The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

4i6 THE HIGHLANDERS [excursus
Page 295. Macdonald of Keppoch had no right to his lands. His
ancestor, Angus of Fersit, was an illegitimate son of Alaster Carrach.
Page 299. The Clan Cameron. In modem times the Cameron
estates have been west of the Lochy. Again Skene's notion of " captain "
leads him astray. The septs of the Camerons were the Mac Maitins, Sliochd
Somhairle, Clann 'ic Gillonfhaidh, and the Locheil branch. The 1450 MS.
contains names from the Mac Martins and the M'Gillonies ; they are all the
same stock. Gillonfliaidh or ^laolonfhaidh means " Servant of Storm."
Cameron itself is from Gille-Camshroin, "Wry-nosed one." But the Camerons
of Fife, Edinburgh, and Southern Perth, derived their names from the placenames
Cambrun. Bishop Cameron was an Edinburgh man ; but he is given
in the Cameron genealogies as brother of that excellent rei\er, Donald Du !
The Cameron genealogy in the histories before Donald Du is manufactured
like that of Cluny in Douglas.
Page 302, line 6. Ewen Allanson got his lands of Locheil and Lochalsh
from Celestine of Lochalsh and his son. Sir Alexander. The Clan Ranald
was in possession of its usual Garmoran lands ; it had lost Lochaber
altogether.
Page 304. The Mac-Naughtons. The name Nectan is Pictish and
comes from 7v'g^ wash, as already said. The deportation of the Mac-
Xaughtons from Northern Moray is mere theory, and unlikely too. The
name exists clanwise only in Strathtay and Argyle. It seems clear that the
Mac-Naughtons are intruders into Argyle from Pictland.
Page 307. The Macleans. Of course the Macleans are not "of
Moray"; they are an Island family, the name being either Mac-Gilleoin or
Mac-Giir Sheathain (Gill'-eathain) ; in either case the name means "Son of
John's Gille." MS. 1450 has the genealogy, and improved by other sources
it appears at p. 480-1 of Celtic Scothmd^ iii.— a good genealogx-. Gillemore,
of Perth, is not in the genealogy and the three ; sons mentioned in Bruce's
time (John, Nigel, and Dofnald, 1326) are the sons of the real Gilleoin or
ancestor. For John Mac Gillimore, read John Mac Gilleoin.
Page 308. The Mackinnons were possessed of lands in Mull. The
Macleans were interlopers, apparently. The legend on p. 308 is old, but
unauthentic.
Page 309. The capture of Lachlan Mac Lean at Harlaw is unlikely.
Page 3 10- 1. An account of the feud between Maclean and Angus of Isla
is gi\en in the new history of Clan Donald^ vol. ii. p. 553-73. It gives a
more fair, if Macdonaldian, account of the transactions 1 (dates 596-8).
Page 312. Siol O'Cain. All this is traditional and unworthy of regard.
O'Cathan is not allied to Clan Chatan ; the one is from cath, battle ; the other
is from cat, cat. These O'Cathans came over in the ti'ain of the O'Cathan
wife of Angus Og (1300) — so the Seanachies say, but, to use Fordun's terms,
"they lie." These were native clans (p. 313). The Sleat Historian is the
main authority for all this.
Page 313. The Munros. The Sleat Seanachie says that this clan got
its name from Bun-Roe, " Mouth of Roy River," in Derry, and that they
came over in the train of Angus Og's wife (O'Cathan). A clan in the east of
Ross, before ever Macdonalds were Earls of Ross, could hardlv have come as