October 24th 1826

Loch of the Sword

In the early 17th Century there was a dispute between the Earl of Atholl and Cameron of Lochiel about the sheiling grounds around Lochan a Chlaidheamh (The loch of the sword), a wee loch lying north- west of Loch Rannoch near to Rannoch Station. Both lairds claimed the grounds around the loch as their own and in order to come to a peaceful agreement it was finally decided that the two men should meet at the place and try and settle their dispute there.

When Lochiel was on his way to the meeting he met the famous Lochaber witch Gorm-shuil mhor na Maigh (The great blue-eyed one of Moy). “Where are you going?” she asked. When Locheil told her she enquired, “Where are your men?” . Locheil was angry at her question and what it implied but because she was so insistent, he finally agreed to take some of his clansmen with him. As they approached the area he told them to conceal themselves in the bracken and heather.

The two chiefs met but were still unable to reach any agreement. Then Atholl waved his hand and immediately heads began to appear from behind the rocks. “Whose heads are those that I see peeping from behind the stones? ” asked Lochiel. “Those,” said Atholl, “are some of the Atholl wedder hoggs come to graze upon the rich pastures of the Beinn Bhreac.”

Lochiel then gave the signal to his own men, who also began to appear behind him. Atholl in his turn asked, “And who are these men I see behind you? ” “Ah,” replied Lochiel, “these are Lochiel’s dogs, and eager are they to eat the sweet flesh of your Atholl hoggs. If you do not forgo your claim to these grazings I fear that I will be unable to restrain them for very long.”

Atholl wisely decided to waive his claim and as a token of his agreement he threw his sword into the loch. From that time on it became known as the Loch of the Sword.

In 1826, which was a very hot dry summer and autumn, the sword was caught in the hook of a boy out fishing on the loch. The boy wished to take the sword away but the people felt that it was wrong to remove this token of a peaceable settlement negotiated two hundred years earlier and the sword was thrown back to the waters of the loch.