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The Start of the Munros
by theresa m. ripley

Some argue that the name Munro goes back to 1100, but that is questionable. We do know that the nucleus of the future Clan Munro was established by 1450. The Munro land was northwest of Inverness in the Highlands near the town of Dingwall. The Munro homeland, called Ferindonald, was small, a mere strip from six to ten miles wide and about eight miles long on the north shore of the Cromarty Firth. The Firth provided anchorage for warships. There was a castle at Foulis and Dingwall and a mountain range to the west and north. The range provided a natural bastion against invaders. Several passes through the range also provided a way to get around the homeland. Thus geographically the Munros were as secure as any Highlanders and their soil was adequate to support the clan.

All clans, the Munros included, were tribal much in the same way as African tribes. For example, all have symbols, one symbol of the Scottish "tribe" was the tartan. The tartan started in medieval times when dyes were more plentiful in some districts and weavers developed a pattern and stuck to it. In that way certain colors and checks became associated with certain clans. The Munro clan plaid was predominantly red with lines of green and yellow. The 42nd regiment Black Watch tartan was a blue and green plaid.

Basic to the clan way of life was the belief that they were all descended from a common ancestor and the current embodiment of that ancestor was the chief. The chief was the living representative of the founder of the clan. He was the person who was the: commander in warfare, settler of legal disputes, "father" of the clan, saw that all members had some land to make a living from, and nominated his heir on his deathbed. The power of the chief was totally respected. Even though the chief lived in familiarity with his clansmen, he had the power to put his tenants into the danger of war or to execute them by his own judgment. Some chiefs were father like and thought of the needs of their group and others were tyrants. Some were a little of both.

Below the chief in order of importance were the chieftains, tacksmen or principal lease holders, and a multitude of lesser tenants, subtenants and the rest of the followers. The chieftains and tacksmen could negotiate personal legal titles and all gave their allegiance to the chief.

The Highland line was seldom passed by the Lowlanders because the Highland was unmapped, roadless through the mountains until after 1715, and was the domain of Celtic clan tribes who spoke another language, wore another dress, and lived under an organization of law and society that was 1000 years older than southern Scotland. Lowland Scotland perceived most of the clans as barbaric and maundering tribes who only went into the Lowlands to plunder homes and livestock of its residents.

Daily Highland life stayed much the same until the building of roads and acceptance of the English government after 1746. But changes came slowly. Biling-ualism remained and Highland mysticism and superstition and paganism stayed. Highlanders incorporated their old beliefs with the new Protestantism that was brought to the Highlands by the Scottish Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge. So fairies, brownies, and water kelpies were superimposed upon Presbyterianism beliefs. The combination was a religion that combined Christianity with the supernatural. But the SSPCK also brought reading and writing English to the Highlands. Until that time it was only the chief who might speak English.

The life of a Highland child was one of adventure. They gathered eggs on sides of cliffs; explored caves along the sea and glens; robbed bees of their honey; watched herring boats and peat boats come in and listened to sailors' stories; caught otter; shot ptarmigans, and trapped martens. They prepared for a life of fighting and living with the family.

And family life was full and wide. Evening gatherings were for songs and stories. Girls knitted and boys busked fishing hooks and peeled willow-wands for baskets. Even in work they performed as a group and in harmony. Harvesters sang in time of strokes to the sickle; boatmen sang at their oars; women sang as they worked at cloth, one singing verse and others the chorus; islesman sang as they gathered seaweed. The songs made tasks less dull and part of the community. They had songs for everything...songs for going on a journey, and even a song for a toothache. There was a connection between work, play, hopes, fears, and beliefs. And even in death there was a connection with the group. Highland funeral processions could trek for miles and days through glens and mountains.

But this all changed after the Union of 1707 and more specifically after roads were built in 1715 and the Battle of Culloden in 1746. Then landowners from the south were attracted by the cheap land prices, good hunting, and places for sheep grazing. The chiefs who originally saw wealth in having more men than money began to change and want more money than men. Thus, the Highland clearances began and poor clan farmers or crofters were expelled in favor of sheep or recreational hunting which needed big acreage.

The Munros were not immune from this even though they had fought on the side of the King at two crucial incidents in 1715 and 1746. Many of the Munros moved to Lowland seacoast towns and some went to central Scotland.