Rob Roy’s Cave

High up the hillside above the farmstead of Tulloch, just west of the Kirkton of Balquhidder, is a small waterfall. Hidden from view behind that waterfall is a cave, which was said to be a favourite hideout for Rob Roy MacGregor.

These photos were taken by a Scottish blogger who goes by the name, In Jacobite Footsteps. He has kindly granted permission for his photos to be reposted here.

Rob Roy MacGregor

Rob Roy MacGregor lived 1671 – 1734 and was one of Balquhidder’s most famous residents. He is buried in a prominent grave in the Balquhidder kirk yard. His exploits were famous enough to have become the subject of multiple novels and movies, most recently in 1995 portrayed by Liam Neeson.

Rob Roy was a neighbour of the Stewarts of Balquhidder. Clan MacGregor and Clan Stewart of Balquhidder were not always on the best of terms, owing to the 1609 murder of John Drummond of Drummonderinoch, brother-in-law of Alexander Stewart, 1st of Ardvorlich, Chief of Clan Stewart of Balquhidder.

Rob Roy did have one encounter of note with our clan, when he provided some estate-saving advice to Robert Stewart, 7th of Ardvorlich, descendant of Alexander Stewart, 1st of Ardvorlich.

Rob Roy’s Advice Saves Ardvorlich

Robert Stewart, 7th of Ardvorlich, was an acquaintance of Rob Roy MacGregor according to the following excerpt from Stewarts of the South:

“The late Robert Stewart of Ardvorlich intended to sell Ardvorlich itself, and would actually have sold it if it were not for advice given to him by Rob Roy McGregor – famed for good as well as bad actions – when he was driven from Callander and Balquhidder for his pranks upon the Duke of Montrose. Rob Roy was a fugitive at Auch [in] Glenurchay (Glenorchy). Robert of Ardvorlich lodged a night with Rob Roy when Robert Stewart was going to sell Ardvorlich to Stewart of Appin. Rob Roy advised him to keep Feuer of Ardvorlich and that the Feu should keep him.”

It is remarkable that an Ardvorlich Stewart would take advice from a MacGregor after the murder of Drummonderinoch. If the reader thinks those memories were forgiven and forgotten by the mid-18th century, let me share with you a 20th century story. I am informed by Gordon MacGregor, a Strathearn historian, who is descended from two of the alleged murderers of Drummonderinoch, as follows:

“John Stewart, late of Ardvorlich (14th), flung my late uncle, the then Chief Inspector of the Perthshire Police, out of his house for our part in this crime fully 400 hundred years later!! Long are the memories in Highland Strathearn!” (Gordon MacGregor, private correspondence.)