Dugald Buchanan

A Captain Patton of Guise's Regiment said 'the people of this country (Rannoch) are the greatest thieves in Scotland and were all in the late rebellion, except for a few.

Dugald Buchanan was a teacher and an evangelist, preaching at large open air meetings, which upwards of 500 people attended.

A wide range of agricultural and other improvement works were undertaken across the estates, including drainage, road making and bridge building.

Flax and potatoes were introduced, mills built and spinning and weaving taught; a mason, joiner and wheelwright passed on their skills; a shoemaker and a tailor set up business.

Buchanan and minister James Stuart of Killin, sponsored by the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge (SSPCK), carried out the first translation of the New Testament into Gaelic.

Buchanan was considerably impressed by James Macpherson's Ossian (1760–65) and, taking it to be authentic, was moved to revalue the genuine traditions and rich cultural heritage of the Gaels.

At around the same time, he wrote to Sir James Clerk of Penicuik, the leading antiquary of the movement, proposing that someone should travel to the Isles and Western Coast of Scotland and collect the work of the ancient and modern bards, in which alone he could find the language in its purity.