Walter Bailloch, also known as Walter Bailloch Stewart, was distinguished by the sobriquet Bailloch or Balloch, a Gaelic nickname roughly translated as "the freckled". He was the Earl of Menteith jure uxoris.

Knapdale forms a rural district of Argyll and Bute in the Scottish Highlands, adjoining Kintyre to the south, and divided from the rest of Argyll to the north by the Crinan Canal. It includes two parishes, North Knapdale and South Knapdale. The area is bounded by sea to the east and west, whilst the sea loch of West Loch Tarbert almost completely cuts off the area from Kintyre to the south. The name is derived from two Gaelic elements: Cnap meaning hill and Dall meaning field.