
On this day in 1752 Colin Campbell, the Red Fox, was killed in the Appin Murder at Ballachulish.
Colin Campbell, landowner and government official, also known as The Red Fox, left his estate at Glenure with a group of soldiers, riding north through Appin to collect taxes. It has been claimed that his mission included the eviction of members of the Jacobite Stewarts, to be replaced by members of the government-loyal Campbell Clan. At Ballachuilish, a cairn marks the spot where Campbell was shot dead with a musket. Though the hapless James Stewart was hanged as a scapegoat for the crime, the true identity of the murderer remained a mystery for 250 years. However, in 2001 a descendant of the Stewarts of Appin, 89-year-old Anda Penman, identified young Donald Stewart of Ballachulish as the real killer, having allegedly kept a secret that was passed on by word of mouth through generations of her family.

