Having been an interested reader (read 'lurker') on this site for some time, and having noticed the interest in those of the Clan Chisholm posted on this list, I thought that you may like to hear my comments re the Clan lands that they left behind, and the whole beauty of the country that is left there to view. Being of Cameron and MacDonald ancestry, I had never wandered into either Glen Affric nor Strathglass on my trips over to Scotland, but having read some of the postings by Hugh Niven of the clearances of that area and being in Inverness at the time it was only a short drive to go into these places and see the country for myself, so when an opportunity to be driven up Glen Affric, into Strathglass, to Struy was offered I readily accepted. Enter into the Glen Affric National Park and you see all that the brochures tell off, the most beautiful glen in Scotland, one of the largest remaining ancient Scots pinewood areas, the Capercaillie, black grouse, crested tit, crossbill, golden eagle, red-throated diver, and even the pine marten, but we didn't see them, they are for the walkers, we saw no wild life as we drove along the one narrow lane, with seldom used lay-bys as far as we could travel........what we saw there were the wildflowers, banks of heather, broom, native flowers with names unknown...... but most importantly, we saw the re-afforestation of the peaks, not the regimented Forestry plantings that are economically grown in some areas for commercial logging, but the natural (with possibly some assistance) re-growth of the native trees. For Glen Affric is free of all livestock, there are no sheep nor cattle to graze and damage the landscape, it can revert to it's wild natural state, and suddenly you have ! some idea of what the Scottish Highlands must have looked like when managed by our ancestors. To drive from Glen Affric into Strathglass only requires a turn of the wheel, but quite a change in scenery, this is a wide fertile strath, large ploughed areas not usually seen in the Highlands, soil the colour of nutmeg and obviously rich and productive, the river Glass has marker's along it's banks, noting the areas which can be fished "divided into six beats of 3 rods each, fly only, rotating daily." We did not find the place where the 13th Lord Lovat had built in 1838 for reputed descendants of Bonnie Prince Charles, the Sobieski brothers the house on Eilean Aigas - a 60-acre wooded island of idyllic beauty. But we did locate in the churchyard of St Mary's at Eskadale the grave where one of the brothers The Chevalier John Stuart Sobieski is buried February 22, 1872 and in a separate enclosed section, Thomas Alexander Fraser, 10th laird of Strichen, later 14th Lord Lovat, is buried, along with later generations of the Lovat family...... However it is the graves of the Chisholm clergy that dominate, similar yet dissimilar headstones they record just how many of the line served their beliefs and as the church records........ The latter part of the seventeenth century saw a member of the Chisholms of Knockfin family, founded by Colin, second son of the 17th Chief, become the first native priest of Strathglass since the Reformation. From then on, Strathglass was known as 'a nursery of priests', five bishops and at least 25 of its priests being directly or indirectly descended from Colin of Knockfin" Little wonder then at the name reoccurs on the tombstones. It is a very beautiful area, and the historic events which removed Scots from these lush fertile lands is too harsh to even think upon.... so a dram to the Chisholm descendants wherever they are. Val Smith Sydney Australia