Glenevis’ wife, Mary Cameron of Lochiel, was terrorized by the men of Lieutenant Colonel Caroline Frederick Scott, shortly after the siege of Fort William was lifted, on 3 April 1746. Her sister, Jean Cameron of Dungallon, bravely reported the crimes of Scott’s men to Dr John Burton:
In November of 1747, Dr John Burton of York paid a visit to Edinburgh, where he met Dr Cameron’s wife, who informed him of many things that happened after the disaster at Culloden. He tells us that among other things, “as soon as the besiegers of Fort William left the place, a party of Caroline Scott’s men from within the fort went to the house of Cameron of Glen Nevis and plundered it…They stripped one of Dr Cameron’s daughters, a girl that was staying with her aunt at Glen Nevis. They stripped Glen Nevis’s only son, a boy [Ewen Cameron] about seven years of age, who having gold loops and gold bottons on his cloaths, the soldiers were so greedy of them, though half worn, that one of them took out his knife and cut them all off. In his hurry cutting off the button upon the child’s shoulder, he cut with so great force that he wounded the side of the boy’s neck. The mother seeing the blood immediately swooned away, imagining the villain had cut the boy’s throat. But when she came to herself, she examined the wound and found it of no great consequence. This lady, with her own and two of her brother’s [brother-in-law’s] children, was forced to go and live in a cave of a rock where she stayed six months, making the best shift she could for provisions for herself and the poor helpless children. Captain Scott sent her a message, pretending that what was done was without his knowledge or consent, and that if she would go to Fort William, she would have such things as belonged to her. He consulted her brother [cousin] Lochiel, who advised her to go. She went accordingly. The captain gave her her shoe buckles, her buttons for her shirt sleeves, which in the hurry of taking the soldiers had broke, and a cloak that had been taken from Dr Cameron’s little girl.
N. B. Glen Nevis was never out and only during the siege of Fort William, some of the besiegers took up their quarters in his house”.
Through the narrative of an article entitled, “Relics of the ‘45”, we learn that before fleeing to the infamous cave, Mrs Cameron buried her valuables deep in the ground outside the garden wall. She, her son, and two of Dr Cameron’s children then fled to the mountains to hide from Cumberland’s troops.
When the troops arrived at the Glenevis house, they were “disappointed at not finding the valuables they looked for in such a residence, they burned and plundered the glen without mercy, the terrified inhabitants taking to the mountains, only too glad too escape with their lives, while their homestead were in flames, and their cattle either driven away or slaughtered on the spot”.
On the mountain of Ben Nevis, Mary hid in a large cave called Uamh Shomhairle or Samuel’s Cave. “Lady Glenevis was at last discovered in her cave by a party of soldiers who had somehow heard of her place of retreat”. The rest of the story is beautifully told by a local named Mary Mackellar, in an article published in The Oban Times, Saturday, March 29th, 1890, page 3, A Basket of Fragments Part 1V, by Mary MacKeller:
The lady of Glen Nevis went to hide in Samuel’s cave high up in the glen after the battle of Culloden. And the soldiers tracked her there. And when they’d vainly tried to make her confess where she had hidden the family silver and other valuables, one of them made a thrust at the bundle she held carefully to her bosom, thinking it was some of the spoil they sought. It was her infant son, and he bore all his life the cruel mark of that sword thrust. We saw lately the brooch that fastened the plaid.
As for the buried valuables that Mrs Cameron hid deep in the ground—Mary MacKellar explained: We saw lately the brooch that fastened the plaid. It is in possession of one of the lady descendants in this city. Some of the China buried was never found until the plowmen of Mr Smith, who had the farm of Glen Nevis, about the year 1830, turned it broken out of the earth where it had lain so long.
© 2026
Image Credit: AI depiction of Mary Cameron, wife of Alexander Cameron of Glenevis. Based on the painting of Jean Cameron of Dungallon. Note: if you truly descend from this line, you may see yourself in this image. I know I do.
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