The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

420 THE HIGHLANDERS [excursus
deduce from their Norse names— Leod (Ljdtr, " Ugly," curtailed doubtless
from Ljotulf, "Ugly Wolf"), Torquil or Thor-Kell ("Thors Kettle"),
Tormod (" Thor-mooded "), and further back, Ollghair (Olvir)— that the
chiefs were purely Norse. Their descent from Olave of Man is not proveable
old documents. Lewis and Harris formed the cradle of the race
by any
apparently ; and from this we may infer that the Lew is family was the elder,
as keeping the first habitat. Leod may, as the clan historians have it, have
lived in the time of Alexander III., after the cession of the Isles (1266). His
two sons, Torquil and Tormod, may have been the heads of the two branches
or clans (so Gregory) into which they were in historic times divided. An
interesting genealogy, attached to the Maclean genealogy {Celtic Scotland, iii.
482), should be borne in mind in discussing any genealogy before or after
Leod. It plainly contains "Ollaghar Nan Lann" of Mary the Bardess.
Page 352, line 16. Macleod of Harris does not always take precedence
of Macleod of Lewis in the charter signatures. On this score, they are about
even. Buchanan of Auchmar (1723) gives the Lewis branch the precedence.
Despite (Gregory, who regards them as two separate clans, with separate
armorial bearings, there seems little doubt that the clan chiefs are ultimately
from one father.
Page 354. The story of the atrocity at Egg, though formerly much
doubted, is now known to be perfectly true from a contemporary MS.
published in Celtic Scotland, iii. 428, &c. The date of the event is 1 577.
Page 356. Cl.\n Campbell. As Skene saj^s, the Campbells are
certainly Celtic. The name is an epithet. Caim-beul, "Wry-mouth," is
equivalent to the ancient Irish cerrbel, an epithet of Fergus, father of
Diarmat, king of Ireland (539-558). Cerrbel or Cearr-beul became a
Christian name as Cearbhall, Norse Kjarvalr, now Carrol. We meet also in
ancient literature with ech-bel, "horse-mouthed." The name Cameron is
also to be compared. The other derivations offered are useless. There was
no "de Campo-bello," because idiom demanded Bello-campo (Beauchamp,
Beecham) ; and " de Campellis " would become Champeaux. Of course the
Campbells belonged not to Garmoran, though apparently Arthur, son of Sir
Arthur Campbell, got a charter from the M'Rory heiress (about 1300) for the
Garmoran lands ; but it clearly took no effect. John Macarthur in 1427 lost
his life in reviving the claim to Garmoran, along with Alexander Mac Reury.
These Campbells were, no doubt, the Strathchur branch, whose claim to the
headship of the Campbell race rests merely on assertion. In Celtic Scotland,
iii. 331, Skene says the original seat of the Campbells was the district of
Lochow and Ardskeodnich, and he concedes to the Mac Cailin-Moir branch
the headship {Celtic Scotland, iii. 339). At anyrate, it is the genealogy of the
Lochow family that is always given ; it goes back to an ancestor, Duibhne.
who li\ed about the middle of the 12th century. The clan was certainly
known as Clann O Duibhne or Clann Duibhne (Englished Clan Guin, and
often badly rendered in its Gaelic form in the old MSS. and songs). In 1266,
Gillespie Campbell has the king's lands of Menstrie and Sauchie in
Stirlingshire — evidently temporarily ; but he is the first Cambell mentioned,
and is regarded, no doubt rightly, as father of Cailin Mor (1292), who
possessed lands in Argyle, and who is the family eponymus (M'Callu7;/-mor).