What is a Clan?

• The word ‘clan’ derives from the Gaelic word ‘clann’ or ‘clanna’ for children, and describes a close-knit group of relatives.

• However, you didn’t need to be related to the clan chief to be considered a part of the clan: Anyone who pledged their allegiance to the chief could use the clan name as their own, and this included those who worked for the clan or needed protection.

• When surnames came into use in the 16th and 17th centuries, many took their clan leader’s name as their own.

Authority of the Clans

Most clans had a clan chief who acted as head of the community and controlled every aspect of clan life, from deciding who could get married to judging legal matters. Everyone who swore allegiance to the clan chief was considered part of the clan, whether related by blood or not to the chief.

• The clan chief was trusted to protect the territory of the clan, their dùthchas (heritage) and all those within it.

• If a clan gave their oighreachd (estate) to the clan leader, the chief became the owner of the land as recognised by the Crown.

• Land was passed on through heritable succession – when one clan chief died it was passed on to the next male in line.

• Anyone who lived on the clan’s estate had to pay their dues, and the payments were collected by the tacksmen, which were then passed on to the clan nobility.

The history of the clan system

Early in the 6th century, the area of Dalriada in the west coast of Scotland was divided between four tribes, descended from the brothers who founded the colony – the Cinel Gabram, the Cinel Comgall, the Cinel Lorn and the Cinel Angus.

The Picts also divided their land along tribal lines, and had 7 provinces – Cait, Ce, Circinn, Fib, Fidach, Fotlaig, and Fortrenn – whose boundaries can still be traced today in the areas of Caithness, Marr and Buchan, Angus and Mearns, Fife, Moray and Ross, Atholl and Gowrie, and Strathearn and Menteith respectively.

But the use of the word clan earlier than 11th Century is a misnomer – there is only some sparse evidence of simple clan structures prior to then. The political/social/economic structure of clans as we perceive it today did not really come into its own until the 13th century which is when you see evidence of that in historical documents for Clan Buchanan and why you often see Buchanan recognized as one of the earliest clans: the combination of the McAslan Documents and the 1225 Buchanan documents. 

Over time the clan system developed so that in each area there was a prominent family whose head became the chief. Being part of a clan offered protection and security, as well as the social benefits.

When Malcolm Canmore married Margaret, the granddaughter of Edmund, the King of England, in the 11th century, she persuaded him to introduce the English feudal system. This didn’t please the clans as it meant land they previously held as their own was now the king’s, but it did have the effect of cementing the clan system, giving the chiefs official status.

The use of surnames became more common in the 12th century but not every name became a sept and especially not a clan.  The aligning of so many names as septs really did not come about until modern times.  Under the umbrella of the main clans, powerful clansmen established their own septs or branches. In 1587 a roll of clans recorded the origins of all these families.

Why Did the Scottish Clan System Collapse?

Many pinpoint the bloody Battle of Culloden in 1746 as the moment where everything changed for Scotland’s clan system, as King George’s troops crushed the Jacobite rebellion. After a long line of erosions (by “chiefs” in the thrall of Edinburgh and London) since the statutes of Iona signed 150 years prior. In what today might be considered ethnic cleansing, the ruling King of England ordered all supporters of the Jacobite cause be slaughtered, including many of the clans that populated the Scottish Highlands. Much of the clearances were carried out by Clan chiefs whose antecedents now receive so much unjustified forelock tuggery.

This was followed by the notorious Highland Clearances and bitter disputes over land ownership, during which any final traces of Highland clans were forced on mass to the sea coast, the Lowlands or abroad.

Highland clans of Scotland (circa 1590)

A list of all active Clan Societies (using this map as a geographic reference)

We aim to provide and promote Scottish resources, but sometimes the best clan heritage resources may be from Australia or America; supporting the claim “you become more Scottish the further from Scotland you are”. The CBSI applaud these societies: promoting our culture.

Lowland and Other Clan Societies

(That might not appear on the above map; either because of timelines or Lowlander location)

More information on more clans can also be found on many other sites…