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Atholl was once a Pictish kingdom. Then a Celtic earldom. Next the Stewart kings took it and gave it to their relatives. A Murray wooed and won the last Stewart heiress and that family ended up Dukes of Atholl. The title and the estate are now separated. The duke lives in South Africa and Blair Castle and 150,000 acres are run by Atholl Estates, some of it as a charitable trust.
But the duke is still important and regularly flies in to Scotland. He is unique in being commander officer of his own private regiment, the Atholl Highlanders, made up mainly of workers on the estate and officered by the local gentry. Without the duke, there can be no Highlanders. The Regiment and its pipe band regularly travel abroad to take part in parades and Scottish gatherings and proudly represent Scotland, Perthshire and Atholl.
The descendants of the ancient Celtic earls and King Duncan, famously slain by Macbeth, are the local clan, the Robertsons of Clan Donnachaidh. They and their Stewart neighbours often fought together to protect their mutual interests in the Athol Brigade.
In Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Rising of 1745, this played a prominent part. At the battle of Culloden on 16th April 1746, the Athollmen under their general, the Duke of Atholl’s brother Lord George Murray were on the right wing of the rebel army. Nearly half the regiment was lost.
Back in Atholl, estates were denuded of the menfolk. Only women and children were left to farm the harsh land to ensure their own survival and they faced months of redcoat raids and pillaging. Within a couple of generations even they were swept away in the Highland Clearance. Their descendants come from America or Australia and often seem much more Highland than the Highlanders they left behind.
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