The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

AND NOTES] O F S C O T L A X D 417
attendants on the bride of the Lord of Kintyre In west Argyle. The name is
veiy difficult to unravel it is a ; place-name, since the first chiefs in the 14th
century are called de Mtinro. Monadh-Ruadh, or even Bun-Ruadh (" Red
Mount," " Red-footland "), would phonetically suit—the former especially.
Ruadh, or Rodh, is the latter root and the foundation of the Gaelic name,
Rothach, a Alunro. Robert de Monro is the first assured chief by charter
evidence (1341-1372).
Page 316. The Mac-Millans. The name is firstly Mac-Gille-mhaoil,
Gille-maol, " Bald Gille " : but it probably stands for Gille-na-maol, which
means " Gille of the Saints." Shortened in the usual way, it appears as
Maolan. Compare Gille-naomh, Irish Gille-na-naomh, "Gille of the Saints,"
whence M'Gilnef, and Naomhan, whence M'Niven. The Macmillans of Knap
and those of Lochaber were clearly independent clans.
Page 317. The Buchanans and ^NI'Auslans, as already said, are
descended from the Earls of Lennox, and can be traced by early charters.
See note above on p. 275.
Page 318. The first earl of Ross was Malcolm Mac-Heth, who was
liberated in 11 57, witnessed a charter of Dunfermhne Abbey as Malcolm
Mac Eth, and as Earl of Ross was entrusted with the defence of the monks
of Dunfermline. His real due was the suppressed Earldom of Moray ; he
got only the (easter) Ross part of it. He seems to have behaved badly, and
probably plotted to get back the old Earldom. The ne.xt Earl of Ross is the
Count of Holland, but he does not seem to have had more than the nominal
title. The first Earl of line was Ferchar Mac-in-tagart (son of the priest),
hailing evidently from the west—from the clerical district of Applecross. His
family name was O BeoUan, Beollan being a common name then, even
borrowed by the Norse (from bciil^ mouth). His connection with the Clan
Gillanders is close, though not clear. Paul Mac-Mac-tire, in 1370, was,
chief of it.
evidently from MS. 1450,
Page 319, line 4 from bottom. Gilleoin does not translate into Colin.
Later it is the surname Gilleon, a side form of Maclean.
Page 320, line "
15 from bottom. (jael of Western
&c." The Isles were still Norse.
"
Isles"— read Gall,
Page 322, line 7. Paul Mac Tyre. Tyre was not his father, as usually is
supposed, but Mac-tire (meaning " Wolf," a common name in his day and
earlier) ; the name is Paul Mac Tc-tire. Of course Paul the Wolf is possible,
and, as a fact, he harried Caithness sufficiently to earn this title. Historians
usually call him after old traditions, Paul the Robber.
Page 323. The Rosses of Balnagown were descended of Hugh ot
Rarichies, third son of Hugh, fifth Earl of .Sutherland. For the whole
subject, see F. N. Reid's Earls of Ross (1894). The third Balnagown married
Paul Mac-Mac-tire's daughter and heiress.
Page 326. The Mackenzies were vassals of the Earls of Ross, and little
or nothing is known of their history until the forfeiture of the last Earl.
Their first charter is about the first forfeiture of the Island lord—
1463.
Anything before that is spurious. The first chief mentioned is Kenneth
More, leader of two thousand, captured by the king in 1427, as Skene here
says. In Celtic Scotland^ iii. 317, he gives this Kenneth Mor as ancestor of
DD