They were days of bitter land disputes and cattle raids, when falling out with the neighbours could – and often did - bring long-lasting and serious consequences. And so it was that on a cold February morning in 1603, the simmering feud between the Gregors and the Colquhouns finally erupted into a bloody clash. Fuelled by mutual loathing, fought with pistols, axes and hagbuts, the violent clang of metal sword against chainmail was matched by the cries of rage from two clans and their supporters.
Clan Gregor, with their claims to have descended from King Alpin of Dalriada, had seen much of their ancestral lands lost to the likes of the Colquhouns and the Campbells. Angry and plunged into hardship, they had raided their neighbours’ lands for whatever they could get to help them survive. It all came to a head amid the rolling Loch Lomond beauty of Glen Fruin on that February day, setting in sequence a chain of events that led to victory for Clan Gregor, but at a hefty price.
Soon the Clan Chief Allaster MacGregor and eleven of his chieftains would be executed. And King James VI, as an example to other clans considering feuding with the neighbours, would unleash his wrath in an act that would punish the clan for more than 150 years. The King’s ruling declared the name Gregor and its variations such as MacGregor was henceforth “altogether abolished” and the clan members branded outlaws.
At risk of being hunted down and killed, they dispersed, changed their names and, rat.