308 THE DEER FORESTS OF SCOTLAND. 



than it would fairly stand, and the kill has been 

 judiciously reduced to seventy-five or eighty. 



These lands were the scene of the defeat of one of 

 the Lords of the Isles by the Mackenzies, who were 

 routed with great slaughter. Later on the forest was 

 again a witness of one of those Culloden atrocities, 

 then so prevalent amongst the victorious soldiery 

 of the King of England, for a party of fugitives from 

 the battle-field, having taken refuge in a cave on 

 Strathconan, were surrounded and smoked or burnt 

 to death by means of large piles of lighted heather 

 placed at the entrance of their hiding-place. 



FOREST OF TORRIDON, BY TORRIDON. 



An ancient charter of 1584 shows that these 

 lands then belonged to the Macdonnells of Glen- 

 garry, while up to the present day nineteen families of 

 that name still dwell in Alligen on Loch Torridon. 

 It was one of these Macdonnells who, when on a 

 marauding expedition to one of the Western Isles, 

 being hard pressed for food, came on a party of 



