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The Appin Murder
Appin is, on the whole, a pretty quiet and law-abiding place.
In times past, however, quite a large number of people have, in these parts, met a violent untimely death at the
end of a sword or a rope or ... various other things.
See, for example, the short history of
Castle Stalker (on this site) and its mention of The Bloody Battle of Stalc.
So it is, perhaps, a bit misleading to speak of THE Appin Murder. And yet, there was only one APPIN
MURDER, famous, not so much for the murder itself, but for its sinister aftermath.
In May 1752, Colin Campbell, landowner and government official, also known as The Red Fox, (red hair is a
Campbell family feature) left his estate in Glenure with his nephew and a small detachment of soldiers to ride
north through the lands of Appin for the purpose of collecting taxes. It has been claimed, that he his mission was
also to indulge in a bit of ethnic cleansing - ie to evict members of the (Jacobite) Stewart Clan and replace them
with members of the (government loyal) Campbell Clan. As the little group was approaching Ballachuilish, an
unknown assailant shot Colin Campbell dead with a musket shot.
The spot can be found easily enough. It is quite close to a point where a large black rock stands in the sea, just
a few yards from the shoreline - a kind of miniature Rock of Gibraltar - but smooth and rounded and standing
perhaps only fifteen feet high at low tide. There is also a wooden signpost on the shore-side of the road which
points inland. This will direct you up a broad forestry track. It climbs into the forest and leads eventually, by a
narrow sidepath, deeply into the woods where a cairn marks the spot where Campbell fell from his horse. In
those days the hillside was forested but not as it is now. A more open aspect is more probable with Birch, Alder
and Scots Pine. The assassin ran and soldiers gave chase. The nephew stayed at his uncle's side - quite a brave
act when one considers that without the protection of the soldiers he was a fairly easy and obvious target.
The incident has been given greater notoriety by the fact that Robert Louis Stevenson incorporated a
fictionalised account of it in his novel Kidnapped. The James-Bond like figure in the novel called Alan Breck
Stewart is based on a real person who was one of the prime suspects, but his flight through the heather and
across Scotland (with the entirely fictious David Balfour), is pure invention.
Having failed to capture the assassin at the scene of the crime, there followed a witch hunt through the whole
district during which (in the phrase made famous in the film Casablanca) they rounded up THE USUAL
SUSPECTS. Alan Breck Stewart could not be found, so they arrested the hapless James Stewart of the Glen and
dragged him off to Inverarray, the stronghold of the Campbell Clan. Before a Campbell judge and a jury of
Campbells, he was found guilty, sentenced, and eventually on 8th of November 1752, he was hanged at
Ballachuilish on a small knoll, which now forms the Southern end of the modern bridge. His body, and then
skeleton, was allowed to hang (with chains and wires to hold it together) for several months (to encourage the
locals). There is a memorial to mark the spot. James Stewarts birthplace was in Glen Duror and a visit to his
home is a pleasant afternoon walk (for a description,
see elsewhere on this site)
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[Visitor's book]