In the 1960s and 70s, wrote This Is My Country, a weekly travel column in the Press and Journal. Here, we have reprinted his delightful musings from July, 1963 for YL readers to enjoy

THere in Dun-Aingeal, in the Braes of Lochaber, The Bard of Keppoch is very sound asleep; His name was John MacDonald, John the Bare – John the Bare and Biting! but by some called John the Stammerer. he pen, they say, is mightier than the sword. Both were mighty in the Braes of Lochaber, and the memory of their prowess haunts every corner of the profoundly beautiful countryside around Spean Bridge. It lies near the heart of the huge parish of Kilmonivaig – 40 miles long and 23 broad – which, along with the country between it and the West Coast, has been known ever since 1745 as “the Cradle of the Rebellion.”

Since World War II it has another title, too – “the Cradle of the Commandos,” whose splendidly-conceived memorial at the meeting of the roads, a mile east of High Bridge, where the first blood of the ’45 was shed, dominates the countryside for miles around.

The village of Spean Bridge with its tally of between 200 and 300 inhabitants has remained unaffected so far by the population explosion that is going on nine miles away at Fort William, but there is a feeling of expectancy in the air here that suggests its turn is coming.

Here, as at Fort William, the profile of Ben Nevis and its cohorts is the crowning feature of the landscape. But here it is the northern face that is revealed, and it is a little farther away and less menacing, though it loses nothing in majesty.

One might think at first glance that everything in this pleasant little community was modern. The parish church dates from 1813. There is a railway station on the West Highland Line to Fort William, a sporty nine-hole golf course, an excellent hotel, and rows of attractive modern housing. But, as in so many cases of the kind, the modernity clings to the present day motor highways, A82 (the Inverness to Fort William road) and A86 to Loch Laggan and the Spey. As soon as one departs from them on either flank tier upon tier of history unfolds.

High above the A86, less than a mile east of the village, is Tirandrish, a name famous in the ’45, for it was Donald MacDonald of Tirandrish, who, on August 16, 1745, and only a bare three miles from his own home, led a handful of his clansmen at High Bridge on the Spean in the first skirmish of the campaign.

Less than half a century later Tirandrish became the home of a famous minister of the parish, Thomas Ross, who claimed descent from the Earls of Ross and married a niece of Locheil. More than one of his descendants, including his great-great-grandson, also named Thomas Ross, have renewed their contacts with Kilmonivaig Church at the present day.

You do not need to probe far beneath the surface in the Glen of the Spean to find other examples of this kind of continuity with a storied past. Higher up the valley is Roy Bridge, only a stone’s throw from Keppoch, the ancient headquarters of the MacDonalds. Here there is a very handsome Catholic church dedicated to St Margaret, designed by Reginald Fairlie, and built in 1929. It is the present-day successor of St Cyril’s at Cillechaoril, near Achluachrach, which must be the most picturesquely-sited graveyard in Scotland.

This ancient holy place of the Catholics in the glen, who probably outnumber the Protestants at the present day and were once even more numerous, has a history going back to the 12th century. It is said to have been founded by one, Alan the Robber, who, in penance for his sins, undertook to build the churches.

The graveyard with the now disused St Cyril’s Church at the lower corner, is on the pleasant green slope of DunAingeal to the north of A86, about three miles east of Roy Bridge and it commands a superb view of Glen Spean. Close to the church is the monument to Iain Lom, the Bard of Keppoch.

But it is time to return to Spean Bridge, the modern centre of the parish. They would never forgive me if I did not point out that it is the home of Lochaber Camanachd Club, which has won three cups this season – the Strathdearn Cup, the Macgillivray League Cup and the Sutherland Cup. At Kilmonivaig School, on a charming site between the main road and the Spean, shinty is naturally