Civil War in the 1600’s in Colintraive

In the middle of the 1600s, civil wars broke out in Scotland brought on by religious differences and reinforced by fighting between powerful families seeking to extend their influence. Though much of the fighting took place in the east of the country, the enmities between the McDonalds and the Campbell and Lamont families took devastation and war into Argyll and eventually to Cowal.

On the Cowal peninsula the Lamont families, whose land holdings included Couston and Trouston on Loch Striven, sided with the royalist McDonalds under the Marquis of Montrose. This brought them into conflict with Campbell of Eilean Greig whose lands were to the east of Loch Ridden and the Kyles of Bute.