Faslane #1 - Earls, clans and cattle breeders

For anyone who doesn't know, Faslane is the name of the naval base which hosts the Royal Navy's submarine fleet, including the four that carry the UK's nuclear deterrent Trident missiles. Its correct title is HMNB (His Majesty's Naval Base) Clyde but it's generally known simply as Faslane after the name of the bay it stands on on the Gare Loch off the Firth of Clyde on the west coast of Scotland. Before delving into the story of the base itself, though, I wanted to see what I could find out about the history of Faslane before it was developed by the Navy in the 1960s.

'The five pound land of Faslane' - so called after the old Scottish habit of identifying land by its taxable value (like a medieval rateable value or Council Tax band) - was a part of the Earldom of Lennox which included the whole of Dumbartonshire plus a chunk of western Stirlingshire as outlined (approximately) on the map above. 

Some time in the first quarter of the 13th century, Donald, the 3rd Earl of Lennox, granted Faslane to his brother, Aulay, to hold as a fief under the earls as feudal superiors. Aulay's descendants adopted the name 'de Faslane'. There was also a castle at Faslane where the 4th Earl entertained William Wallace in 1297 according to Blind Harry (but not anyone else. And BH was about as reliable on Wallace's career in the 15th century as Braveheart was in the 20th.) There's nothing left to see of the castle now as the West Highland Railway to Fort William runs over its site.

Around 1350, Aulay's great-great grandson, Walter de Faslane, married the heiress to the Earldom. Thus did subsequent generations of the Faslane family became the Earls of Lennox. In the 1460s, the earldom passed by the marriage of another heiress to the Stewarts of Darnley. The most famous member of that family was Lord Darnley, son of the 12th Earl of Lennox and ill-fated husband of Mary Queen of Scots: he was baptised in Faslane Chapel. Fragmentary ruins of the chapel (pictures) remain in a cemetery just outside the perimeter of the naval base.

The gates of Faslane Cemetery - the ruins of the chapel are just visible in the shadows above the middle gatepost: Google Streetview

The Earls of Lennox parcelled most of the Earldom out amongst their feudal vassals. Prominent amongst these were the Colquhouns (who I wrote about here and pronounced "Cuh-HOON" for anyone who doesn't know). Beginning at the end of the 15th century, and spreading out from their core territories around Luss on the west shore of Loch Lomond and east of Dumbarton on the north bank of the Clyde, the Colquhouns progressively acquired more fiefs in the west of the Earldom, both directly from the Earls and by purchase from existing vassals. In 1653, Sir John Colquhoun, 19th of Luss, acquired Faslane from the Duke of Lennox (the 15th Earl had been promoted in 1581) along with other lands on both sides of the Gareloch, in Glen Fruin and around Balloch. (Prior to this, Faslane had passed through various owners, including Maxwells and Campbells.) 

In 1693, Colquhoun of Luss sub-feued (granted on perpetual lease) Faslane to Archibald MacAulay of Ardencaple (at Helensburgh) for an annual feuduty (ground rent) of £40 Scots (£3.33 Sterling: about £500 in today's money). The MacAulays had briefly held Faslane in the early 16th century but what, if any, relationship they bore to the Aulay who originally acquired Faslane from his brother, the 3rd Earl of Lennox, in the 13th century, I've not been able to discover (leading me to conclude there's no connection or else we'd know about it). Anyway, Luss bought the feu of Faslane back from Ardencaple in 1751. By the end of the 18th century, the Colquhouns owned nearly all the land along the coast from Helensburgh (a town established by Sir James Colquhoun of Luss in the 1780s and named after his wife) to Arrochar (except the Rosneath peninsula which mostly belonged to the Duke of Argyll).

A final factoid about the Earldom of Lennox before we leave it is that, in 1702, the 7th Duke (an illegitimate son of King Charles II) sold it. The purchaser was James Graham, 4th Marquess of Montrose, pictured above being played by John Hurt in the 1995 film Rob Roy with Liam Neeson in the title role. It was just the land and feudal superiorities that were sold, you can't sell a title itself, but nevertheless the consequence was that the Colquhouns ended up paying their feudal dues for Faslane to the Grahams of Montrose instead of the Lennox Stewarts. The current Duke of Lennox - who is 26 generations in descent from the 13th century Aulay of Faslane and is simultaneously also the Duke of Richmond and the Duke of Gordon - doesn't own a square inch in Scotland although he does own Goodwood Racecourse and surrounding 12,000 acres in Sussex.

