The Stewarts in Glen Finglas, Callander, Historic Perthshire, Scotland

Various families from the Stewarts of Balquhidder and the Stewarts of Appin

Note: The following video was recorded before we learned the identity of the funeral party who perished in Lochan nan Corp and incorrectly identifies them as McKinlays instead of McKessans.

Glen Finglas

The Glen of the White Stream or the Glen of Finlay the Grey?

Glen Finglas lies at the heart of the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park and is part of the Great Trossachs Forest National Nature Reserve. Glen Finglas is located in Callander parish, northwest of Loch Venachar and south of Glen Buckie, in the former historic county of Perthshire, Scotland (part of the present-day Stirling Council Area). Prior to the late 20th century it was a thriving glen of good farmland and forest, rich with inhabitants and history.

History reveals its name: Its name reveals its history

How did Glen Finglas get its name? And can its name tell us something about its history?

From the time of Sir Walter Scott’s poem, Glenfinlas (1798), and throughout the 19th century, the name of the glen was most commonly rendered as “Glenfinlas.” Into the 20th century, it became consistently rendered as “Glen Finglas” with the added ‘g’. It is not the only glen in Scotland with this name. There is another Glenfinlas in Argyll just west of Loch Lommond which was the site of a famous 17th century battle between the MacGregors and the Calquhouns.

The name Glen Finglas is Gaelic in origin. As with many Scottish place names, exposure to centuries of Anglicization has made its exact derivation uncertain. Modern sources (including Wikipedia and many early 20th century travel gazetteers) suggest that the name derives from Gleann Fionn Ghlais, which means “Glen of the White Stream.” This could be correct, however earlier records reveal a different picture.

The earliest record of the name available to us comes from 1539 in which it is referred to as “the hunting of Glenfynlawis” in which the final element is distinctly three syllables: “fyn-la-wis.” This, as we’ll see, may hint at “Finlay” plus a suffix. In 1592, Duncan mac Alasdair Stewart was recorded as residing in “McGlenfinglas.” The patronymic prefix, “Mc” (meaning “son of”), suggests that name of the glen derives from a personal name, rather than a topographical feature. In 17th and 18th centuries, local Callander parish records sometimes refer to the glen as “Glenfinlayglas,” “Glenfinlayson,” and “Glenmacfinlay.” In each of these latter renderings, the first element is consistently given as “Finlay” suggesting that “Fin” may actually be an abbreviation of the personal name, “Finlay.” In Gaelic, these names would be rendered as Gleann Fionnlaigh Glas (“The Glen of Finlay the Grey”) or Gleann mac Fhionnlaigh (“The Glen of Finlay’s Son”). If we re-order the syllables of the 1592 rendering, “McGlenfinglas”, we get “Glenmacfinglas” which seems to be a combination of both “Glenmacfinlay” and “Glenfinlayglas.” These earlier versions of the name all seem to suggest that Glen Finglas was not named after a white stream, but was named after a person who was either “Finlay The Grey” or “the son of Finlay”.

Auchnahard

Auchnahard derives from Achadh na-h’ard which means “field of the height.” It was the northernmost settlement in the glen and was located on the high ground above where the Finglas Water and Casaig Water converge.

It appears to have been the largest of the four farmsteads and was the primary residence of the Bain Stewarts in Glen Finglas who descend from John Ban Mor Stewart, after whom they are named. They were an illegitimate line descending from the Stewarts of Annat. Auchnahard was formerly located on the west side of the Allt Finglas before the river was dammed and the glen was flooded.

Auchnahard contained the lesser residence, Tigh na Luig (“House of the Hollow”).

Duart

Duart derives from Dubh Ard which means “dark height.” It was divided into two smaller holdings: Upper and Lower Duart. We have not found a map that shows the locations of the separate holdings. Only the combined holding of Duart is shown on maps.

Duart was the primary residence of the Gartnafuaran and Invernahyle Stewarts who lived in Glen Finglas.

Submerged and Temporarily Re-emerged

When the glen was dammed in the 1960s, three of the farming townships were submerged beneath the newly formed loch. In the summer of 2021, Scotland had very little rain. Drought conditions caused such a significant drop in water levels, that the ruins of these townships were briefly exposed and visible for the first time in 60 years. In the photos below you will see the ruins of the former farmsteads of Auchnahard and Grodich exposed to the naked eye. These ruins are now once again submerged beneath the waters of Glen Finglas Reservoir.

