Phase I
Scotland
The Great Clans of Scotland — a model so distinct, so legible, and so beloved that it has become the world's vocabulary for family heritage.
- Clans
- 37
- Tiles
- 42
- Regions
- 11
The atlas
Hover a tile, click a region
Primer
How the Scottish clan system works
The Gaelic word clannmeans ‘children’. Each clan is, in theory, a family — a body of kin claiming descent from a common ancestor — though in practice clans gathered tenants, dependants, and septs who took the name in loyalty to a chief.
At the head of each clan stood the ceann-cinnidh, the chief, recognised by the Lord Lyon King of Arms in Edinburgh as the head of the name and the wearer of its undifferenced arms. Below him, the gentry of the clan held lands of him, swore fealty and provided men in war.
The Highlands and Islands were the heartland of the clan system. In the Lowlands and the Borders, family bonds were no less fierce, but the structures were called names or riding clans. The Borders gave us the great riding clans — Scotts, Elliots, Kerrs, Johnstones — while the Highlands gave us MacDonalds, MacLeods, Camerons, Mackenzies and the rest.
The system was broken, but never extinguished, in the aftermath of the 1745 Jacobite Rising. The Heritable Jurisdictions Act of 1746, the proscription of Highland dress, and the Clearances that followed scattered the clans across the world. The clan societies that endure today — and the millions in North America, Australia and New Zealand who still call themselves MacDonalds, Camerons, Sinclairs and Bruces — are their direct descendants.
Browse
By region
The Highlands & Islands
11 tilesThe vast, sea-girt north and west — Sutherland, Caithness, Ross, the Aird, Lochaber, Skye, Badenoch and the Outer Hebrides. The cradle of most of Scotland's most famous clans.
Argyll & the West Coast
4 tilesLorn, Kintyre, Cowal, Bute and the Lennox shore — peninsulas and islands, the country of the Lords of the Isles and, latterly, of the Campbells.
Moray
1 tilesThe fertile coastal lowland of the Moray Firth — between Inverness and the Spey, ruled in turn by mormaers, earls and Gordons.
Grampian & the North-East
4 tilesAberdeen, Buchan, Mar and Angus — the granite shoulder of the country, where Gordons, Forbeses and Leslies built castles by the dozen.
Perthshire
1 tilesAtholl and Strathearn — the Highland-Lowland borderland, home to Murrays, Stewarts, Robertsons and the Hays of Errol.
Stirling & the Forth Valley
3 tilesStirling Castle, the wee county and the Carse of Forth — the strategic waist of Scotland, fought over by every army to march here.
Fife
1 tilesThe Kingdom of Fife — its own peninsula between the Forth and Tay, with Leslie at its heart and a coastline of fishing burghs.
Lothian & Edinburgh
4 tilesThe capital and its surrounding country — Hamiltons, Hays, Hepburns and the seat of the kingdom itself.
The Borders
1 tilesThe reiving country — where Scotts, Elliots, Kerrs, Cockburns and Johnstones rode by night and feuded by day for three centuries.
Glasgow & Strathclyde
8 tilesThe Clyde valley and its industrial heartland — Hamilton country, with the Lennox to the north and the Lanarkshires to the east.
Ayrshire & Galloway
4 tilesThe south-west — Wallace's Strathclyde, Bruce's Annandale, the Cunninghams of Kilmaurs and the wild solitude of Galloway beyond.
Standard-bearers
Names you may know
MacDonald
“Per mare per terras”
The largest of the Highland clans — Lords of the Isles.
Campbell
“Ne obliviscaris”
From Argyll, the great political clan of the west.
Bruce
“Fuimus”
Norman blood, Scottish crown — the line that won Bannockburn.
Wallace
“Pro Libertate”
For liberty — the patriot's family.
Stewart
“Virescit vulnere virtus”
From High Stewards to the throne — the royal name of Scotland.
MacLeod
“Hold Fast”
Of Dunvegan, on Skye — keepers of the Fairy Flag.
Fraser
“Je suis prest”
Of Lovat — 'I am ready'.
MacGregor
“'S rioghal mo dhream”
The persecuted clan — proscribed but never broken.
Gordon
“Bydand”
The Cocks of the North — Earls and Dukes of Aberdeenshire.
Be early