Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 2

RAN
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RAN
Mack expanse of desert, a vast region of bog and
morass, with a few dreary pools, and one long dreary
lake, some ditchy naked lines of dark water-course,
and a far-distant environing mountain-screen, whose
frowns and coarse dark features are in rueful sym-
pathy with the humours of the sable sea of moss.
" Pray imagine the moor of Rannoch," says Dr.
M'Culloch; "for who can describe it? A great level
(I hope the word will pardon this abuse of it) 1,000
feet above the sea, 16 or 20 miles long, and nearly
as much wide, bounded by mountains so distant as
scarcely to form an apprehensible boundary ; open,
silent, solitary; an ocean of blackness and bogs, a
world before chaos ; not so good as chaos, since its
elements are only rocks and bogs, with a few pools
of water, bogs of the Styx and waters of Cocytus,
with one great, long, sinuous, flat, dreary, black,
Acheron-like lake, Loch-Lydoch, near which arose
3 lir-trees, just enough to remind one of the vacuity
of all the rest. Not a sheep nor a cow; even the
crow shunned it, and wheeled his croaking flight far
off to better regions. If there was a blade of grass
any where, it was concealed by the dark stems of
the black, black muddy sedges, and by the yellow,
melancholy rush of the bogs." But the long inha-
bited stripe, though much inferior in scenery to other
and similar Highland glens, largely compensates by
its beauty and picturesqueness for the repulsive
wildness of the moor. At the west end it is en-
tered from the moor by the closing in of the hills
upon the course of the river Gamhair; and from the
mouth of that river to a point 12 miles eastward, it
has gentle, or at least rapid slopes coming down upon
the watery pavement of Loch-Rannoch ; and from
the east end of the lake onward, it consists of the
vale or glen of the Tummel, overhung and shut up
by the vast solitary mountain-mass of Shiehallion.
Most of it is thus the frame-work of Loch-Rannoch,
and, with a large forest of native fir which runs far
up the height along the south, and is broken with
glades and curiously gemmed with mansions and
farm-villages, — with some decrepit yet picturesque
remains of a native birch-forest straggling upon the
declivities along the south, — with the side back-
ground of the bold mountain-heights climbing tier
upon tier till they become wreathed in clouds, — and
with the snowy peaks of Glencoe and Glenetive
looking up in the far west at the distance of 40
miles, and suggesting what an ocean of wilderness
lies between, the landscape is at once interesting
and impressive. Two hamlets, called Kinloeh-Ran-
noch and George-town, stand respectively at the
east and at the west end of the lake, and are the
sites of the two places of worship. Roads go up
both sides of the Tummel and the lake, keeping
close upon the water ; but they unite and become
one at George-town, before setting out on the moor
toward Glencoe. See ForTingal.
RANNOCH (Loch), a lake in that district of
Perthshire called Rannoch, to the east of the moor
of Rannoch, and within a few miles of the northern
boundary of the county. It is distant from Dunkeld
upwards of 40 miles, and about 25 from Blair-
Athole. To this district there is an excellent car-
riage-road along the banks of the Tummel, which
here presents a continued succession of falls and
rapids, and thunders down a channel within lofty
banks shaded with woods. Loch-Rannoch occupies
about 10 miles of a narrow valley, nearly 20 miles
in length, and from 2 to 2J miles in breadth. Its
shores are beautifully indented by descending sweeps
of the adjoining mountains, and by points of land
richly wooded, which run far into the lake. The
mountains on the north side are very high; and their
steep sides, wherever the crsgs will permit it, pre-
sent some beautifully wild cultivation, and several
upland farms of a singular character. The ride up
the south side of the loch, however, is by much the
most delightful. The mountains here form another
lofty range, covered far up their sides with an an-
cient forest of natural pines. In many places this
forest is now falling into decay; but it still pre-
sents much scenery magnificently picturesque. In
proceeding from the foot of the loch — rather anoma-
lously called Kinhch-Rannoch, or ' the head of Loch-
Rannoch' — towards what is really the head of the
lake, the distant mountains of Breadalbane and
Lorn, crowned with the clouds constantly arising
from the Atlantic ocean, form a splendid termination
in almost every view; while, in descending, the lofty
Shiehallion, and other mountains in its neighbour-
hood, closes the scene towards the east. At the
foot of the loch is the village of Kinloch-Rannoch,
and at the head the village of George's-town, at both
which places there are inns. About a mile from
George's-town is Barracks, the property of Robert-
son of Struan, a place used by Government as bar-
racks for a considerable time after the Rebellion.
Here troops were kept for preserving the peace of
this portion of the Highlands; and hence its present
name, which has rather an odd sound, as the resi-
dence of a Highland gentleman. It was to Rannoch
barracks that the notorious Serjeant Mhor was con-
veyed after his capture, previous to his being taken
to Inverness, where he was condemned and executed.
The uppermost farm in Rannoch, before entering on
the moor, is still pointed out as the place where this
almost the last of the Highland freebooters was
taken. Rannoch-lodge, the hunting-seat of Sir Neil
Menzies, Bart., of Castle- Menzies, is situated a short
way beyond the head of the lake There are two
islands in the lake, on one of which a M'Dougal of
Lorn was confined by Robertson of Struan, the chief
of the Clan Donachie, during the struggle of Robert
Bruce for the throne. The opposition of M'Dougal
to Bruce is well known; but the Clan Donachie had
adopted the cause of the royal fugitive. In some
battle between these clans, M'Dougal was taken
prisoner, and, for greater security, was imprisoned
on one of the islands of this lake. Two of his fol-
lowers came from Lorn to Rannoch with a sack of
apples for their chief, and wished to be allowed to
visit the island. The chief of the Clan Donachie
refused this request, but sent the apples to the
island with two of his own followers. These wor-
thies having fastened their boat to a rock, carried
the apples to M'Dougal. The chief opened the
sack, took out some bandfuls of the apples, and
threw them on the floor for the two children of Do-
nachie to pick up. They began to scramble for
them, and in their eagerness forgot the prisoner.
The opportunity was tempting; the door stood open,
— the distance to the beach was short, — the boat
ready, — and no other at the island by which he could
be pursued. Leaving his two enemies to fight at
their leisure for the apples, M'Dougal sprung out at
the door, and before the sons of Donachie recovered
from their astonishment at the suddenness of his
exit, was in the boat, and had pushed it from the
island. He made quickly to the opposite shore, —
landed at a point which still bears his name, — and
took to the mountains. Pursuit was vain, and the
Lord of Lorn was soon in safety among the sons of
his own clan. Tradition has not told us the pun-
ishment inflicted by the angry chief of the Clan Do-
nachie on his two apple-loving clansmen ; but we
may be certain, that if they fell into his hands, their
heads would be made to answer for their folly. — The
other island is much smaller than that on which
M'Dougal was imprisoned, and is said to have been