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Much of this great route is steeped in fascinating history. Rob Roy used much of it for his travels throughout Scotland. The route passes through his home town of Balqhuidder, where participants will toast his memory in the small village graveyard. Rob Roy also sheltered at Finlarig Castle, near Killin, while on the run from the authorities.
In reality Rob Roy ('Red Rob') was a cattle drover named Robert MacGregor. Due to his alleged sympathy with the Jacobite cause, he became an outlaw and a freebooter, a cattle thief much given to selling 'protection'.
Rob Roy exploited the fact that Balquidder, the land under his control, lay on the divide between the great estates of the rival Dukes of Montrose and Argyll. His brigandry began in earnest after he was forced into bankruptcy by the Duke of Montrose in 1712 and he used the turmoil of the first Jacobite rising to engage in much plundering and raiding. Rob Roy achieved great fame for his kindness and sympathy for the poor and oppressed and it is on this aspect of character that his reputation has flourished.
Rob Roy was captured by the Duke of Atholl in 1716 at the request of the Duke of Montrose, but he escaped into the protection of the Duke of Argyll and adopted his mother's maiden name of Campbell. He attempted to convince the victorious Hanoverians that he was an opportunist rather than a Jacobite, but he was captured, imprisoned in the notorious Newgate prison (the site of the Old Bailey today) and sentenced to be transported. Luckily for him he was pardoned and returned to Balquhidder where he died in 1734 at the age of 63. | 
