Ne Parcus nec Spernas
(Neither Spare nor Despise)
During the Scots Wars of Independence, and like the Macnabs, the Lamonts in Cowal backed the wrong side as supporters of john Balliol, the English choice for a puppet king. Forfeiture of lands was the inevitable result. (The Campbells – as ever! – benefited.)
The story of the Lamonts had many twists and turns thereafter, but there was always the presence of the powerful Clan Campbell around them. This, for example, effectively prevented them from any participation in the Jacobite uprisings. Their headquarters was Toward Castle near Toward Point at the south end of Cowal. It was destroyed by the Campbells during the Civil War of 1646. A memorial in Dunoon commemorates the death of many Lamonts in this conflict.
The chiefs of Clan Lamont thereafter lived at Ardlamont until the 21st emigrated in 1893 to Australia. The current chief still lives there.