Tales Of The Wayfarers Tavern
Beyond The Betrayal
Follow further epic adventures of Alexander Flora Chisholm as she settles into life in the 18th-century and finds her soulmate, who has a dark past. Join the Chisholms as they head to Crieff for the Michaelmas Tryst. John Chisholm finds it difficult to know who to trust and will betrayal put his life at risk and the others who stand by his side? Preparations are made as the 1745 risings are not far away.
Images below are places featured in Beyond The Betrayal.
Two of Castle Lachlan which is mentioned several times in all the novels. A place of good and evil.
High Bridge is featured but not for the start of the risings yet!
There's two images of the brooding mountains of Glencoe.
Also, Glen Croe and the Old Military Road leading up to the Rest And Be Thankful.
All the images are tagged when clicked on and all these places can be visited and your imagination can bring the novel to life, alongside the notes below.
HISTORICAL NOTES AND REFERENCES.
Chapter 5 – Barracks (Soldiers House), Loch Arkaig
Tigh nan Saighdearan was one of a number of small barracks built across the Highlands immediately following the Jacobite uprising of 1745-46, when the government mounted a ruthless campaign of suppression across the Highlands and Islands: and when troops were actively seeking the fugitive Bonnie Prince Charlie. The area around Loch Arkaig was much more populous that it is today, and home to many Camerons who strongly supported the Jacobite cause. The barracks seem to have served as a very remote outpost of the much more significant garrison at what is now known as the Old Fort in Fort William, some thirty miles to the south-east.
(For the purpose of the novels, this was mentioned in 1743)
https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/speanbridge/barracks/index.html
Chapter 6 – Lifting the Stone.
Highland Chiefs used to have the ‘Clachneart’ or ‘Stone of Strength’ placed at their gateways. Visitors were invited to try their strength. Associated with this was the ‘Clach Cuid Fir’ or ‘Manhood Stone’. The aim was to lift it onto another stone which was about three to four feet high. As the Manhood stone could weigh from at least one hundredweight (112 Ibs) and sometimes over two hundredweight (224 Ibs) this was no mean task.
Chapter 8 – Proscription of the MacGregors
On the 9th of February, the Battle of Glen Fruin was fought between Clan MacGregor and Clan Colquhoun. The MacGregors were outnumbered by the cavalry, however it was a decisive victory for the MacGregors. It was said that they suffered very few casualties, compared to the Colquhouns 200-300 men.
Two months after the battle, King James VI outlawed the MacGregor name, saying that it was to be ‘altogidder abolisheed’, and those born to it were to renounce the name or face death. This was after the murder of John Drummond, a king’s forester, because he hanged a number of MacGregors for poaching. The clan scattered and were to be known as the ‘Children of the Mist’. Many MacGregors took different names such as King, Grant, and Murray. It was during this time of persecution that Rob Roy MacGregor became a famous folk hero. The persecution of the MacGregors lasted over 170 years, not ending until 1774.
https://acgsus.org/macgregor-clan-proscription/
Chapter 11 – Crieff –Michaelmas Tryst
https://crieffandstrathearnmuseum.org.uk/cattle-droving/
Chapter 14 – Glencoe Massacre
https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/glencoe/the-glencoe-massacre
Chapter 15 – The Black Watch and Lochlyloch
Black Watch – In 1743 the new regiment was ordered to march to London for an inspection by the King. However, word had it that the Regiment was to be shipped to the unhealthy climate of the West Indies, a rumour which was reinforced when it was discovered that the King was not to inspect them. Many of the men genuinely believed they had been enlisted only for service in Scotland and decided to return home. Leaving London and marching by night over a hundred of them reached Northamptonshire before they were eventually surrounded and brought back to London. They were tried by court martial and three of the leaders were condemned to be shot in the Tower.
Lochlyloch – The Clydesdale Horse is the pride of Scotland and is a native breed which was founded in Lanarkshire, Clydesdale being the old name for the district. The history of the breed dates back from the middle of the 18th century when native horses of Lanarkshire were graded up in an effort to produce greater weight and substance by the use of Flemish stallions.
