Rob Roy
What can we say about Rob Roy - the man? There has been much written about Rob Roy, much of which is pure fiction. Was he the Scottish Robin Hood, stealing from the rich to give to the poor? Was he a likeable rogue? Or a desparate vagabond, always on the run?
Rob Roy lived in a time of change in Scotland, through the Jacobite uprisings and battles when he supported the restoration of the Stuart King James, and was badly wounded in battle. Scotland at that time was a bit like the wild west, a lawless brutal country. Rob Roy was almost certainly wronged by an employee who ran off with a large amount of money. As a resourceful stockman and warrior, and without the hope that the law would right this wrong, he took the law into his own hands, stealing cattle at the point of his sword when the chance arose.
Revered and feared in equal measure, he has become a larger than life, almost mythical character and is celebrated throughout central Scotland.