The Stewarts of Ardvorlich, Book III, also mentions that the first Stewart to be associated with Glen Finglas was James Stewart of Beith (father of the 1st Lord Doune) who was given possession of Glen Finglas as Steward for the Earl of Menteith. He was ancestor to the later Stewart Earls of Moray who were the landlords of Glenfinglas. James Stewart of Beith did not actually reside in Glenfinglas but was merely the laird. He is described below in more detail than what might seem necessary at first. However the detail reveals the nature of the very close relationship between the families of Stewarts who occupied Glenfinglas and the family of Stewarts who were their landlords.

The Stewarts of Ardvorlich, Book III, also indicates that “the first person of the name of Stewart actually settled in Glenfinglas, was James Stewart in Glen, who is mentioned in 1575 in the special Retour of James Stewart of Baldofran (Baldorran) in the lands of Emyrcrethan and Croftintarry (Easter and Wester Cregan in Strathyre).” The most likely candidate for this James would be  James Stewart, son of Alexander Stewart, 4th of Glenbuckie, who is believed to have had no descendants.

In 1580 Duncan Stewart, son of Black Alexander of Glenbuckie, 4th of Glenbuckie, was appointed as Deputy Royal Forester in Glenfinglas.

In 1592, Alexander Stewart, 1st of Ardvorlich, conducted a cattle raid into Dryman in Stirlingshire. Court records list one of his accomplices as Duncan M’Alister Stewart in McGlenfinglas. The late John Stewart of Ardvorlich, in The Stewarts of Ardvorlich, incorrectly identified this Duncan Mcallaster Steuart as being the son of Alexander Stewart, 1st of Ardvorlich, however that Duncan wasn’t yet born. It was more likely Duncan Stewart, son of Black Alexander Stewart, 4th of Glenbuckie, Forester in Glen Finglas.

* Note: Our old website from 2012 erroneously suggested that the funeral party who drowned at Lochan nan Corp were likely early McKinlays connected to St. Bride’s as the name of the family was not identified in any records available to us at the time. The first publication of the name Black Colin Kessan known to us was by Callander Heritage Society in 2018.

A Deeper Dive into the Legend

Our two sources of the story both come from a Stewart resident in Glen Finglas in 1815-1820 and 1860. It’s possible these two accounts come from the same person or two generations of the same family. Here’s what we know to be true and what we know to be made up:

Why would a story like this emerge?

James Beag Stewart, 2nd of Ardvorlich, had a reputation for being hot-headed. He also had a life-long hatred for MacGregors because of the brutal way they murdered his uncle and tormented his mother. The Stewarts of Balquhidder already controlled lands on three sides of Glen Finglas in the early 1600s. The vacancy created by the demise of Clan Kessan would have presented an irresistible opportunity to fill in a huge gap in the Stewart lands. As chief of the Stewarts of Balquhidder, James Beag Stewart of Ardvorlich would have had a strong motive to invade Glen Finglas himself. If there happened to be a handful of MacGregors already there, his legendary temper and hatred of their clan could have motivated him to “encourage” those MacGregors to vacate the glen without orders from the Earl of Moray.

If James Beag Stewart of Ardvorlich did evict any MacGregors without cause then he would have had reason to concoct a story of the MacGregors being trouble-making catarans with himself playing the hero who removed them with odds of 3 against 40 without a shot fired!

The Eight Portions of Glen Finglas (ca. 1623-1645)

Stewarts of the South says:

For this action (clearing the Macgregors from Glen Finglas) the Major got a tack of Glenfinglas from Lord Doune: one-fourth of which he give to the Glenbuckie family, one-fourth to Gartnafuaran and reserved one half for himself. The family of Annat began to grumble — a branch of his own family to whom he give one fourth of his own half and each party did subsist as most convenient to their own friends and others. Sometimes they did not agree better than strangers, which is often the misfortune of society.

Although we have no written record of such a charter giving us a date for when the Stewart occupation of Glen Finglas commenced, the later 1755 lawsuit with the Dowager Countess of Moray, known as the “Glen Affair” (below), confirms the existence of such a contract. We find evidence that between the mid-1620s and the mid-1640s, the Stewart portioners were moving into Glen Finglas.

