The story begins in the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden, the last pitched battle on British soil which ended in a harsh clampdown on the Scottish Highlands. The key individual in our story is James Stewart, known in Scottish Gaelic as Seamus a’ Ghlinne or James of the Glen. James was from Appin in Argyll, Scotland, the place where our narrative unfolds. He was the half-brother to the clan chief of the Stewarts of Appin, a clan that had fought for the Jacobite cause during the uprising, thereby making him a subject of suspicion for the British authorities.
On May 14, 1752, Colin Campbell, the government-appointed factor of the forfeited Stewart estates, traveled through Appin bound for Fort William, where it was widely expected he would evict many Stewart clansmen. However, Campbell was shot dead by a hidden marksman. Suspicion immediately fell on the Stewarts, fuelling a botched investigation full of accusation and speculation but short on concrete evidence. Amidst this volatile backdrop, not able to pin the crime on anyone, the authorities arrested James of the Glen. Lacking evidence, they tried him as an accessory and, through a dodgy trial, sentenced him to be hanged in chains at Cnap a’ Chaolais, a promontory on the shore of Loch Linnhe where the A82 now runs.
Today, a monument to James stands on the site of his execution, bearing the inscription in Gaelic and English: James Stewart, an innocent man wrongly hanged, 8th November 1752. A testament of an apparent miscarriage of justice, a dark legacy that still lingers in the history of Appin.