Well, you'll have heard of Rob Roy, Rob Rooog, red-haired Robert McGregor of Glengyle.
Made famous by the movie starring Liam Neeson.
Well, he was a Highland partisan and a great Scots patriot and a Jacobite to boot.
And he was also great at the art of the Crechag, the plunder.
He has got a nickname, you know, Chief Livestock Transportation and redistribution officer
at South Perthshire.
For the old Highlanders believed anything that breathed upon the hillside was a property
of the creator only.
And if you helped yourself respectfully, he was OK with him.
But not necessarily OK with your neighbours.
But you had to prove your manhood through that.
But there was also a service in those days called the Freichgitten or the Watch, whereby
the McGregors were paid money by the government to protect people's cattle from Highlander
evers.
But if the evers, if they were not paid, oh well, you know, they had to be paid a call-up
to cover their losses.
Otherwise, they would just let the men who came in help themselves.
And this is such a tale.
There was a man who lived in the 17th century.
He was known as Amboachade.
He was the herdsman.
He was one of the stewards of Strathgarry.
He had moved down to a place between Doon and Calender.
To this day, it's called Kalyach.
It's called Kalyavohade.
Still call that to this day the Wood of the Herdsman.
He was a mighty swordsman.
It must have not he but his prowess who fought at the Battle of Sheriff Muir was distinction
in 1715 for the absentee King James under the banner of the Earl of Mar.
But simultaneously, who was still alive and breathing but all the Bahadi, the chief of
the McGregors, who took on the name Alexander Drummond because her name was illegal by law
to use.
An old man, yet at Sheriff Muir, he killed 20 red coats with his own bare hands, 74
years old.
There was a problem between Bahadi.
Bahadi is just north of Dunblane where I live in Strathallan.
The farm was still there to this day.
There are still quite a few McGregors living there too.
Well, he didn't get on with John Stuart.
They had a personality clash and they decided they were going to have a duel, a third duel.
They decided who was the best between the two of them.
They took their best weapons but because they were gentlemen and every Highlander is a gentleman,
they decided to have a duel by the banks of the Ellenwater at the place it used to be,
the place where the hotel was just outside Braco.
Not far from the farm of Nagy Fould, anyway, so Bahadi and Stuart meant on the afternoon.
And as was the custom, it was the first man just to draw a wee nick of blood.
They weren't meant to kill each other.
And the duel began.
And Bahadi, an old great swordsman, not as good as his cousin Rob Roy, I have to say,
he was hurried and thrusted and blocked and finally with a mighty blow, Stuart hit his
sword and his blade snapped in two right beside the river.
And Bahadi says, I have beaten a better man than myself.
Oh no, said John Stuart, I have beaten a man of honour.
Come along to my house, said Bahadi, Alexander McGregor.
Come in and we'll have a carry.
You see, the Highlander needed very little excuse to have a drum.
The old Ushke, behe, the juice of the barley.
And if there were enemies before, well, there were friends now.
And was it not the old custom that if someone came under your roof, you would feed them,
you would clothe them.
And they became one of your family, you would protect them.
But there was a problem.
Sometimes these clailies tended to go on a wee bit.
Anyway, after about a week of drinking and singing and playing the pipes, here, lo and
behold, who was not in charge of the watch service but Rob Roy McGregor himself?
Stuart hadn't paid his black mow, his black rent.
So the surround did it and the demand did money from Stuart at the point of Robroy's
sword with his men surrounding the area with her pistols drawn.
You see, there was no insurance companies in those days.
And besides, it saved the paperwork.
Well, who should come to the door but all Bohody himself?
Robroy, he said, Bohody, it's yourself.
I said, what's happening?
Oh, he said me and John Stuart here, we heard a bit of a quarrel, but we sorted it out with
a corkhlyeve, but the right of the sword.
And by God, Robroy and his men were relieved for that day and for several days afterwards.
And if the last day wasn't the best, it wasn't the worst.
And if it wasn't the worst, it was not the best either.
And they had a cailie, and if only the stones in that house could speak, they could tell
you many hair-raising tale.
Sing you a plaintive Gavik song or give you a skirl on the pipes.
And that is the tale of Robroy, the jewel and Stuart and Avixander of Bohody.
And if I'm telling you a lie, then there must have been a lie that was told to me.