Portal:Clans of Scotland

A Scottish clan (from Gaelic clann, literally 'children', more broadly 'kindred') is a kinship group among the Scottish people. Clans give a sense of shared identity and descent to members, and in modern times have an official structure recognised by the Court of the Lord Lyon, which regulates Scottish heraldry and coats of arms. Most clans have their own tartan patterns, usually dating from the 19th century, which members may incorporate into kilts or other clothing.

The modern image of clans, each with their own tartan and specific land, was promulgated by the Scottish author Sir Walter Scott after influence by others. Historically, tartan designs were associated with Lowland and Highland districts whose weavers tended to produce cloth patterns favoured in those districts. By process of social evolution, it followed that the clans/families prominent in a particular district would wear the tartan of that district, and it was but a short step for that community to become identified by it.

Many clans have their own clan chief; those that do not are known as armigerous clans. Clans generally identify with geographical areas originally controlled by their founders, sometimes with an ancestral castle and clan gatherings, which form a regular part of the social scene. The most notable clan event of recent times was The Gathering 2009 in Edinburgh, which attracted at least 47,000 participants from around the world.

John Gallda MacDougall (died 1371–1377), was a fourteenth-century Scottish magnate. He was a grandson of John MacDougall, Lord of Argyll, a man who had been forced from Scotland into exile in the first third of the century. It was under John Gallda that the MacDougall leadership made its resurgence in Scotland after generations of English exile. By the mid century, John Gallda was married to Johanna Isaac, a niece of David II, King of Scotland, and restored to a portion of the MacDougalls' originally holdings in Argyll. John Gallda was the last MacDougall to hold the lordship of Lorne. He and Johanna had two legitimate daughters through which the lordship passed, whilst the leadership of MacDougalls passed to an illegitimate son.

• ...that the last chief of Clan MacQuarrie sold off his clan lands in Scotland and joined the British Army, at age 68, and fought in the American Revolutionary War?
• ... that King James IV of Scotland once used Mingary Castle as a stronghold for fighting off clan Donald in the late 15th century?
• ...that tradition traces Clan Drummond, a Scottish clan from Stirlingshire, to Hungarian origins?
• ... that in 1747, Aulay Macaulay, the last chief of Clan MacAulay, invented a system of shorthand in an unsuccessful attempt revive his clan's fortune?
• ... that the Clan Mackintosh fought against the Clan MacDonald and Clan Cameron in 1688, in what is claimed to have been the last Scottish clan battle?
• ... that Alexander of Islay encouraged Clan Chattan to fight the Battle of Craig Cailloch against Clan Cameron as revenge for the Camerons' defection?
• ... that members of Scottish clans wear a sprig of a particular plant known as a clan badge, to identify their affiliation?
• ...that the last chief of Clan MacQuarrie sold off his clan lands in Scotland and joined the British Army, at age 68, and fought in the American Revolutionary War?
• ... that the 17th chief of the Clan Maclachlan was killed by a cannonball while leading his Jacobite clansmen at the Battle of Culloden in 1746?
• ...that tradition traces Clan Drummond, a Scottish clan from Stirlingshire, to Hungarian origins?
• ...that Taillear Dubh na Tuaighe ("Black Tailor of the Axe") got his nickname after killing the rival Scottish Highlands clan chief in battle with a Lochaber axe?