Moidart

Moidart (/ˈmɔɪdɑːrt/ MOY-dart; Scottish Gaelic: Mùideart [ˈmuːitʲarˠʃt̪]) is part of the remote and isolated area of Scotland, west of Fort William, known as the Rough Bounds.

Loch Shiel cuts off the eastern boundary of the district (along a south-south-west to north-north-east line) and continues along part of the southern edge.

In the late 11th century, Malcolm III of Scotland made a written agreement with Magnus Barelegs, the Norwegian king, which moved the border to the coast; Moidart thus became Scottish.

At around this time, Castle Tioram was built, in Loch Moidart, as the principal seat of the Lordship of Garmoran.

This involved Godfrey's family (the Siol Gorrie) and those of his brothers in a great deal of violent conflict which is not described in much detail in surviving records.

[4] As Alexander had by now inherited Godfrey's de facto position as Lord of Garmoran, and in view of Ranald's heirs being no less responsible for the violence, King James declared the Lordship forfeit.

Following Hugh of Sleat's death, in 1498, and for reasons that are not remotely clear, his son John immediately resigned, transferring all authority to the king.

Finally leaving Scotland from Loch nan Uamh, he took seven prominent men with him, who despite their places of origin became known as the Seven Men of Moidart (the Second Duke of Atholl, Aeneas MacDonald – brother of the local Laird, Francis Strickland – an aristocratic English Recusant, George Kelly – Irish Presbyterian minister, and three officers from the French Royal Army's Irish Brigade); a commemorative row of beech trees was planted a century later.

Prior to that, other than a rough footpath, it could only be accessed by a ferry running between Lochailort (at the north of Moidart) and Glenuig (in the west).

[8] The lack of connectivity before the 1960s also made the area an ideal training location for special operational units during World War II.