The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

422 THE HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND
Isles. Angus Du is the first historic chief of Clan Mackay, and from Donald's
charter we learn that he held also Strathnaver (Aed dc Strathnaver), or part
of it. He does not seem to have held it of the crown. Angus opposed the
claims of Donald of Isles to the Earldom of Ross, and put himself at the head
of all the men of Sutherland, belonging to the Earldom of Ross, and the Rossshire
men, to expel Donald from the earldom, but Angus was defeated and
captured. He then married Donald's sister, and in 141 5 received the lands
above mentioned (Strathhalladale and Ferrincoskry). In 1427, he was
arrested as abettor to the Lord of the Isles, his nephew, when he is
represented as having 4000 men at his command. This number must apply
to his former campaign against Macdonald, when he had all the malcontents
of the Earldom of Ross at his back. The Mackays were never so numerous
as the Mackenzies, who, in 1427, could muster 2000. But all Fordun's
numbers are clearly exaggerated for the clans and chiefs then in arms in
Macdonald's cause.
Page 364. "Y. Mackay": this should simply be "Y Mackay." The
single letter Y was all that then represented Aodh, older Aed, " Fire."
Pages 366-7. All the arguments about Ness here are simply wasted
ingenuity. See above note on — p. 359 Caithness.
Page 367. The Mac-NICOLS. This was a Norse clan like the Macleods.
Macnicol is, and was, sometimes pronounced Mac;racuil according to a wellknown
Gaelic phonetic law that en becomes cr (cf. Macreachtain for Mac-
naughton, Macrigh for Macni). An ancestor, Krycul, is absurdly impossible
as a name. Nicolas was a common Norse name. The habitat of the Clan
when the Macleods took
Nicol is now Skye ; they say that they left Assynt
possession of it, and came over to the nearest shore of Skye. Nicolsons have
been there for at least three hundred years, in abundance.
Page 370. Skene regards Sutherland proper— east of the Brae-chat and
but
Dirie-chat range— as Norse, the Gaelic speakers being mostly incomers ;
the same must be said of the rest of Sutherland. The old Earls of Sutherland
were Celts of the Celts—the famed De Moravia family. Like the De Atholia
family, they belonged to the famil)- of the Mormaers of Moray— kinsmen by
descent to Macbeth, Finlay, and Ruary. The Murrays still hold high places
in the : peerage Duke of Atholl, Earls Mansfield and Dunmore, not to
mention lesser titles. Freskin of Moray was probably the descendant of a
refugee, De Moravia, who established himself in Norse Sutherland about the
first Mac-Heth rebellions. The name Freskyn is still unexplained, but it is
likely to be either Pictish or Gaelic, and not Flemish or Frisian as usually
asserted.
Page 382, line 13. Delete "spoke languages that."
FINI.S.