PERTHSHIRE. 207 



the scene of many tragedies. Early history tells how 

 it was stormed by Angus Og, Lord of the Isles, who 

 took the earl and countess prisoners to Isla, releasing 

 them very soon after their arrival. In 1509 Allan 

 Macruari or MacRory was beheaded in the courtyard 

 of the castle in the presence of the Scottish king, but 

 history does not record the reason. When Sir 

 William Murray of Tullibardine came into the family 

 estates in 141 6, he married a daughter of Sir John 

 Colquhoun of Luss, and the union being blessed by 

 seventeen sons, it is from them that the bulk of 

 the numerous families of Perthshire Murrays are 

 descended. Tradition states that these seventeen 

 sons all lived to be men, and they one day went with 

 their father to attend the king's court, at Stirling, 

 " each with a servant, and their father with two." 

 These thirty-seven men made a brave show, but as 

 a law had just been passed forbidding anyone to go 

 about with a large following, the Laird of Tullibardine 

 was challenged on the subject by the king, who, when 

 he learnt that they were only his sons, with a 



