I strived to be as authentic as possible in the constraints of the story, but there were some liberties I took with the historical record. The biggest is that Dundee, who later became known as Bonnie Dundee, died at the Battle of Killiecrankie, dooming the Jacobite cause for another generation.
Also, due to the destruction of villages and records during the Highland Clearances—an awful, awful time in the history of the Scottish Highlands that the region hasn't fully recovered from—it’s impossible to know whether there was an inn in 1689 where the current Cluanie Inn currently stands.
I hope that sticklers will also forgive me for the liberties I took with the custom of handfasting. Handfasting was actually a Lowland Scots tradition, not Highland, though the Highlanders had a similar tradition called a Trial Marriage. However, since that only happens once a year, and it was later than the events of the Battle of Killiecrankie, I took the liberty of borrowing the Lowland Scots tradition. And as far as that tradition goes, accounts vary, but I found multiple sources that said that witnesses were not needed, though it did make it easier to prove.
While the MacCowans were a sept of the MacDonells of Glengarry, the persons in this story are fiction, as is Dungarbh, which I set on the cluster of islands visible from the shores of Loch Garry. This island cluster is called Garbh Eilean, meaning “rough isle,” so that’s how I came up with the name for the MacCowan's keep Dungarbh, meaning “rough fort.”
The MacDonell chief and his son Alasdair are historical personages, and the chief did send his son in his stead to the Battle of Killiecrankie to hedge his bets. Also, Cameron of Lochiel was a historical person, and the story of him biting out the throat of a British soldier can be found in several places, though it might be apocryphal. And there was a little cameo of the famous Rob Roy, who fought at the Battle of Killiecrankie. Some sources I found said his father was still alive and at the battle too, so I placed him there.
I’ve read many Scottish history books, but I found the books Warriors of the Word, by Michael Newton, and Scottish Customs: From the Cradle to the Grave, by Margaret Bennet especially helpful. It was during this reading that I discovered that Highlanders have long used the term kale-eaters to disparage Lowlanders, where eating kale was popular.