The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

412 THE HIGHLANDERS [excursus
taken by Flaithbhertach ; and the genealog)' is that of Clan Lament ! The
connection of King Suibne of Galloway with these mythic names is merely
fancy. Anradan, or better Anrothan, is not Henry. The Mac Neills are not
mentioned, nor the Mac Gillevrays in MS. 1450. The latter were an old
Argyleshire clan ; and a branch of Clan Chattan bore the same name—
from Gille-bratha, better Maol-br^tha, "Servant of Doom." Gillebride
could never phonetically become (^illevray. The whole page (247) is a
mistake.
i'age 248, line 10. Knapdale in 1292 belonged to the Earl of Menteith
and was in the sheriffdom of Lorn. It was acquired from the Sweens thirty
years before as the Paisley charters show.
Page 248. The Mac Neills. This clan was divided into two branches :
Mac Neills of Gigha and Castle Sween, and the Mac Neills of Barra. They
were separate clans historically, and Gregory thinks, from their non-connection
and from their different armorial bearings, that they are not descended
from two brothers, but are independent. If there was any chiefship, then
Gigha family had it, as the quotation on p. 249, line 21, shows, for this Chief
Torkil in 1530, by the same document, is gifted with the non-entry of Gigha.
It IS a pity Skene did not quote this fact. An excellent account of the Mac
Neills of Barra appeared in the Highland Ncivs {ox 15th December, 1900,
from the pen of Re\-. A. Maclean Sinclair. Skene is wrong in saying that
the MS. of 1450 contains any reference to the Mac Neills. It does not
{Celtic Scotland, iii. p. 473). The name Niall means "champion."
Page 250. The Mac Lachlans. MS. 1450 derives the Maclachlans, the
Lamonts, the Clan Somerled (.?), and Mac Ewens of Otter from Aed Alan,
the Buirche, son of Anradan, descendant of Niall (ilun-dubh, the loth century
Irish king. The Dedaalan given as father of Ciilchrist is the above Aed
Alan, whom Skene in Celtic Scotland, iii. 472, regards as a far-away ancestor
of Gilchrist. Angus Mac Rory, here and on p. 254, was no ancestor of the
Lamonts, as MS. 1450, revised in Celtic Scotland, iii. 472, will show. The
name Lachlan is somehow descended from Lochlan, " Norse-land."
Page 251. Mac Ewen. The Gaelic of Ewen is Eoglian, "well born,''
with the same meaning as Eugenius or Eugene.
Page 252. Siol Eachern. The statement that the Clan Dugall Craignish
and the Lamonds are of the same stock is justified by the Lamond genealogy
m MS. 1450, which Skene had misread. Where he gels his "Siol Eachern"
is not known to the Editor. The Mac Eacherns flourished as a clan-let in
the first half of the i6th century in Kilblane of Kintyre, the chief having the
lands of Killelane and others after the forfeiture of the Lord of the Isles.
Colin Makauchern of Killelane in 1499 was "mayrof fee" for South Kintyre,
as he was before under the Island lord. The land was lost in 1552 to the
grasping Lord of Dunivaig. In the first edition of MS. 1450, Skene gives an
ill-read genealogy of the Mac Eacherns. Eachthigherna means " Horse-lord."
Page 252. Clan Dugall Craignish. Dugall of Craigins is mentioned in
1292. In 1361 the heiress Christina parted with his barony, in her sore dis-
tress, to Colin Cambel, of Lochow, ancestor of the Duke of Argyle. Skene's
arguments about the early connection of the Macgillivrays, Macinnesses, and
Clan Dugall are all "in the air"—not even good guesswork.