Storehouse at Foulis - Clan Munro Information Centre

This granite stone called Ferann Dòmhnuill comes from Glen Glass in the heart of Munro Country. It was brought down by the glaciers of the last Ice Age. Geologists call it a "Glacial Erratic". It commemorates Donald O'Caan, Prince of Fermanagh, first chief of Clan Munro. He and his followers are said to come from the River Ro in Northern Ireland to help King Malcolm II of Scotland (1005-34) drive out Viking Invaders. The King granted Donald all the land between Dingwall and the River Alness in return for his services. To this day the land is known as Ferindonald (Fearann Dòmhnuill in Gaelic) or Donald's land. A millennium later it is still home to many Munros and spiritual home to all of those of Munro descent across the world.

Foulis is one of the three beaching points in Kiltearn Parish where vessels of up to 100 tons could ground safely and be loaded or unloaded dry. This was the perfect place to build the Storehouse which was the collection and distribution place for goods being traded in and out of Foulis estate, home of the Munro Clan

View from the Storehouse over the Cromarty Firth

This is a copy of the Munro rent register from 1794. Tenants came to the Storehouse to pay their rent in kind as oats, bere (an old kind of barley) and occasionally wheat. A letter from Sir Hugh Munro to his factor in october 1795 states that his tenants should be given a receipt for the grain they bring to the storehouse and they should bring as much as they conveniently can at one time. On February 3rd 1796 at a time when oatmeal was very scarce, a group over 150 people marched on the Storehouse. They believed it to hold stores of oats but, after threatening to break in to the building, a deputation was allowed in by the storekeeper. Finding only barley and wheat they refused to buy saying that they "... lived chiefly by oatmeal and they did not mind tho' he should send away all the wheat and barley... provided he left the oats."

A section of the Munro Clan timeline

This sculpture represents the essence of a clan. THe clan chief watching over his kinsfolk, the clarsach player to illustrate the culture of the clan, and the woman working the ground with a caschcrom denotes the strong practical and emotional ties to the land from which the figures symbolically emerge. The chief's extended plaid with incised world map represents continuing membership of the clan for those who dispersed from the clan homeland.

Munro Dress Tartan

A small cinema inside the Storehouse showing a film about the Munro Clan.

A few famous Munros

The windows of the Storehouse are small with those on the ground floor mere slits to provide necessary ventilation for the grain, and to provide security for the goods stored inside.