The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

AND NOTES] O F S C O T L A X D 413
Page 253. Clan Lamont. Skene failed to recognise this clan in MS.
1450 ; hence he does not join them to the Mac Lachlans, &c. They were
powerful in the 13th century, and too generous to the Church. It is unlikely
that they bore the name Mac-erchar previous to Mac Lamont, though there
was a tendency latterly to do so. Anegosius Maccarawer, who submitted to
Edward I. in 1297, has been claimed as the then chief of Mackintosh, though
really head of the Laments. The name Lamont is earlier Lagman, a Norse
name, the same in force and elements as English Law-man.
Page 256. Atholl. Older Gaelic form, Athihotla or Ath-Fodla,
"Second Fodla" or Second Ireland, Fodla being one of the names of
Ireland, and that also of a mythical queen of the same. Atholl is one of the
old Pictish provinces, and its population represent the best type of the
Caledonians. Skene here makes it belong to the Gall-Gaidheil— a flat
impossibility. The Norse never had any power in Atholl.
Page 256. Abthaxe. The title Abthane, to which Skene here devotes
several pages, never e.xisted ! The word is the old Gaelic for Abbey-land,
All this is known in Celtic Scotland^ ii. 343, and in
still preserved in I Appin
vol. i., p. 431, Skene actually criticises
nonsense ! The
Burton for following Fordun in such
ingenious arguments about abthane all fall to the ground
(pp. 257-263).
Page 264. Clan Donnachie. The name Donchath or Donnchath is
explained as for Donno-catus "Warrior-lord" or " Brown-warrior," for the
colour donn meant both. Duno-catus, another old name, makes this doubt-
ful, for duno {u short) is used in names and means " strength " ; as dumiin, it
means "town," "fort."
Page 266, line 9 from bottom. Read Conaing, not Conan.
Page 270. Clan Pharlan. This clan has nothing to do with Atholl.
The clan is descended from the Earls of Lennox, as he well shows later.
These Earls themselves were Celtic, and a Celtic genealogy is given them in
the older genealogies {Celtic Scotland^ iii. 476) and in MS. 1450, though
Skene was unable to decipher the genealogy in the 1450 MS., or, indeed, to
or rather
recognise it. The name Ailin in the Gaelic records, Englished,
Latinised, as Alwyn (us), is native ; it is also old, for Adamnan (700) has it as
Ailenus. The root is «/, stone (cf. Athelstane, Thorstein, iScc.) The Norman
Alan is from Breton, and means an Alemann (" All Men " cf ; Frank, Norman,
Dugall).
Page 271, line ir. Aluin Macarchill appears in the Book of Deer as
Algune Mac Arcill (8th year of Ua\id's reign), and the man was an East
Coast—probably Aberdeen—
potentate.
Page 275, line "
24. Andrew Macfarlane does not appear to have had a
natural title to the ? chiefship." Why Because Sir John Macfarlane is called
'"''
capitaneiis de Clan Pharlane"; and Skene is satisfied capiianiis or
" " "
captain means cadet chief" Now, captain is the ver}' earliest word for
"
chief" The word chief did not then naturally mean what was known as a
Highland chief The 1587 Act puts "captain" before either "chief" or
"chieftain." See p. 291, 1. 13 from bottom, for proper use of "captain."
There is no break in the Macfarlane genealogy (so Celtic Scotland^ iii. 329).
This is history as "she was wrote" in 1837. The name Parian, as he says.