The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

CHAP I] OF SCOTLAND i8i
gave his name to the clan, with Neill Xaoi Giall, a king of Ireland,
who reigned many hundred years before they existed. In
the Macgregors we can detect the latter part of the 15th century.
change taking place in the
In a MS. genealogy written in
the year 1512,1 I find that the Macgregors are direct line from
brought in a
Kenneth Macalpin, a hero famed in fabulous
history as the exterminator of the whole Pictish nation; whereas,
in the MS. of 1450, we have seen that their origin is very
different ; so that this change must have taken place between
these two periods. The pubhcation of the history of Fordun,
and the chronicle of Winton, had given a great popular celebrity
to the heroes of Scottish history, and some of the Highland
Sennachies finding a tribe of the Macgregors termed Macalpins,
probably took advantage of that circumstance to claim a descent
from the great hero of that name. The same cause apparently
induced them afterwards to desert their supposed progenitor
Kenneth, and to substitute in his place Gregory the Great, a
more mysterious, and therefore, perhaps, in their idea, a greater
hero than Kenneth.
A similar change may be observed in the traditionary origin
of the Macintoshes, Mackenzies, Macleans, &c.; the Macintoshes,
who, in the MS. of 1450, are made a part of the clan Chattan,
and descended from Gillechattan Mor, the great progenitor of
that race, appear soon after to have denied this descent, and to
have claimed as their ancestor, Macduff, the Thane of Fife, himself
a ereater and more romantic hero even than Kenneth
Macalpin. They were, however, unfortunate in this choice, as
in later times the very existence of Macduff has with some
reason been doubted, and they were perhaps induced to choose
him from the fact that the late earls of Fife possessed extensive
property in their neighbourhood, and also that there is some
reason for thinking that the earls of Fife were actually a branch
of the same race.
Not to multipl}' instances of the change of the traditionary
origins to this system, I shall only mention at present the
Mackenzies and the Macleans, who, probably, from finding the
Scotch field occupied, took a wider flight, and claimed descent
1 MS. penes Highland Society of Scotland.