I was driving in the Highlands of Scotland years ago and came across a rusting black-and-white road sign pointing to Rob Roy MacGregor’s grave. Now, being a sucker for Scottish history, Sir Walter Scott, and Liam Neeson in a kilt (not necessarily in that order), I had to take the detour. Right? No choice at all. And I fell utterly in love with the Balquhidder Glen.
The location itself was beautiful, of course, in that wild way of Scottish glens with steep-sided, heather-covered braes and lochs glittering silver beneath an endless sky. But it also had an aura of something magical.
In addition to the grave where Rob Roy, a “MacGregor Despite Them,” lies buried beside his wife and two of his sons, the glen houses the ruin of an old stone church where a soberly Presbyterian minister, the Reverend Robert Kirk, preached in the seventeenth century. While engaged in said preaching, he also reportedly wandered into an enchanted world. Years later, according to legend, instead of dying, he was taken back to that Otherworld to become the chaplain to the Fairy Queen.
As if that wouldn’t have been enough to fire my imagination, I also had an encounter with a flock of meandering sheep, a lonely horse bit the side mirror of my rental car when I tried to stop petting him, and a shaggy Highland bull charged over to lick my camera lens while I was trying to take his picture. (I have the photo of his tongue somewhere, I swear.) Add to that a lovely meal and a passionate conversation with a Scottish nationalist, and it was a day I’ve never forgotten.
I always knew I would write about the glen someday. Of course, it’s changed some since I visited that first time. And because it has changed, and because my story is fiction which has resulted in some alterations to the landscape, while I’m keeping much of its history and the names of the clans who’ve traditionally resided there, I am calling it Balwhither instead of Balquhidder. For what it’s worth, Balwhither is how you pronounce the name anyway, and it’s also how Robert Louis Stephenson wrote about it in his books.
If you’ve been to Balquhidder, you’ll find yourself a little disoriented. The people, places, and events that populate my glen are fictitious, and even the historical events and figures, actual geography, and landmark businesses in the glen are fictionalized. But I hope I’ve captured the beauty of the place, and I hope it inspires my readers to go and see it for themselves.
In case you’re sad to leave the charm of small-town life in a magical setting behind when this story is over, keep an eye out for additional free-standing books in the Celtic Legends series centered on Celtic legends and holidays. And if you like Scottish food, try the recipes included here. Maybe they’ll turn out well enough at your house to help persuade your own man to try a kilt!
Anyway, please enjoy!
Happy reading,
Martina