The Well of the Heads by Stuart McHardy

Author:Stuart McHardy [McHardy, Stuart]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Europe, General
ISBN: 9781841583853
Google: 5ZtnAAAAMAAJ
Publisher: Birlinn
Published: 2005-01-15T00:37:47+00:00

Fair Annie and the Black Colonel

Over the years much has been made of the Highland clansman’s loyalty to his chief. This support was rooted in the ancient traditions of clan life, but it did not apply only to the menfolk. John Farquharson of Inverey was known as ‘the Black Colonel’, on account of his colouring, not his character. He was made a colonel by Graham of Claverhouse for his actions in fighting on the Royalist side in the years immediately after 1688, when William and Mary were enthroned after the removal of King Charles II. The Royalist cause was defeated and the Black Colonel was forced to live the life of an outlaw for a while. He was driven from Inverey Castle on several occasions and had to live in caves and other hideouts while the redcoats scoured the countryside for him. While hiding at different times in ‘the Colonel’s Bed’ or ‘the Colonel’s Cave’, both tiny caves overlooking the Ey Burn on the slopes of Carn Mor, he was fed by one of the women of the clan, Annie Ban, or Fair Annie. Every day she brought him food, making sure that she was not seen. It was well known that apart from bringing him his food Annie was warming the Colonel’s bed, and that he was in fact much fonder of Annie than he was of his own wife. Although he was an outlaw the government’s attempts to capture him were not constant. At times he even felt safe enough to return to his home, Inverey Castle. On one such occasion he was entertaining his good friend, the laird of Daldownie, at Inverey. He was telling his friend of his adventures while ‘on the run’ from the government troops as they drank claret after their meal. In those far-off days vast amounts of claret were regularly drunk in Scotland and it seems that Inverey and Daldownie were keeping up the custom in great style that night.

That same night an old beggar-woman was sitting outside the inn at Aboyne, about thirty miles down the river from Inverey, when a squadron of dragoons arrived. The old woman wished the officers and the men a good day in English, and in a very gentle voice in Gaelic she wished that their service was in a country as red as their coats and very hot indeed. The officer-in-charge, unaware that the old woman had effectively just told him and his men to go to hell, handed over a few coins to the beggar and the dragoons went into the alehouse. The old woman hung around for a while and even went into the inn herself to purchase a drink. She stood close to the dragoons as she drank. They paid her no attention and she soon overheard that the soldiers were headed for Inverey where they were sure the Black Colonel was in residence.

Now she might have been a travelling woman, and not one of the local Farquharsons, but she was a staunch Jacobite supporter and realised that the Colonel had to be warned.

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