Perthshire, Scotland
The Clan Lands
From the head of Glen Dochart to the shores of Loch Tay. Nine hundred years of MacNab, Macnab, McNab, McNabb, and MacNabb on the same ground.
Perthshire, Scotland
From the head of Glen Dochart to the shores of Loch Tay. Nine hundred years of MacNab, Macnab, McNab, McNabb, and MacNabb on the same ground.
The MacNab Homeland
Glen Dochart, Perthshire — First held c.843 AD
The MacNab lands were a defined and deliberate territory. They ran from the village of Tyndrum in the west, along the full length of Glen Dochart, to the southwestern shores of Loch Tay in the east. The clan castle stood at Killin, commanding the exact point where the River Dochart enters the loch. It was mountain-guarded, Gaelic-speaking, and bound to the ancient church of St Fillan that had consecrated the ground centuries before any MacNab chief was born.
This ground is still here. The mountains have not moved. The river still runs through the same channels. Innis Bhuidhe still sits in the Falls of Dochart with nine clan chiefs buried on it. You can walk where the MacNab chiefs walked.
Tyndrum
Western limit of MacNab territory, where Glen Dochart begins at the road junction with Glencoe
Glen Dochart
The glen itself. Running east 20 miles from Crianlarich to Killin. River Dochart through its floor
Killin
The heart. Village, falls, castle, burial island. Everything the clan built and lost and built again
Loch Tay
14.5 miles long, the great loch that bounded the east of MacNab territory. MacNab lands ran its southwestern shore
The Homeland Glen
Perthshire — The Floor of the MacNab World
Glen Dochart is the geographical fact at the heart of everything the MacNab clan was. Without this glen, there is no MacNab story. It is a long Highland valley, running roughly twenty miles in a southwest to northeast direction through the heart of Perthshire, from the crossroads at Crianlarich in the west to the village of Killin at its eastern end where it meets Loch Tay.
The River Dochart runs the length of the glen floor, gathering water from the mountains on both sides and driving east toward the falls at Killin. The glen is bounded by significant peaks: Ben More (3,852 ft) and Stob Binnein (3,822 ft) rise to the north, and a chain of southern hills separates it from the Glen Lochay country. These mountains made the glen defensible and private. A clan that controlled the glen controlled the movement of people and goods through one of the main Highland arteries of Perthshire.
The glen contains Loch Iubhair, a small loch of extraordinary beauty where the mountains are reflected in still water, and Loch Dochart, with its ruined castle island. It passes through St Fillan’s country at Strathfillan, where the 7th-century Irish saint built his priory and where the relics of St Fillan were kept by the MacNab Dewars for centuries.
The MacNabs did not simply live in this glen. They were this glen. Their hereditary abbacy gave them both the spiritual authority and the civic administration of the area. From the first abbot Abraruadh in the 9th century to the foreclosure of 1823, the glen and the clan were inseparable.
Loch Iubhair, Glen Dochart — Ben More reflected in still water
The Great Loch
14.5 Miles Long — The Eastern Boundary of MacNab Country
Loch Tay is one of the great lochs of Highland Scotland. Fourteen and a half miles long, one and a half miles wide, and over 150 metres deep in places, it dominates the landscape of central Perthshire like few other bodies of water in the country. Its surface lies 107 metres above sea level. The River Dochart feeds it from the west at Killin; the River Tay drains it eastward from Kenmore. Its northern shore rises steeply to Ben Lawers, at 3,984 feet the highest mountain in Perthshire.
The MacNab lands ran along the loch’s southwestern shore, from Killin eastward through the townships and farmsteads that the clan held under their chiefly authority. This shoreline, where the mountains of the southern hills come down to meet the water, was farming and fishing country of real productivity by Highland standards. The loch itself was rich in pike, perch, and the distinctive Loch Tay ferox, a large predatory brown trout found nowhere else.
The MacNab clan castle of Eilean Ran stood exactly at the point where the western end of the loch begins, at Killin. From there, the clan controlled the water itself: the Port of Ran at the mouth of the River Lochay was the key crossing and portage point between the loch and the glen country to the west. It was not a romantic location for a castle. It was a strategic one.
Loch Tay today is a site of outstanding natural beauty. The road along its southern shore passes through the country where the MacNab farms and townships once stood. The view from Kenmore looking westward down the full fourteen miles of the loch toward Killin and the mountains is one of the finest in Scotland.
Loch Tay from Kenmore — looking west toward Killin and MacNab country
The Heart of It All
Village, Falls, and the MacNab Heartland
Killin is a village at the western end of Loch Tay, in Stirlingshire but historically and culturally the heart of Perthshire MacNab country. It sits at the precise confluence of the River Dochart and the River Lochay, at the moment where both rivers enter Loch Tay through the famous Falls of Dochart. The village has existed in some form since at least the early medieval period, and the MacNab clan was its dominant power from the recovery of their lands in 1336 to the foreclosure of 1823.
