Scottish clan Clan Grant. During the Wars of Scottish Independence, feudal tenures were introduced by Robert the Bruce that harnessed and controlled the prowess of clans by the award of charters for land in order to gain support in the national cause against the English. For example, the Clan MacDonald were elevated above the Clan MacDougall, two clans who shared a common descent from a great Norse-Gaelic warlord named Somerled of the 12th century. Clanship was thus not only a strong tie of local kinship but also of feudalism to the Scottish Crown. It is this feudal component, reinforced by Scots law,
Glen Coe being less than wide, narrowing sharply at the "Pass of Glen Coe". The entrance to the glen from the west is below the foot of Buachaille Etive Beag just west of Lochan na Fola, from where waters run east to Loch Leven via the River Coe. The river — Ossian's "dark Cona" — passes over waterfalls at the Pass of Glen Coe before flowing down to the small Loch Achtriochtan. Loch Achtriochtan is "Loch Trychardan" (loch of the three friends or relatives) in Timothy Pont's map of the area. After the loch the river turns north west, passing through Glencoe