MURDER, MYSTERY AND A GRAVE MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE
THE monument is tucked away in the trees at Cnap a' Chaolais above the busy Ballachulish Bridge, a poignant reminder of one of Scotland's worst miscarriages of justice.
This is the spot where James Stewart of Appin, also known as James of the Glen, was hanged after being found guilty of the murder of tax collection agent Colin Campbell in 1752.
The inscription on the stone is faded by time and the elements but the message is still clear: “James of the Glens (sic), executed on this spot Nov 8th 1752, for a crime of which he was not guilty”.
The events took place in the aftermath of the failed Jacobite rebellions which culminated in the bloody defeat of the army of Charles Edward Stuart (the Bonnie Prince) at Culloden in 1746. Campbell was shot in the back as he and his escorts were riding through the woods towards the Ballachulish ferry. No one saw who fired the fatal shots but in the haste to find the perpetrators and quell any possibility of any further Jacobite uprising, James Stewart was arrested.
The Appin Murder has long captured the imagination and there have been many theories over the years as to the killer's identity. The story was the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's dramatic novel Kidnapped, and it's believed it was the author who gave Campbell the nickname The Red Fox.
One of the suspects was James' foster son Alan Breck Stewart – one of the main protagonists in Stevenson's tale – but he escaped to France before the authorities could apprehend him. In his absence, the furious Campbells branded James a co-conspirator.
His trial was held at Inveraray and was essentially a foregone conclusion, overseen by Lord Justice General Archibald Campbell, the British government’s senior representative in Scotland, and with 11 Campbells among the jury of 15. In addition, defence lawyers were denied access to their client until the last minute. James had admitted helping Alan Breck Stewart escape by giving him money but denied having anything to do with the murder.
One damning piece of evidence against James was that he and Campbell had been involved in a furious row at an inn just a few months before the shooting. Campbell was one of the overseers of estates seized by the British Crown after Culloden, one of which was Ardsheal. James was an illegitimate half-brother of Charles Stewart of Ardsheal, who had raised the Appin Regiment for the battle. When Charles escaped into exile, the estate was forfeited.
Campbell's nephew Mungo, who was in his party on the day of the murder, claimed he saw someone carrying a musket escaping up the hill but couldn't identify him. One suggestion was that Mungo was behind the shooting with the aim of taking over Campbell's position – which he later did – another was that it had been planned by four Stewart lairds.
If James did know the name of the assassin, he refused to give it up. He was convicted as an accessory to murder and sentenced to death. He went to the gallows still protesting his innocence to the last. His body was left hanging for 18 months, under guard and in chains to prevent friends and family taking it down, and to serve as a warning to others. His bones were eventually retrieved and taken for burial at the now ruined chapel at Keil, near the village of Duror.
A short distance round the coast, in the woods of Glen Duror and beneath the imposing slopes of Beinn a' Bheithir, lies Taigh Seamus a' Ghlinne, the birthplace of James of the Glen. This simple shelter, its russet roof and rough stone walls standing out amongst the greenery of its surroundings, is now maintained by the Mountain Bothies Association (MBA). It's an easy walk in with a series of Scottish Saltire markers guiding you almost to the door.
Sitting outside on a sunny afternoon while gazing up at the long high ridge of Fraochaidh across the glen it's hard to equate this peaceful location with a tale of murder and mayhem but history is never far from the door in these parts. Meanwhile, a few miles to the north on the slopes of of the Leithir Mhor woodland, a cairn marks the spot of Colin Campbell's demise.
Two violent deaths which have never been satisfactorily answered, a mystery from turbulent times that will always fascinate yet likely remain inconclusive.