The first stallion, imported by the Sixth Duke of Hamilton, was dark brown in colour and was kept for the benefit of his tenants who were granted its use, free of charge. John Paterson of Lochlyloch brought from England a Flemish stallion, black in colour with a white face and some white on his legs, around this time. The venture proved successful and Lochlyloch blood speedily became famous and sought after.
The next step brings us into the region of recorded pedigrees, as from the mare now to be referred to, practically every Clydesdale of recorded lineage, can trace descent. In 1808, a dispensing sale was held at Shotts Hill Mill, Carstairs, when the stock of Mr Clarkson was disposed of. Mr Somerville, Lampits Farm, Carstairs, purchased a two-year-old filly. Mr Clarkson was a descendant of the Paterson’s of Lochlyloch, the importers of the Flemish stallion and there is good reason to believe the stallion claimed a place in the family tree of this filly.
https://clydesdalehorsesociety.com/chs-information/breed-history
Chapter 20 – The Rack – Torture – Ian Beag
The rack: A torture device used at the Tower of London, a royal palace that also served as a prison. Starting in the 15th century, the yeoman warders who worked at the tower used the rack to pull on ropes tied to a victim’s wrists and ankles. This stretched the body and dislocated the victim’s joints. The link below is for the Barisdale, similar to the Rack and used in the Highlands. Captain Robert Munro’s was a mix of both.
https://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/barisdale_n_v
Thumbscrews: A torture instrument that made prisoners reveal information or ‘confess’ to crimes. The thumb was placed between the screw and the metal plate at the bottom. The screw was then tightened. The thumb could be reduced to a bloody pulp if enough pressure was applied. The prisoner was often subjected to the thumbscrews before even more painful forms of torture were used. These included the rack, where limbs were stretched and broken. There were variations and Munro seemed to like the one that crushed the fingers of warriors.
Cat-O-Nine-Tails: A soldier who was flogged in 1832, with a cat similar to that used in the King’s fleet, said: “I felt an astounding sensation between the shoulders, under my neck, which went to my toe-nails in one direction, and my finger-nails in another, and stung me to the heart, as if a knife had gone through my body…. He came on a second time a few inches lower, and then I thought the former stroke was sweet and agreeable compared with that one…. I felt my flesh quiver in every nerve, from the scalp of my head to my toenails. The time between each stroke seemed so long as to be agonising, and yet the next came too soon…. The pain in my lungs was more severe, I thought, than on my back. I felt as if I would burst in the internal parts of my body…. I put my tongue between my teeth, held it there, and bit it almost in two pieces. What with the blood from my tongue, and my lips, which I had also bitten, and the blood from my lungs, or some other internal part, ruptured by the writhing agony, I was almost choked, and became black in the face…. Only fifty had been inflicted, and the time since they began was like a long period of life; I felt as if I had lived all the time of my real life in pain and torture, and that the time when existence had pleasure in it was a dream, long, long gone by.”
Ian Beag, The Chisholm’s piper:
It was legend that he performed feats quite beyond the powers of any other of his craft. He had, in addition to his natural abilities, powers that had always been attributed to the Black Chanter. The famous “ Feadan Dubh.” It was believed a chief of Chisholm stayed for a time in Rome, and on his return brought home, among other valuables, the celebrated Black Chanter, which combined in itself all manner of musical charms. Manufactured of the hardest and blackest ebony, it was not impervious to the gnawing effects of time. Consequently it was strapped with bands and hoops of silver by successive chiefs. This gave it the familiar name of “ Maighdean a Chuarain,” or the Maiden of the Sandal. It is said that along with its musical charms it had other qualities the reverse of charming. When a member of the chief’s family was about to die, the Black Chanter would be quite silent, or if not entirely mute the best piper would not get a correct note out of it. All the time John could hear its tones, he knew it was not his time to die and gave hope to the others too.
Chapter 22 – The Quaich
The Quaich – a drinking cup of friendship
