The McGregors owned a farm on the outskirts of Caithness, in Scotland in the early twentieth century. In the summer of 1954, Dougal McGregor proposed to Minerva McGonagall on a ploughed field in this farm. Minerva refused, as marrying a Muggle would be the end of her ambitions, and departed for London to work for the Ministry of Magic soon after. Dougal was looking forward to inherit this farm from his father and stayed in Caithness, where he later married the daughter of another local farmer.