Originates in the barony of the same name in Perthshire. The first of the name on record is Radulphus Ruffus who received a charter of the lands from William the Lion around 1180. There is a record of a royal confirmation (1204 – 1214) of a grant by Richard of Kinnaird, grandson of Radulphus. Rauf […]
Note: WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED THAT THIS CLAN HISTORY MAY BE INACCURATE – WE ARE AWAITING A REVISED CLAN HISTORY. A branch from very early in the MacDonald line became the Clanranalds and a branch from them settled on the mainland near Inverness, built Invergarry Castle and chose to spell their name MacDonnell, which is […]
This clan were members of the Clan Chattan confederation. Their originator was Farquhar, the fourth son of Alexander Cier (Shaw) of Rothiemurchus, owner of the Braes of Mar in Aberdeenshire, near which the River Dee has its source. A 19th century depiction of a Farquharson clansman by R.R. McIan Farquhar had a son, Donald, who […]
The MacLeod clan claims its descent from Leod, a younger son of Olaf the Black, one of the last Norse kings of Man. Leod married a daughter of the Norse steward of Skye, which brought the family to Dunvegan. From there, the clan divided into two main branches, the MacLeods of Skye, and the MacLeods […]
The surname Troup is of territorial origin, coming from the manor of Troup in the parish of Gamrie in Banffshire. It is said that the Troup of that Ilk line ended when the heiress married one of the younger sons of Keith, Earl Marischal. Mentions in an Ayrshire charter, circa 1370-1380, of a John of […]
The name Auchinleck is also found as Affleck, Auchinlec, Haghenlek, Aghleke, Achenleck, and Aathelek and originates from the barony of Auchinleck in Ayrshire. The origins of the name Auchinleck (Pronounced OKH-in-LEK) are most likely to have come from the Gaelic Ach meaning an elevation, mound, or round hill, generally level at the top. Then leac […]
The name Strachan derives from the lands of Strachan or Strathachan in Kincardineshire. This territory was once the northern border of the ancient Pictish kingdom of Circind. The earliest mention of the clan is in 1200 when Walderus de Stratheihen granted lands to the church of St Andrews. the first recorded to use the territorial […]
The surname Riddell, also seen as Riddall, Riddel, and Riddle, sees its origins come from two different sources; one being personal, the other territorial. The personal origin comes from the Ridels who came from Gascony, in south-west France, whereas the territorial surname, de Rydale, came from a wapentake (an old English administrative meeting place) in […]
Hope is probably a native Scots name deriving from ‘Hop’. In middle English this means ‘small valley’. Another suggestion is that it derives from ‘oublon’, which is French for ‘hop’ and could be from the family de H’oublons of Picardy. This borders family, whatever the origin of their name it was among those added to […]
The legends of King Arthur are well known and historically contradictory. From the Welsh-speaking areas of Strathclyde (in which Glasgow now lies), Rheged and Gododdin (in which Edinburgh now lies), the earliest surviving Scottish poem tells of the resistance leader Arthur fighting against the English of Northumbria when they defeated Gododdin. When Scotland’s Welsh-speaking Kingdoms […]