Everything that matters in MacNab geography converges at Killin. The clan castle of Eilean Ran stood on an island in the River Lochay here. The burial island of Innis Bhuidhe sits in the Falls of Dochart here. The old stone bridge that the MacNab chiefs crossed for centuries still stands here. St Fillan’s healing stones are kept here. The village library holds the keys to the MacNab burial ground.
The Falls of Dochart are the most dramatic feature of the village: a series of cascades where the River Dochart drops over grey schist ledges in a wide, churning rush before entering Loch Tay. The falls are not a single drop but a broad, complex series of channels and cataracts, rushing around and between the rocky islets that include Innis Bhuidhe itself. When the river is in spate, the sound carries throughout the village.
Killin is also the home of the Breadalbane Folklore Centre, which holds information about the healing stones of St Fillan and the history of the area. The clan presence in the village is not historical memory. It is living and present. The MacNab name appears throughout Killin’s history, its architecture, and its burial records.
Falls of Dochart, Killin — where the River Dochart meets Loch Tay
The old stone bridge, River Dochart, Killin
The Lost Castle
The MacNab Castle — Killin, River Lochay
Eilean Ran was the castle of the MacNab chiefs: an island fortification standing in the River Lochay at the point where the river enters Loch Tay at Killin. The name means roughly “the island of the oar” or “the island of the point” in Gaelic, a reference to the strategic Port of Ran that it commanded, the key crossing and portage point between Loch Tay and the glen country to the west.
In the Highland world of the medieval and early modern period, controlling a river crossing was controlling the movement of everything: people, cattle, goods, and armies. The MacNabs did not choose this location for its view. They chose it for its power. Anyone moving between Loch Tay and Glen Dochart, between eastern and western Perthshire, passed under the eye of the MacNab castle.
The castle no longer stands in any meaningful form. The island site at the confluence of the Lochay and the loch at Killin is identifiable, and its location is known. But the structure itself was lost during the long period of MacNab decline following the Bruce era, partially rebuilt, and ultimately abandoned as the clan’s fortunes fell in the 18th and 19th centuries. What remains is the site itself and the record of what was there.
Eilean Ran was the seat from which Smooth John MacNab received his twelve sons on Christmas morning 1612 when they returned with the head of the MacNeish chief. It was from here that Francis MacNab rode out as the last great Highland chief in the manner of the old world. It was the physical anchor of clan authority for five hundred years. Its loss, along with the loss of Kinnell House and Innis Bhuidhe in 1823, was the end of an era that stretched back to the founding of the Scottish kingdom.
“It was not a seat of comfort. It was a seat of power.”
Of Eilean Ran, the MacNab castle at KillinEilean Ran — The Key Facts
The Sacred Ground
The Yellow Island — Falls of Dochart, Killin
The entrance to the MacNab burial ground, Innis Bhuidhe — Killin
“Keys available from the Tourist Information Centre”
Innis Bhuidhe — What Is Here
Of everything the MacNabs once held — the castle, the estate, the charters, the chief’s house — one piece of ground was eventually restored to clan ownership. Innis Bhuidhe, the Yellow Island, a small rocky islet in the River Dochart at the Falls of Dochart in Killin.
The island takes its name from the Gaelic for “yellow,” a reference to the colour of its rock and vegetation in autumn. It is not large. You can walk its full length in a few minutes. But what it contains is extraordinary: the burial ground of the MacNab chiefs, used continuously from at least the medieval period until the modern era, and the most historically concentrated piece of MacNab ground anywhere in the world.
Nine clan chiefs are buried here. Among their gravestones is a late medieval West Highland warrior effigy, one of only two such carved stone effigies known to exist outside Argyll and the Western Isles. The stone depicts a warrior in full Highland medieval arms. On several of the surrounding gravestones, the carved images include a severed human head, the same image that forms the MacNab clan crest, placing the MacNeish feud of 1612 literally in the stone of the burial ground itself.
The island is more ancient than the clan. At its centre are the excavated foundations of two Iron Age forts, both scheduled as ancient monuments, suggesting the site was considered significant long before any MacNab abbot set foot in Glen Dochart. The western end of the island is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest for its botanical and ecological character. Two carved stone busts from the 18th century sit atop the enclosure walls of the burial ground, looking outward across the falls.
The island was sold away from the clan during the foreclosure of 1823 and passed through various ownerships. In 1987, the 23rd Chief, James Charles Macnab of Macnab, gifted it to the MacNab Memorial Trust with the condition that it remain in MacNab ownership in perpetuity. The chain of custody was restored. The island is MacNab ground again.
