Rannoch lies in Perthshire in the Highlands of Scotland. The name is said to come either from the Gaelic Raineach meaning fern or bracken or from Ratheanach meaning water. Even today the area is known as a wilderness with its main features being Loch Rannoch, Rannoch Moor and the Black Wood of Rannoch, one of the few remaining parts of the ancient Caledonian Forest.
Rannoch appears in the historical record from the 1290s. In 1296, Patrick of Rannoch was one of many Scots who swore fealty to King Edward I of England. This wild land has often been a place of sanctuary for wanted men, and the two most famous examples are from the Wars of Independence. William Wallace is said to have stayed for a time at Rannoch where he gained followers from amongst the local men who joined him at the battles of Dunkeld and Perth. Robert the Bruce is also believed to have found refuge in Rannoch and had an ally in the first recognised chief of Clan Donnachaidh (Robertson), Donnachadh Reamhar. Donnachadh later defeated at Rannoch a force under Bruce’s enemy, MacDougall of Lorne.
For centuries much of the land of Rannoch was held by the Menzies family whose claim on the area is said to date back to the eleventh century. In the 1470s, John and Neil Stewart were granted lands to hold, including Rannoch. They had a claim to the land through their kinship to the Menzies family. As they were supporters of King James III when that king was killed in battle, the Stewarts lost Rannoch. In 1502, Rannoch was confirmed on their kinsman, Sir Robert Menzies of that Ilk, by King James IV, who erected the lands into a barony.
In retaliation, Neil Stewart gathered a band of lawless men and came upon Menzies’ castle at Weem at night, setting fire to it and capturing Menzies in the process. Stewart then embarked upon a period of raiding while attempting to have the imprisoned Sir Robert acknowledge his right to Rannoch. Eventually, Menzies was released and restored to his lands.
The Menzies family continued to hold Rannoch over the following centuries but had to fight to enforce control over the area, which attracted rebels, thieves and bandits. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, members of Clan MacGregor lived at Rannoch with some involved in the lawbreaking for which their family became infamous. The MacGregors could not be dispersed, and the Menzies chiefs received exemptions from the Crown so they were not required to answer for the peace broken by their tenants. During the middle of the 1600s, the lands and Barony of Rannoch were held for a time by the powerful Campbells of Glenorchy, who it seems held it from the Menzies family.
The area was strongly Jacobite, with local men joining the Risings and Jacobite clansmen passing along Loch Rannoch in 1689 following the Battle of Dunkeld. From around this time, Rannoch was again in the hands of the Menzies family, who continued to hold the lands and barony into the twenty-first century.
