Abandoned places: Dunalastair Castle/The Hermitage, ruins in the Scottish Highlands, Homestead of Clan Robertson...
The Scottish Highlands have a storied history and one steeped in romantic imagery, locations & characters. The history of the Scottish Highlands for the last few centuries is linked in the minds of many with the Scottish Clans system, an outgrowth of ancient Celtic social traditions. The clan system, despite a common belief of one single related family, is in fact a more broad system of kinship. One in which a singular family would maintain leadership of surrounding families in the area and in exchange for their recognized leadership and the collection later of taxes, the leading family’s most senior patriarch was to provide guidance and protection to the loyal families, creating a unique social bond where all were “related” or members of the same clan. These leaders were the clan chiefs and traditionally lead the able bodied men of the clan in times of war and conducting raids on rival clans, usually for cattle, the common currency of Scottish clans. Meanwhile, in times of peace they made alliances and conducted diplomacy with other clans, sometimes through marital alliances. Over time, clan members whether descended from the chief or in member families adopted a common surname or variations thereof, these become known as the septs of the clan and over time different branches could expand as lands changed hands. Its from this system that well known Scottish surnames have spread the world over such as Stewart, Campbell, Bruce, Montgomery, MacDonald, MacKinnon, Munro/Monroe, Macleod, Mackenzie, Robertson and others have come to be known.
Clan Robertson, known in Gaelic as Clann Donnachaidh (Clan Duncanson) has two hypothesized origins of their name. One is they descend from the second son (Duncan) of the Scottish Lord of the Isles Angus MacDonald, descendant of the well known Somerled of mixed Gaelic/Viking ancestry. The second, more widely accepted theory is lineal descent from the Gaelic (Celtic) Earls of Atholl, a district in the Highlands on tradition Clan Robertson land. These earls were descended from the King of Scots, Duncan I (1001-1040), probably through his son Mael Muire, made Earl (ruler) of Atholl.
The name Robertson came about in the 15th century when the 4th Clan Chief, Robert Duncanson, an ardent supporter of the Stewart King of Scotland, James I was angered by the monarch’s murder. He then tracked down and captured two of the conspirators, Sir Robert Graham & Walter Stewart, Earl of Atholl (James I’s uncle). Robert handed over the conspirators to be placed under torture and death by order’s of James I’s wife, Joan Beaufort. Robert Duncanson was awarded the crest badge that remains with the clan to this day by James II on 1451. The crest shows the a imperial crown clutched in a hand with the clan motto in Latin displayed: Virtutis gloria merces (glory is the reward of valor). As a further reward of gratitude from the Scottish king, the Clan Chief and clan got the additional lands in the realm of Atholl, including the Barony of Struan, over which Clan Chiefs rule to this day. In honor of Robert Duncanson, his descendants became known as Robertson which spread to the all members of the clan subsequently. Presently, it has many variations including Robb, Robbie, Roberts, Robins/Robbins, Robison etc. Other variations from the original Duncanson include Duncan & Reid.
Struan & Atholl are found in the Scottish Highlands in the traditional county of Perthshire, modern day Perth & Kinross. The clan lands included the villages of Struan and Blair Atholl among others as well as Lochs Tay & Rannoch and are to be found in the Grampian Mountains, a range that makes up the Central Highlands. It is a land with snow covered mountains, forests, many rivers and valleys intertwined with the aforementioned lakes and some moorlands to the west.
From the late 17th century into the 18th century, one of the longer reigning clan chiefs of Clan Robertson was Alexander Robertson, 13th Chief of Clan Robertson (circa 1670-1749) who in time would be known as the Poet Chief for his love of the written word and poetry. He was known as a fierce Jacobite, displaying the long standing loyalty to the Stuarts/Stewarts, he is the only known clan leader to have fought in all three Jacobite rebellions (1689, 1715 &1745) against the armies of William III and later the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain. In 1746 his lands were confiscated following the defeat of Jacobite forces including Highlanders at the last pitched battle fought on British soil, the Battle of Culloden.
Alexander Robertson had no children and so his chiefdom passed on to other family. In his lifetime, he built a castle estate he called the Hermitage, it was located near the River Tummel between the Dunalastair Reservoir and Loch Rannoch, the famed mountain Schiehallion with its snowcapped peaks overlooks the grounds. It is surrounded by forest and it served as the traditional Clan seat or castle. The Hermitage was a place where Alexander entertained his guests with drunken parties and poetry recitals recalling the great historical deeds of his ancestors, often portrayed in a romanticized heroic manner. His poetry was sometimes scandalous both for its sexual explicitness of romantic conquests, innuendo and sedition against the Hanoverian monarchs of Britain. He also forbade women from entering the grounds of the Hermitage due to his perceived misogyny as sometimes reflected in his poems reflecting his own sexual conquests. In 1746, following the defeat at Culloden, the Hermitage was burned to the ground by Hanoverian government troops as a lesson to the leaders of the rebellious Jacobite movement.
Alexander, moved into a small single room hut some miles to the west in Rannoch Moor, the western most part of the traditional Robertson lands. He was still the Clan Chief but dispossessed of his traditional lands and his cause he turned to his only two comforts at that time, poetry and alcohol. He still wrote of the heroic deeds of the clan’s ancestors, performing a clan essential duty, ancestor worship. However, his alcoholism continued to worsen and caused health issues in his advanced age. He had few visitors willing to visit him in the isolated and desolate location he found himself in, which coupled with alcohol fueled persona increased his isolation, he died in 1749, around the age of 80. Despite his alienation in the last few years of his life, Alexander’s coffin was accompanied by 2,000 clansmen who followed it 15 miles across moorland, river valleys and mountain lined lake shores to be buried in the old graveyard of Struan, part of the clan’s barony.
Eventually, a new home was built on the site of the Hermitage which included double towers around the year 1800. This home was called Mount Alexander, after the famed Poet Chief. In 1853, Clan Robertson’s 18th chief, George Duncan Robertson sold it to the MacDonald family. The new owner, Sir John MacDonald, demolished Mount Alexander and by 1859 completed the structure which stands today, built in the baronial style it was known as Dunalastair House (Alexander’s Fort) also in honor of the famed Poet Chief and his Hermitage estate. It went through a number of owners and the greater estate has current owners but Dunalastair House was in use as a residence up through World War I, by the conclusion of that time, it no longer could maintained due to expense for the many servants and groundskeepers needed. During World War II, it was used as a boarding school for Polish boys who fled to Britain to escape the Nazi and Soviet takeover of their homeland, it was also converted to a girls school later. However, the home was not well maintained and by the 1950′s its remaining contents were at last sold off. Abandoned thereafter, it was subject to vandalism and the elements of weather. The lead roof was stolen by the 1960′s and since then the Scottish rains had emptied onto the roofless stone ruins with its towers and spires, still with a dirt road leading to its grounds in the midst of forested lands, the ruins are visited by curious travelers to this day. The surrounding grounds are still owned by a private family but they now have another home they reside in, there are cottages on the estate that are rented out to travelers and there is a nearby hotel that also uses the name Dunalastair.
In the present, no grant or additional money has been put into restoring the house to its former glory, so it remains a ruin of days long since passed, but the site, nestled amidst the Highlands and in the shadow of Schiehallion’s peak and surrounded by flowing rivers, shimmering lakes and groves of forest over rolling hills is a romantic spot, like it was in the Poet Chief’s day. Also on the grounds are the burials of a number of former Robertson Clan chieftains, reminders of times of times long gone...