The keys to the iron gate of the burial enclosure are kept today in the village library of Killin. Anyone can request them. You walk across the old bridge over the Dochart, cross to the island in the falls, and stand on the same ground where nine MacNab chiefs were laid to rest. The gravestones look up. The carved heads look outward.
“One clan chief, wooing his intended bride, told her the greatest honour he could offer her was the right to be buried on Innis Bhuidhe.”
The Lost House
The MacNab Chief’s Seat — Near Killin, Perthshire
Kinnell House was the residential seat of the MacNab chiefs in the period following the medieval castle era. The name derives from the Gaelic Ceann an Locha, meaning “head of the loch,” a reference to Killin’s position at the western end of Loch Tay. The house stood near Killin on the MacNab lands and served as the home of the later chiefs, including the most celebrated of them all.
It was here that Francis MacNab, the 16th Laird and the subject of Sir Henry Raeburn’s famous 1802 portrait, held his court in the manner of the old Highland chiefs: lavishly, generously, and beyond the means his estate could sustain. Francis entertained at Kinnell House on a scale that his biographers describe as princely and his creditors would have described differently. He died in 1816 leaving debts of over £35,000. His nephew Archibald inherited not a house but a liability.
In 1823, a writ of foreclosure was issued against the Kinnell estate. The house and lands passed from MacNab ownership. Along with it went the burial island of Innis Bhuidhe, sold separately to the Earl of Breadalbane. The MacNab chief’s seat, held in one form or another since the restoration of the clan under Gilbert MacNab in 1336, was gone.
The loss of Kinnell House carried a peculiar emotional weight beyond the purely financial. When Archibald MacNab, the 17th Chief, fled to Canada in 1822 and established his settlement in the Ottawa Valley, he named his Canadian house Kinnell. The name of the home he had lost went with him to the New World. The house in Canada no longer stands either, but the name endures in Canadian records of the McNab township era. The same word, naming two different houses on two different continents, carrying the same weight of loss and determination.
Kinnell House in Killin was eventually rebuilt in modified form and today operates as Kinnell House Hotel, a hotel on the edge of the village. Its walls stand on or near the ground where the last MacNab chief held his Highland court. The name has never changed.
The Land Lives On
Killin, Perthshire — Still MacNab Country
Killin is still a living Highland village. The Falls of Dochart still run through its centre. The old stone bridge still crosses the river. The pipe band still marches through the main street on Highland games day. The MacNab name is still known here, still respected, still present in the graveyards and the records and the memory of the place.
The MacNab Memorial Trust maintains Innis Bhuidhe as clan property. The Clan Macnab Society holds annual gatherings. The 24th Chief, James “Jamie” William McNab of Macnab, maintains the line that runs back through every chief to Gilbert MacNab in 1336 and, by tradition, to Abraruadh the first abbot in the 9th century.
The land itself has not changed in any fundamental way. Glen Dochart is the same glen. Loch Tay is the same loch. Ben Lawers rises to the same height to the north. The River Dochart runs the same course through the same falls. What changed was who held it, and even that has been partially restored.
Any person named MacNab, Macnab, McNab, McNabb, or MacNabb, anywhere in the world, shares a connection to this specific ground. This glen. This loch. This village. The stone arch over the entrance to the MacNab burial ground reads: Clan MacNab Burial Ground. The keys are in the library. The gate opens.
Pipe band marching through Killin — Highland tradition, still alive
Plan Your Visit
Everything You Can See and How to Get There
Innis Bhuidhe
The MacNab burial ground on the Falls of Dochart. Cross the old stone bridge in Killin and walk to the island. Keys for the iron gate are available from the Killin village library. Open to the public. Free entry. Nine clan chiefs are buried here.
Falls of Dochart
The falls run through the centre of Killin and are free to view from the bridge and the riverbank. Dramatic at any water level; spectacular in spate. Innis Bhuidhe is visible in the falls from the bridge. No charge to view the falls.
Killin Village
The village itself is small and walkable. The Breadalbane Folklore Centre on the main street holds exhibits on local history including St Fillan’s healing stones. The village has accommodation, cafes, and shops. An easy base for exploring the wider MacNab lands.
Glen Dochart Drive
The A85 road follows the River Dochart through the full length of Glen Dochart from Killin westward to Crianlarich and Tyndrum. The western end of the glen, with Loch Iubhair and the mountains rising on both sides, is among the most dramatic Highland drives in Perthshire.
Loch Tay
The B827 road runs along the southern shore of Loch Tay from Killin eastward to Kenmore, passing through the country where the MacNab farms and townships once stood. The view from Kenmore looking west down the full fourteen miles of the loch is one of the finest in Scotland.
Kinnell House Hotel
Standing on or near the site of the MacNab chief’s residence. Now operates as a hotel on the edge of Killin village. The building has been much modified but the name and the ground are original. A fitting place to spend a night in MacNab country.
