History's fascination is how tiny events, insignificant in themselves, can change a nation's destiny.  The Battle at the Red Ford, for example, was at first sight just a minor clan skirmish in a remote Argyllshire glen.  Yet the end result has lasted to this present day. 

     It began in the late 13th century when the MacDougalls were the rising force on Scotland's western seaboard.  Their huge fleet of galleys commanded the seas while their castles of Dunollie and Dunstaffnage controlled the mainland.  Their name mhic Dhugaill came from Dubh-Gall - Black Strangers, or Norsemen, for their progenitor was Somerled the mighty, son of Gilliebride, sub-king of Argyll, who claimed descent from both Harold Harddrada, King of Norway, and Fergus mor mhic, King of Dalriada.

     Somerled led an uprising against the Norsemen who ruled the West Coast in the mid-12th century, and removed them from Lochaber, Morvern  and north Argyll.  But he knew he could not hold his conquest against the might of Viking sea power, and proposed marriage to Ragnhilda, daughter of olaf the Red, Norwegian King of the Isles and of Man.  Her father refused, seeking a more suitable suitor. 

     Somerled had his shipwright swim unseen to Olaf's moored galley, bore holes in the hull underwater, and fill them with tallow.  When Olaf's galley put to sea the tallow gave way as it rounded Ardnamurchan Point, and the boat began to sink.  Somerled's galley was carefully positioned nearby but he refused assistance until Olaf agreed his marriage to Ragnhilda.  Thus Somerled gained control of all the western seaboard.

     Somerled had two sons, Dugall and Reginald.  His younger son Reginald inherited Islay, Kintyre and part of Arran, and founded clan Donald.  The eldest son Dugall was granted the islands of Mull, Coll, Tiree, Jura and part of Lorn and was the founder of the clan Dougall.  He was of mixed Celtic-Norse royal blood and thus the MacDougall coat of arms portrays both the Dalriadic royal lion and the Hebridean royal galley.

     The third MacDougall chief was Eoghan or Ewen of Argyll, King of the Hebrides and Lord of Lorn (the patronymic Mhic Dhughaill only came into use at a lated date), whom King Alexander III described as "a  very comely knight".  Ewen was in a difficult position, being a vassal of the King of Scots for his mainland possessions and a vassal of the King of Norway for the Islands.  Indeed, his possessions in the Western Isles were still part of Norwegian Archbishopric of Trondheim.

     He tried to remain loyal both to the decaying Norwegian empire and the expanding Kingdom of mainland Scotland.  Ewen refused to join him and Hakon, grudgingly admiring his loyalty to two masters, allowed him to stay.  But shortly afterwards, Ewen did make his decision and attacked part of the Viking fleet off mull when it was setting sail south.  The Vikings were defeated at the Battle of Largs in Ayrshire in 1263 and this setback signalled the end of Norse domination.

     MacDougall power was now at its peak for their huge fleet of swift birlinns or galleys, each holding 40 men, effectively controlled the west coast of Scotland.  Ewen died in 1265 and was succeeded by Alexander who was "the greatest of the twelve lords" appointed to rule Argyll when it became a shire in292.  In the year 1294 this all-powerful clan was challenged in its overlordship of Lorn by the irresistible rise of the small clan Duibhne or Diarmid, based around Loch Awe, whose headquarters was a square stone fortification on the islet of Innis Chonnell.  They were led by ambitious Caileaan Mor - Big Colin - whose father Gillespic had been nicknamed Cam-beul, from his twisted or wry mouth.  Gillespic was perhaps of norman descent, or some say of the Brittonic royal house, and had married Eva O'Duine, heiress of Pol an Sporain O'Duine, the King's Purse Bearer, who held the lands around Loch Awe.  Pol O'Duine claimed descent from the Hero Diarmid O'Duine, slayer of the great Boar of Caledon, who was of the royal Houses of Darriada and Pictland.

     Cailean Mor had been gradually pushing the boundaries of his lands farther west until the exasperated MacDougalls decided enough was enough.  Eoin Bacach, Lame John, the strong-willed son of the MacDougall chief, led the clan to war to settle matters once and for all with this upstart young clan.  The MacDougalls clad in the raven winged helmets, chain mail, and short swords of their Viking ancestors, carried with them a crystal ball brought back from the Holy Land and renowned for its magical properties.

     MacDougall of Rarey the Captain of the Clan, halted at the west end of Loch Scammadale and passed the charm around to his men to ascertain who was likely to die.  There was considerable muttering and a sort of  pass-the-parcel began with each warrior trying to pass the stone on quickly to the next.  Eventually, the charm appeared to select three times a certain man who was thereupon sent back to Dunollie with instructions to follow to the coast, and avoid the enemy.  He arrived safely, but one cannot escape one's geas for he ran into the Cam-beuls, or Campbells, on his return and was killed.

    The MacDougalls continued but as they were passing Loch Scaammadale the charm leapt from the sporran of the bearer into the loch.  This was taken as such a bad omen that MacDougall of Rarey refused to go any farther and returned home with his men.  The probable explanation for this supernatural event was the reluctance of the bearer, who probably flung the charm into the waters himself to avoid the inevitable fight.

