After some traveling to receive a Protestant education at Geneva, he returned to Scotland in the mid-1570s as an adult and resumed his career as minister and (now) titular Bishop of Brechin.
[4] In May 1567, Alasdair Caimbeul received royal licence to leave Scotland, though he was still in the country in July 1569, when he voted against the proposal to annul the divorce between Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Earl of Bothwell.
[1] This came before the Edinburgh assembly of March 1575, which ordered that John Erskine of Dun, Superintendent for Angus and the Mearns instruct Caimbeul on the duties befitting a bishop.
[1] In the following two decades, though, Caimbeul can be seen to take an active part in establishment politics, attending many assemblies, parliaments and meetings of the privy council, often acting as a supporter of Argyll.
[5] As marriage became acceptable in post-Reformation Scotland, Caimbeul was married twice, firstly to the daughter of the laird of Circlet, Margaret Bethune, and secondly to Helen Clephane.