Coire Gabhail by members of Clan Macdonald to hide cattle and other livestock, whether their own or stolen from others. Like other clans in the area, cattle were the mainstay of their economy, both herding and raiding: young men boastfully sang of getting cows from the Mearns. The wide flat glen is well suited for this purpose since from Glen Coe it appears to be a normal v-shaped glen approached only by a steep narrow gorge. The Macdonalds commonly had feuds with Clan Campbell. This culminated tragically in the 1692 massacre of Glencoe when Campbell soldiers turned on Macdonald clansfolk who fled
William III, Earl of Ross when Robert was High Steward of Scotland, but to no avail. William, Earl of Ross, died on 9 February 1372 at Denley in Ross-shire, the last of the O’Baleon earls of Ross. He was succeeded by his daughter Euphemia and her husband Walter de Lesley. William, 5th Earl of Ross, married first Mary (Máire), a daughter of Angus Og of Islay (Aonghus Óg Mac Domhnaill), (d. 1314×1318/c.1330), chief of Clan Donald (Clann Domhnaill). They had one son and two daughters: William III, Earl of Ross William (or Uilleam) III, 5th Earl of Ross (d. 1372) was a fourteenth-century Scottish nobleman.