The Cameron family

Who were the Camerons? The Camerons are, as is well known, a Highland clan with a well documented history, and there are members of the clan living all over the world – including in Shetland !
Under the then chief the “gentle Locheil” the clan declared for Prince Charles Edward Stuart in the abortive Jacobite rising of 1745, for which they paid heavily after the battle of Culloden.

Dangerous times
In the desperate times after Culloden, when troops under the Duke of Cumberland hunted down the rebels, many Highlanders became refugees; some went abroad, but others simply moved to safer districts of the Highlands. The descendent of one such family, who ultimately settled near Invergordon, was to become part of the story of Belmont.

Camerons at Belmont
The first Cameron to arrive at Belmont was a young Lieutenant of the 78th Highlanders, sent on a recruiting mission to Shetland in 1808 at the height of the war against Napoleonic France. There he met Margaret Mouat, adoptive daughter of the house, fell in love with her, and married her in the drawingroom at Belmont in July 1809. Theirs was a long and happy marriage and their descendents lived on there down several generations.
Captain Cameron as he became was one of a large family and there are Cameron relations connected to Belmont in Australia, USA, South Africa and New Zealand.