{"id":1602,"date":"2021-08-26T15:34:42","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T15:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cromarville.wordpress.com\/?p=1602"},"modified":"2023-05-12T18:19:29","modified_gmt":"2023-05-12T22:19:29","slug":"john-cromar-and-ann-george-rebels-who-broke-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/williamcromar.com\/cromarbaile\/2021\/08\/26\/john-cromar-and-ann-george-rebels-who-broke-free\/","title":{"rendered":"John Cromar and Ann George: rebels who broke free"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the shadow of history<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Peel of Lumphanan<\/a> rises out of the ground like a Robert Smithson<\/a> land art project gone rogue. From an an earlier post<\/a>, we know the Peel has a legendary link to Macbeth, and the town-folk of the village of Lumphanan probably won’t disabuse you of the notion: you can drop by the Macbeth Arms<\/a> for a pint and\u2014I’m sure\u2014a yarn or two, judging by the name. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Peel of Lumphanan<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n
Left | The spiraling walkway up the Peel of Lumphanan. | Wikimedia Commons<\/a>, Andrew Wood (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Right | An artist’s rendition of the Peel of Lumphanan as a fortification in the 13th Century. Presumably from a picture in a Lumphanan pub, and I’ll guess more than likely the Macbeth Arms. | Shakespeare’s Best Friend<\/a>, 14 Oct 2015, with perspective and color correction by the author<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Macbeth indeed lost the Battle of Lumphanan in 1057, but it’s anyone’s guess that this site was in fact the location of the fight. There may have been some kind of moat present here during Macbeth’s era, but the Peel itself isn’t documented until the early 1200s<\/a>, when the Norman de Lundin family (later adopting the name Durward) was granted landholdings in the area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was they, not Macbeth, who constructed the fortification, which later has less legendary and more historically verifiable ties to another king, albeit a Sassenach one: when Edward I conducted his victory tour through Aberdeenshire in 1296, he used it as the place to put Sir John de Melville, a conquered Scottish laird, to heel. After the Durwards<\/a>, Lumphanan was granted to the Halketts, then the Irvines, and later acquired by Thomas Charteris who built Halton House on the summit. Satellite imagery reveals the outline of the structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n