The Appin Murder

This cairn near Ballachulish is erected where Colin Campbell of Glenure, known as the Red Fox, was murdered on 14th May 1752.

May not be the best blip but my husband has been following the story of the Appin Murder ever since he read the book, and this cairn is on the Red Fox Trail, the story of that murder.

On 14th May 1752 Colin Campbell of Glenure was murdered on this spot. There was centuries-old rivalry between the Clan Campbell and the Stewarts of Appin. Colin Campbell was charged with collecting rents for the English Government but had actually tried to be fair, or at least less ruthless, until ordered by his masters to get the rents or throw out the tenants. This was a very poor area and people were barely subsisting before any rent increases. The failure to pay resulted in confiscation of goods and eviction. Colin Campbell had been delivering eviction notices in Ballachulish and beyond, and was riding home to Glen Ure via the small ferry then in operation. He climbed the hill and entered the woods, when a shot rang out. History doesn’t seem to say what happened to his servant Mungo or if he witnessed anything, but a local man, one James of the Glen, a Stewart, was arrested and tried. It seems that many people knew he wasn’t guilty, but a jury of Campbells and a Campbell judge found him guilty and he was hanged. A Campbell was killed and the rivalry dictated that a Stewart should pay. He was hanged on the rising ground near what is now the Ballachulish Bridge and first his body, later his skeleton chained there so every person crossing on the ferry would see the consequences of such actions.

To this day no one is really sure who the killer was. Robert Louis Stevenson ‘s novel ‘Kidnapped’ was based on the Appin Murder.

“I am an Appin Stewart, and the Campbells have long harried and wasted those of my name, aye, and got land off us by treachery – but never with the sword.”
from “Kidnapped”