     The depleted MacDougalls in their Viking armour  met the Campbells, probably clad in saffron tunics rendered iron hard with fulmars' grease, and armed with bull hide targets and long cross-hilted swords, at the Streing (Pass) of Lorn between Lochs Avich and Scammadale at the allt-a-chomhlachaidh - the Burn of Meeting.

     The matter of boundaries, and who had the overlordship over the lands of the Cam-beuls, began initially as a discussion between Big Colin and Lame John which degenerated into verbal abuse, and thereafter to war.  There was dreadful slaughter on both sides until the burn ran red with the blood which had been shed and the place became known as Ath Dearg, the Red Ford, because one could cross the swollen stream on the bodies of the dead.

     The outnumbered MacDougalls seemed likely to be cut down to a man until a MacDougall archer crept up beside a large boulder and fired an arrow which killed Cailean Mor.  This stopped the battle and Colin's followers sorrowfully bore his body away.  The place where Colin fell is still marked by a pile of stones called Carn Cailean, Colin's cairn.  Nearby is the burial ground where the dead of both sides were buried but this is now covered by the remains of ancient shielings.

     Nearby, too, is Tom-a-phiobair - The Piper's Hillock - where a Campbell piper played throughout the battle.  He was saddened to see the MacDougall piper fall, and composed a pipe tune in memory of a renowned fellow musician, for amongst pipers there are no boundaries.

Alas, this so greatly angered the departing Campbell clansmen, who realized it was not one of their own tunes, that they chopped off his chanter-playing fingers with a sword.

     The body of Cailean Mor was carried to the church of St. Peter the Deacon at Kilchrenan on the Loch Awe side and buried there.  The exact burial place is unknown but in 1866 the then Duke of Argyll had a 14th century gravestone slab inserted in the gable of the present church of 1771, with a plaque below.

     The fledgling Clan Campbell came off worst that day in 1294.  The MacDougalls confirmed  their overlordship over Campbell lands.  But the twists of fate are peculiar.  The chieftainship of the Campbells passed  to Colin's 24 year old son Neil who became the first Mhic Cailean Mhor the son of the great Colin, which became henceforth  the patronymic of the Chiefs of the Clan Campbell.  He had been educated at the High School of Dundee, where one of his classmates had been a young man from Renfrewshire called William Wallace.

     In 1297 Wallace came to him seeking assistance.  He had joined an uprising against English domination and led an army of common people.  Would Neil join him?  A deal was struck that Wallace would first of all help Neil recover his lands and then Neil would assist him.  The MacDougalls were pushed back and the Campbells joined Wallace for the decisive battle of Stirling Bridge.  But then came Fallkirk and Wallace's defeat and the English regained domination.  Neil Campbell was forced into hiding, and his small clan was scattered.

     Eight years later, Robert the Bruce killed the Red Comyn in Dumfries' Greyfriars Monastery and thus began the final chapter in the long War of Independence.  It so happened the Red Comyn was the nephew of Alexander of Argyll, Lord of Lorn, the 4th MacDougall chief, who had no option but to join a blood feud, and threw the entire might of the MacDougalls against Bruce, almost  capturing him at Dalrigh near Tyndrum.  In Scotland kith and kin always ranked higher than politics.

     Neil Campbell promptly called out his clan to support the cause of Robert the Bruce.  It must be said  the Campbells would probably have chosen whoever was on the opposite side to the MacDougalls.

     Clan Campbell and Bruce's army fell upon the MacDougalls at the Pass of Brander near Taynuilt  in the autumn of 1308, and annihilated them.  The burial cairns of the dead can be seen across the River Awe hydroelectric barrage.  Sir Alexander of Lorn reluctantly gave allegiance to Bruce although his Comyn wife glared her hatred.  They were exiled to Gylen Castle on the island of Kerrera.  Their son, Lame John, escaped and renewed his allegiance to Edward II, and in 1311 was created English Admiral of the Western Seas.

     After the Battle of Bannochburn the MacDougalls forfeited most of their mainland possessions which were granted to Sir Neil Campbell, although it was not until 1318 that Lame John MacDougall and his galleys were finally destroyed by combined fleets of King Robert and Angus Og MacDonald of Islay.

     Neil Campbell married Marjory Bruce, the king's sister, setting aside his first wife to do so, and so began Clan Campbell's inexorable and irrresistible rise to overlordship of Argyll and the western seaboard and at one point of Scotland itself.

     But as I have already said, the twists of history are peculiar.  Supposing  instead the MacDougalls had sided with Wallace and Bruce as did their kin clan the MacDonalds, and the small clan Campbell, nurturing its hatred against them, had thrown in its lot with the Comyns  and the English, and thereby had been extinguished to become simply a mention in some ancient record.

     Today, tourists might flock to visit magnificent Dunollie Castle in Oban, instead of Inverary, and be greeted by mhic Dhughaill, the Duke of Lorn.  The MacDougalls  and the MacDonalds might have formed a Celtic power bloc on the West Coast, stretching from Mull of Kintyre to the tip of Harris, so powerful as to alter history.  We can only guess.  Perhaps no Flodden; perhaps no bigoted religious civil wars of the 17th century; perhaps no Massacre of Glencoe; perhaps no Culloden.

     That's why I believe the Battle at the Red Ford at the Streing of Lorn, insignificant as it was at the time, probably altered Scotland's destiny, and the history of the United Kingdom.

By Archie McKerracher
The Scots Magazine

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