James Beag Stewart, 2nd of Ardvorlich, initially divided his new lands in Glen Finglas into four portions:

According to Stewarts of the South, the Stewarts of Annat later complained at being left out, so Major Stewart granted them one-fourth of his half. Thus the lands came to be accounted in 8 portions. However, this part of the story also appears dubious as we see above that it was the future Annat family themselves who initially occupied the Ardvorlich portion as early as 1623. The later subdividing into eight portions more likely reflects a natural subdivision due to population growth among the next generations.

The Stewarts of Ardvorlich Book 3, mentions Alasdair Dubh nan Damh Stewart from the Stewarts of Invernahyle (Clan Appin) who came to Glenfinglas as a drover, occupied one of the eight portions. However, Stewarts of the South indicates that it was more likely Alexander’s father, Duncan mac Alan Stewart, who was the first of the Invernahyle family to live in Glen Finglas. Duncan is said to have “gone to Glenbuckie and married there” implying that he married a daughter of the Stewarts of Glenbuckie. This would explain how a Stewart of Invernahyle came to acquire half of the Glenbuckie portion of Glen Finglas.

The only recorded outstanding event which seems to have agitated the tenants of the glen to any extent was when, about the year 1770, the then Dowager Countess of Moray tried to evict them from their holding on the ground that a new lease agreed to be granted to them by her husband, Earl James, two years before his death, had never been signed by him, and, farther, that he had no right to grant that lease, as the life-rent of the glen had been conveyed to her in her marriage contract in security of her jointure. The Court of Session decided in favour of the Countess, and loud were the lamentations of the Stewarts at having to leave the land they and their forebears had occupied so long. Fortunately, however, they found a friend in the new Earl (Francis, eighth Earl), between whom and the Dowager, his stepmother, there seems to have been little love lost. He advised them to appeal their case to the House of Lords, and found them part, if not the whole, of the means to do so; and the result was that on 24th March 1773 their appeal was sustained, and the decision of the Court of Session reversed.

According to The Stewarts of Ardvorlich Book 3, the Glen Affair lawsuit began in 1755 and was still under appeal in 1772. In the meantime, some of the original parties had died and their cases were appealed by their heirs.  Thus the list of original complainants and later appellants give us, in some cases, a two generation picture.

Court of Session Record for John Bane Stewart, et al, vs Magaret, Dowager Countess of Moray, 1755-1772

John Bane Stewart and others, Lessees of Glen Finglas v. Margaret, Countess Dowager of Moray, and Frances, Earl of Moray

Submitted by the late Anne Danielson

Portioners of Glen Finglas, ca. 1820

We have a later portrait of the eight portioners of Glen Finglas, provided to us in Stewarts of the South, which was written ca. 1815-1820 and lists the eight portioners of Glen Finglas at that time.  The only problem is that the document actually lists nine portioners for only eight properties:

1. Alexander (Alasdair Mhor) Stewart in Auchnahaurd, son of James Stewart of Invercarnaig, son of John Ban Mor Stewart, Bains of Glenfinglas Family. (See below)
2. John Stewart of the Grodich, son of John Stewart in Auchnahaird, son of John Ban Mor Stewart, Bains of Glenfinglas Family.  (See below)
3. Robert Ban Stewart in Auchnahard, son of John Ban Mor Stewart, Bains of Glenfinglas Family. (See below)
4. Duncan Stewart in Auchnahard, son of John Ban Mor Stewart, Bains of Glenfinglas Family. (See below)
5. John Stewart in Glenfinglas, (probably the upper western portion) son of Iain Dubh Stewart (Stewarts of the South Glenbuckie, III Branch, Line 4).
6. John Stewart in Duart, son of Walter Stewart, 10th of Gartnafuaran.
7. Robert Stewart in Duart, Gartnafuaran Family, IV Branch, Line 1
8. Duncan Stewart in Duart, (see Appin-Invernahyle family below)
9. John Stewart in Wester Brig O’ Turk (Glenbuckie Branch I, son of Walter Stewart in Brig o’ Turk, below)