His Grace, the Duke of Richmond, Gordon & Lennox doing what toffs do - let their dogs on the furniture. Photo credit: The Tatler

If the name Faslane is now synonymous with nuclear submarines, in the 19th and first half of the 20th century it was associated with something rather more bucolic and peaceable: cattle breeding. 

Faslane Farm was tenanted under the Colquhouns of Luss as landlord by four generations of a family of MacFarlanes who were renowned cattle breeders. The earliest member of this family I've found record of was the splendidly named Parlan MacFarlane who was tenant of Faslane in 1807: he won second prize for best bull in Dumbartonshire west of the River Leven that year. (I hadn't realised until today that Parlan is the Gaelic equivalent of Bartholomew. MacFarlane is therefore 'son of Bartholomew' because the genetive (possessive) case in Gaelic puts an h after an initial consonant.) 

Parlan was the second generation of his family in Faslane Farm. The first also owned property in nearby Glen Fruin and might have been the George MacFarlane described as a cattle dealer who, in 1751, bought the feu of Faslane from MacAulay of Ardencaple and immediately sold it on to Colquhoun of Luss. I can't be sure of that, though, because MacFarlane is a very common name in north west Dumbartonshire - but it wouldn't be the first time a prosperous tenant had bailed his impecunious landlord out. 

Parlan MacFarlane was succeeded as tenant of Faslane by his son John in the middle of the 19th century. A report of his death in 1900 at the age of 92 in the Dundee Evening Telegraph recorded that:

As a sheep farmer and breeder of cattle Mr Macfarlan [sic] had a wide reputation. He was a judge at the first Paris Exhibition in 1851, and has frequently acted in the same capacity at the Highland Society and other shows. A man of sound judgement, prudence and integrity, he was often employed as a valuator of sheep and land. In local affairs he took a deep and intelligent interest. He was a member of the first School Board, and in the early days of Parochial Boards he proved himself a useful representative. Mr Macfarlan was in many respects a remarkable man and was most deservedly esteemed throughout the County of Dumbarton.    

Highland cattle on the east side of Loch Lomond. The island top right is Inchmurrin, the castle on which was the "chief messuage" - the legal headquarters - of the Earldom of Lennox

John MacFarlane was in turn succeeded as tenant of Faslane by his son, another Parlan. He died in 1948 by which time references to the farm have died out, no doubt because Faslane was overtaken by a new destiny during World War Two. I'll come to that in the next post but finish this one with a thought about the clans of Lennox my researches into the history of Faslane provoked.  

The progenitor of Clan MacFarlane was Gilchrist, also a son of Alwyn, 2nd Earl of Lennox and so a brother of the first Aulay of Faslane who lived in the early 13th century. The eponymous Parlan was Gilchrist's great-grandson. The MacFarlane chiefs owned the huge, but mountainous and sparsely populated, estate of Arrochar which occupied virtually the whole of the Earldom of Lennox west of Loch Lomond north of Glen Douglas: in the 16th century, the estate was known as 'Arrochar-Makgilchrist' in accordance with the peculiarly Lennox habit of adding to the name of a place the name of the family who owned it. The MacFarlanes held the estate as a feudal fief under the superiority of their cousins, the Earls of Lennox (post 1702, the Duke of Montrose), until 1785 when the last chief, John, sold it. The ever acquisitive Colquhouns of Luss subsequently bought Arrochar in 1821. 

Now we're always being told that clanship and feudalism are inimical to each other. Yet in the Lennox, the clans - MacFarlanes, MacAulays and Colquhouns - fitted seamlessly into the feudal system: we even find one clan (the MacAulays) becoming feudal vassals of another (Colquhouns) at Faslane in 1693. In truth, clans and feudalism co-existed perfectly comfortably. As well as that 'vertical' integration, we also find that MacFarlanes have 'leaked out', as it were, of Arrochar which they owned and are living as tenants on the estates of other neighbouring clans (Colquhouns and possibly MacAulays at Faslane and the Colquhouns had other MacFarlane tenants). It's all not nearly as clear cut as the conventional view of clans and the neat coloured blocks of territory on the clan map imply.

Nuclear submarines next time.