Glen Strathfarrar

During the Penal laws, the Gaels of Glen Strathfarrar who belonged to the illegal Catholic Church in Scotland attended a covert "Mass house". Between 1735 and 1746, the laity were served from a mountain cave dwelling in Glen Cannich by three outlawed Roman Catholic priests of the Society of Jesus; Frs. Charles () and John Farquharson () and future Catholic martyr Fr. Alexander Cameron (). A small island in Loch a' Mhuillidh holds the remains of a building used by Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat on his flight from Culloden after the unsuccessful Jacobite rising of 1745. The Affric-Beauly hydro-electric power scheme following the Second World War led to yet further depopulation in Strathfarrar,…

The road along the glen is private, and a locked gate system operates whereby permission for motor vehicle access must be requested at the gatehouse. A quota of cars are allowed in the glen each day. Access times vary, according to the month, between 9am and 8pm. In the winter the only means of access is to contact Mountaineering Scotland who will give a security code for the gate. The resulting relative lack of cars through the glen contributes to the remote and utter peace and calm, especially of the upper reaches of the glen toward Loch Monar. As with all land in Scotland, there is a right of responsible access to most of the land in the glen, and there is thus no restriction on access…