Stewarts of the South lists the following as “former” tenants in Glen Finglas

1. James Stewart formerly Tenant in Glenfinglas, Glenbuckie, III Branch, Line 1
2. Walter Stewart (nephew to the John Stewart, son of Iain Dubh, above) once Tacksman of one eighth of Glenfinglas left two sons – now cottagers [at] Duncragan [on] Sir Pat[rick] Murray’s estate [in] Callander parish, bought from [the Earl of] Perth family. (Stewarts of the South Glenbuckie, III Branch, Line 4)
3. Walter STEWART, in Brig o’ Turk b: ABT 1740 in Brig o’ Turk, Kilmadock, Perthshire, Scotland, great-grandson of Duncan Stewart, 8th of Glenbuckie. Formerly held one of the eight portions of Glenfinglas, but was forfeited for cutting down a tree without permission. Father of John Stewart in Wester Brig o’ Turk, above)

Emigration began to play a significant role in the 19th century and after 1820 many of these families left the Glen. According to The Stewarts of Ardvorlich Book 3, by the mid-19th century almost all of these families had immigrated to Canada.

A later obituary for James Stewart of Duart who died in 1895 gives us a wonderful portrait of the relationships between the various branches of Stewarts residing in Glenfinglas:

Glenfinglas was held jointly by six tenants (sic) — all Stewarts of course — each of them having his own farmhouse and steading, with a separate allotment of arable ground, on which he grazed his own cows and raised his own crops; while the hill pasture, the most important part of the holding, was held by the whole six in common, the stock of sheep thereon, numbering 8000 or more, being mutual property. Two of the tenants were annually elected managers to attend to the sales of sheep and the buying in of fresh breeding stock for the year; and while it might have been supposed that disagreements would have occurred occasionally, this was not the case, for the system had, through generations of practice, been brought to perfection, and the utmost harmony and good fellowship prevailed among the tenants from the earliest recorded time. When any question arose as to which tenant was to do any particular piece of work for the general good, or on any other point, the matter was invariably settled, and satisfactorily, by casting lots.

For a period of certainly more than two hundred years this little colony, or community, of Stewarts quietly pursued the even tenor of their ways — a shrewd, industrious, exemplary set of people, little troubled with the tumults and on-goings in the outside world.

The risings of 1715 and 1745 passed by without affecting them in any way, as, true and staunch to their chief and landlord, the Earl of Moray, they obeyed his wishes and took no part in these events….*

With one exception, the Stewarts were all adherents of the Established Church, although in the early part of last century all the inhabitants of Glenfinglass were Episcopalian; and they were, without exception, Conservative in politics.

Portioners of Glen Finglas and their Neighbours, 1867

Slater’s Directory of Scotland, 1867 edition, provides us with a later profile of the residents of Glen Finglas as well as their neighbours in 1867. (This information was provided by Calander Heritage Society.)

From Slater’s Directory of Scotland 1867 Edition.

The Bridge of Turk is a small hamlet in this parish (Callander) and contains a school and the ruins of a very large and handsome hotel which was unfortunately burned down a short time ago.

The Principal Stewart Families in Glen Finglas

We have seen from above that the key Stewart families residing in Glenfinglas (and present research would suggest that they were the only Stewarts in Glenfinglas) were cadet branches of all four of the principal families of Clan Stewart of Balquhidder and one branch of Clan Stewart of Appin:

• • Stewarts of Ardvorlich
  • Stewarts of Glenbucke
  • Stewarts of Gartnafuaran
  • Stewarts of Annat
  • Stewarts of Invernahyle (Clan Stewart of Appin)

By 1875 social conditions had changed dramatically and Glenfinglas was nearly empty of inhabitants. The last of the Stewarts to reside in Glenfinglas was James Stewart of Duart (b. 1813), a bachelor who died in 1895 in a much mourned and lauded manner. On his father’s side he was descended from the Invernahyle Stewarts, but both his mother and grandmother were Bain Stewarts of the Annat family. With his passing the Stewarts of Glenfinglas were no more.

This brings to an end our story of how the Stewarts came to dominate Glen Finglas for three centuries. For more detailed information on the individual families who resided in Glen Finglas, please go to their detailed family history pages:

Sources

Additional Sources:

1. Buchanan of Auchmar history (1723)
2. Personal correspondence with professional researcher Gordon MacGregor, author of “The Red Book of Scotland“
3. Various estate records and testaments too numerous to list here.