Rob Roy

Rob Roy.  The name rings a bell.  As well it might, since I'll be hiking the "Rob Roy Way" in Scotland in another month.

But what do I know about Rob Roy.  And why is the Scotland trail named after him?  I've done a little research, just enough so that I have some idea of who the gentleman was.  But it all still seems somewhat nebulous.

Rob Roy was a member of the MacGregor clan.  He was born in 1671, and was named Robert Roy MacGregor.  Or, as the Scots put it in Gaelic, Raibeart Ruadh MacGriogair.  "Ruadh" means "red" in Gaelic, and Rob Roy had reddish hair, so I'm not sure whether "Roy" was his name from birth, or whether it was a later descriptive.  

Rob Roy and his family were quite wealthy.  He had at least seven houses scattered throughout the area east of Loch Lomond.  He was a cattle drover (or dealer), and also ran a protection racket with respect to the herds of his neighbors.  This was like insurance, except that if the insurance premium wasn't paid the "insurable event" mysteriously occurred and cattle "disappeared."  This racket was apparently quite common, and was no more frowned upon than were smuggling and shipwreck salvage among the coastal residents of Cornwall.

The MacGregors were Jacobins -- supporters of first the "Old Pretender" and then Bonnie Prince Charlie as kings of Scotland, in opposition to the successors of James II of England who had also ruled as James VI of Scotland.  After the MacGregors participated in a losing battle with England in 1689, they were banned from using the MacGregor surname, and any legal documents using that name were void.

The proscription of the MacGregor name was an outrage, of course, but Rob Roy's troubles appear to have arisen from more local problems.  His own cattle ran afoul of someone else's cattle rustling, and he became bankrupt in 1712.  His creditor had him outlawed as a result, and his property was seized and many of his houses were destroyed.

As an outlaw, Rob Roy wandered through "Rob Roy country," evading capture.  He was captured twice and escaped custody twice.  Eventually, he was pardoned by King George I in 1725, and apparently lived out the remaining nine years of his life in peace, dying at the age of 61.

He is considered a folk hero in Scotland, and the story of his life was popularized by a number of authors, arousing romantic sentiments that resulted in increased nineteenth century tourism from England to the Rob Roy country.  The very country through which I'm about to hike next month.

The most famous of the accounts of Rob Roy's life is Sir Walter Scott's fictionalized novel Rob Roy (1817).  I've somehow spent my life avoiding any attempt to read any of Sir Walter's novels or poetry, and I don't have the stamina to begin now.  (I have watched Donizetti's opera Lucia di Lammermoor, based on Sir Walter Scott's The Bride of Lammermoor.  Beautiful opera, but I don't think that counts.)

More accessible, perhaps, is Disney's 1953 movie Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue.  Maybe before I fly off to Glasgow, I'll check and see whether that film is available on Amazon.  I'm traveling with friends (fellow Americans), and I don't want my ignorance of the history of Rob Roy country to appear complete!