeway in 1922 to keep it above the rising loch level.

Near Glengyle House

There is a separate MacGregor of Glengyle burial enclosure just to the west of Glengyle House - an 18th-century square enclosure used into the 19th century - sometimes confused with the one at Portnellan. See the notebook entry on the burial enclosure at Glengyle House.

Old Parish Church in Balquhidder

Rob Roy MacGregor is buried at the Old Parish Church in Balquhidder, alongside his wife Mary and two of their sons. Three side-by-side slabs within iron railings mark the graves, the centre stone carved with the motto “MacGregor Despite Them.” See the notebook entry on Balquhidder Kirk.

Footnotes