Hello Lorna, I'm a fellow verifier & didn't realise that you had already recorded this tree when I visited it yesterday. I have uploaded a number of new photos to the site taken in bright sunlight - the weather was beautiful. I am not at all sure that the tree is a maiden; I think it is more probably an ancient pollard.
Best wishes,
Bryan
The focal point of the clachan of Balfron is the Clachan Oak. The
village’s penchant for entertaining “tourists” seems to date back to
its claim that William Wallace rested in the shade of this oak, an
attestation that seems improbable until further investigation shows
that Wallace was, at one time, based at the old castle of Balglass
and that Sir John de Graham, ancestor of the Dukes of Montrose
whose lands included the neighbouring Parish of Killearn, was
described as a “beloved friend of Wallace”.
A tragic sequel to this event occurred at the Clachan of Balfron where some of the Macgregor outlaws,
still enraged at the capture of the brothers, were refreshing themselves in the local ale-house. One of the
Buchanans of Cremannan, an estate just north of the village, was passing when he was mistaken for
Cunningham of Ballindalloch, who had issued the arrest warrant, and was shot dead beside the Clachan
Oak.
This hostelry and the Clachan Oak both feature in yet another sad
anecdote told in Buchanan’s Guide to Strathendrick. An iron collar was
attached to the oak for petty-criminals to be displayed to public view and
ridicule. The “jougs” as this was called were, on this occasion,
accommodating the “wife of a vagrant accused of pilfering”. Her husband,
eventually tired of keeping her company retired to the Clachan House to
“light his pipe”, as Buchanan describes it. Unfortunately, in his absence,
his wife struggled in her impatience, slipped and was strangled by the
jougs. “The incident gave people such a shock that the punishment of the
‘jougs’ in the parish was henceforward abandoned.” Taken from “THE BALFRON HERITAGE” by Jim Thomson
Hello Lorna, I'm a fellow verifier & didn't realise that you had already recorded this tree when I visited it yesterday. I have uploaded a number of new photos to the site taken in bright sunlight - the weather was beautiful. I am not at all sure that the tree is a maiden; I think it is more probably an ancient pollard. Best wishes, Bryan
The focal point of the clachan of Balfron is the Clachan Oak. The village’s penchant for entertaining “tourists” seems to date back to its claim that William Wallace rested in the shade of this oak, an attestation that seems improbable until further investigation shows that Wallace was, at one time, based at the old castle of Balglass and that Sir John de Graham, ancestor of the Dukes of Montrose whose lands included the neighbouring Parish of Killearn, was described as a “beloved friend of Wallace”. A tragic sequel to this event occurred at the Clachan of Balfron where some of the Macgregor outlaws, still enraged at the capture of the brothers, were refreshing themselves in the local ale-house. One of the Buchanans of Cremannan, an estate just north of the village, was passing when he was mistaken for Cunningham of Ballindalloch, who had issued the arrest warrant, and was shot dead beside the Clachan Oak. This hostelry and the Clachan Oak both feature in yet another sad anecdote told in Buchanan’s Guide to Strathendrick. An iron collar was attached to the oak for petty-criminals to be displayed to public view and ridicule. The “jougs” as this was called were, on this occasion, accommodating the “wife of a vagrant accused of pilfering”. Her husband, eventually tired of keeping her company retired to the Clachan House to “light his pipe”, as Buchanan describes it. Unfortunately, in his absence, his wife struggled in her impatience, slipped and was strangled by the jougs. “The incident gave people such a shock that the punishment of the ‘jougs’ in the parish was henceforward abandoned.” Taken from “THE BALFRON HERITAGE” by Jim Thomson