In the 16th century Clan Maclean, a prominent clan in the West of Scotland was ruled by the 11th Clan Chief Lachlan Catanach Maclean who was known to be a fearsome and brutal man. Maclean was married to Lady Catherine Campbell, it was not a marriage of love but one of political convenience to strengthen the new allegiance the Maclean’s had with the Earls of Argyll, the Campbells.
Lady Catherine disliked her cruel husband’s behaviour to the extent that she eventually made up her mind to murder him. It is said that Lady Catherine poisoned Maclean during a banquet in the Great Hall of Duart Castle. The plan did not work and the poison only made Maclean unwell. Not only did Lachlan survive but he caught a knowing look on Catherine’s face as he swallowed the poison and he suspected it was his own wife who made the attempt on his life.
To take his revenge on his wife, Maclean burst into his wife’s chambers in the middle of the night and ordered his most trusted clansman to row Lady Catherine out in a boat to a small tidal rock in the Sound of Mull and tie her up and leave her there for the sea to take her during the night.
Lady Catherine must have been terrified and sure that her life was over, however luckily for her she was rescued from the rock by a passing fisherman. Her rescuer took her to the safety of her brother’s home at Inveraray in Argyll.
Waking up the next morning the Clan Chief looked out over the Sound to see that his wife had disappeared, and he assumed she had drowned during the night as planned. Maclean sent word to Lady Catherine’s brother, the Earl of Argyll, that she had passed due to a sudden illness. Lady Catherine’s brother requested that Maclean deliver her body to Inverary so they could bury Catherine at their family seat in Argyll.
Maclean and his men marched in the funeral procession, complete with an empty coffin, all the way to Inveraray. As he stood in front of the Earl of Argyll and recounted the tragic illness that had taken the Earl’s precious sister Catherine Maclean must have turned as white as a sheet when Lady Catherine herself strolled into the room and sat down beside her brother.
In a panic Maclean desperately tried to come up with an explanation of how Catherine could possibly be alive after all. He made his escape from Inveraray but Maclean knew he needed to keep a low profile to avoid the Earl of Argyll’s wrath. He made his way to Edinburgh thinking he could hide out there for a while, however it did not take long before Maclean was found dead with a dagger in his back.
Duart Castle on the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides has been the ancestral seat of Clan Maclean since the 14th century.
Taking a boat trip along the Sound of Mull today, you can see the impressive fortress of Duart Castle on the shores of the island. Lady’s Rock sits next to the much smaller island of Lismore in the Sound, but of course it can only be seen when the tide is low.
Further north in the Sound of Mull are the ruins of old Ardtornish Castle, historically one of the main seats for the prominent members of the once powerful Clan Donald. Previously Somerled, Lord of the Isles had an older fortress on the same site in the 12th century.
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Author: Kirsty Duncan
