Scottish Clans

When someone wants to learn more about the Scottish clans, or about a specific clan, where do they go?  On an internet search, which websites pop up at the top of the list?  I look into this subject, describing and critiquing these sources.  What's your primary source to learn about the clans?  Find the Scottish Clans Facebook page and let me know there.

In all our discussion of Gaels, Britons, Angles, and Picts, let's not leave out the Norse and Normans, who founded many Scottish kindreds.  Remember that the Normans were originally Scandinavians who were invited by the king of France to settle in northern France (modern Normandy) to serve as buffers against further Viking attacks.  They integrated into French society, married local girls, and adopted the language.  

Some clans that have Norse origins are MacAskill, MacAulay, McCorquodale, McCotter, MacIver, McKittrick, Gunn, and MacLeod.  Let's not leave out a group of kindreds that don't necessarily have a Norse name but do, in fact, descend, at least partially from the Norse.  I'm talking about those descended from Somerled: MacRory, MacDougall, and MacDonald.  

The Normans were introduced to Scotland much less violently than the Norse (and even much less violent than their own arrival in England).  They were invited, many of them by David I.  Some of the kindreds that were founded by a Norman include Bruce, Comyn, Montgomery, Fraser, Grant, Murray, Sutherland, Crawford, Hay, Hunter, Innes, Jardine, Kerr, Menzies, Ramsay, Sinclair, and Stewart.

A short not on a few of these kindreds.  Although the Murrays and Sutherlands are usually included in a list of Norman clans, they claim descent from a Flemish knight named Freskin.  Also, the Stewarts are descended from a Breton family who moved into England with the Normans.

#Scotland, #Scottish, #Vikings, #Clan,

In this episode, I discuss the other, non-Gaelic ethnic groups that, along with Dal Riata, were the foundation of Scotland.  Which clans claim descent from them?  In the southwest of Scotland, from around the Loch Lomond area down through Galloway were the Britons of Clyde Rock (later of Strathclyde).  In the eastern Lowlands, the Germanic Angles established themselves at the expense of the earlier Britons and Picts.  North of the Firth of Clyde/Forth line and east of Drumalban were the Picts, who spoke a language relating to the Britons.  

There was so much mixing that we shouldn't get too caught up with the concept of someone being a pure Picts or Gael, Briton or Angle since there wasn't such a thing, at least not concerning their ancestry.  A quick look at a list of any clan's chiefs and who they married will dispell the idea of purity.  The language issue would have been a different story, but that was fluid over time.  With that said, it is interesting to know the origins of clans and what their ethnic background was.  That's the reason behind this episode.  As I looked into the origins of individual clans, unless I could clearly see that there was a Norman or Viking ancestor, I assumed an origin corresponding with the original ethnic group dominant in that particular region of Scotland.

British clans might include Wallace, Muir, Cathcart, Cunningham, Douglas (unless the claim of descent from Freskin is accurate), Carmichael, Carruthers, Scott, Johnstone, Armstrong.

Clans with a possible Angle origin are Lockhart, Gordon (maybe), Rutherford, Nesbitt, Turnbull, Home, and Dunbar.

Clans who may descend from the Picts include Forbes, Sempill, MacDuff (and by virtue of the MacDuffs: MacIntosh, Shaw of Rothiemurchus, Farquharson, MacThomas, Wemyss and Scrymgour), MacNaughten, Brodie, Eliot, and Ogilvy.

Here we take a look back to the first Gaelic kingdom in Scotland and their tribal origins.  I discuss the leading kindreds of Dal Riata: Cenel nGabrain, Cenel Loairn, Cenel nOengusa, and Cenel Comgaill.  How do the clans of Scotland that we are familiar with tie back to these tribes?  Is it from these kindreds that Scotland was to inherit their kin-based society?

Dal Riata occupied the territory that today is called Argyll, Lorne, and the Inner Hebrides.  Their kings were centered on Dunadd.  Their kin-based society may have been the source for that characteristic in the later kingdom of Scotland.  The Vikings were probably the cause of the end of this kingdom.  Rather than just give up, the leading kindreds of Dal Riata moved east.  They had already intermarried with the Pictish royal families.  This combined lineage produced the kings of the kingdom of Alba. 

The MacDuffs claim descent from this fusion of royal houses.  Clans that claim descent from the MacDuffs include several from Clan Chattan (Macintosh, MacThomas, Shaw of Rothiemurchus, and Farquharson), Wemyss, and Scrymgour.

In this episode, I tell you who I am and where I come from.

Welcome to the Scottish Clans podcast!  In this episode, we discuss the topic of Scottish Clans in general, including why this podcast is necessary.