Mac Lachlan History
This name is Norse, and
Lochlainn was the name of the senior branch in
Tirconnell of the Ri'
neill descendents of
the pagan King Niall of the Nine Hostages. Until
1241 the Mac Lochlainns were virtual rulers of
Ulster, until they suffered defeat at the hands
of King Brian O'
Neill. their chief, Donall
Mac Lochlainn, was killed in the battle, along
with most of his immediate kin. The name appeared
in Scotland by the thirteenth century, when
Lachlan Mor lived on the shores of Loch Fyne.
Lachlan was a great warrior and a descendent of
the Irish kings. In 1292, Archibald Mac Lachlan
was one of the twelve barons whose lands were
formed into the fiefdom of Argyll. Ewen Mac
Lachlan appears on the Ragman Roll as a noble of
Scotland, swearing fealty to Edward I of England
in 1296. Gillespie, probably the son of the
chief, supported Robert the Bruce and attended
his first Parliament at St. Andrews in 1308. He
is also recorded in a charter of 1314, where he
granted a stipend to the friars at Glasgow from
his lands of Kilbride. By the early fifteenth
century the chiefs were described as"Lords
of Strathlachlan". In 1436, Iain, Lord of
Strathlachlan, granted a charter to his cousin,
Alan, creating him seneschal of the lands of
Glassary in Argyll. Donald Mac Lachlan confirmed
a grant to Paisley Abbey of an annual payment,
again from the lands of Kilbride. The Mac
Lachlans recognised the rising power of the
Campbells of Argyll, and allied themselves to the
earls. Iain Mac Lachlan witnessed a bond by
Stewart of Appin in favour of the Earl of Argyle
in 1485. His son, Archibald, married a daughter
of the chief of the Lamonts. From this marriage
came Lachlan Mac Lachlan who, as part of the Earl
s suite, travelled to France for
the marriage of James V. The king'
to the eldest daughter of Francis I of France was
held in Paris.
In 1615, the Mac Lachlan
chief, Lachlan Og, led his clan in Argyll'
foray against the Mac Donalds of Islay. He had
previously obtained a charter to his lands from
James VI in 1591, but in 1633 he procured an Act
of Parliament confirming him as Laird of Mac
Lachlan. His lands, which were enumerated in the
Act, extended to over thirty-four farms in
Strathlachlan and Loch Fyne.
The civil war allowed many
clans an opportunity to settle old scores, and
the Mac Lachlans fought with their neighbours,
the Lamonts. Lachlan Mac Lachlan of that Ilk
accepted a commission in 1656 from Oliver
Cromwell, the Lord Protector, to be justice of
the peace for Argyllshire. His son, Archibald,
the fifteenth chief, received a charter in 1680,
erecting his whole lands into the Barony of
Strathlachlan with Castle Lachlan as its seat. He
died in 1687 shortly before his clan embarked
upon the first of the Jacobite campaigns.
The Mac Lachlans fought for
Viscount Dundee at Killiecrankie in 1689, and the
Mac Lachlan chief himself was present at the
raising of the standard of James VIII, the
"Old Pretender", in Scotland in 1715.
The Mac Lachlans followed the Earl of Mar to the
Battle of Sheriffmuir. It is said that the chief
was harried by the Campbells until his death in
1719, for his part in the rising. In 1745 the Mac
Lachlans rallied to Prince Charles Edward Stuart,
making their way through Campbell country in time
to join the prince at Prestonpans.
At Culloden, the Mac Lachlan
colours were burned on the Duke of
s orders by the public hangman at
Edinburgh. Castle Lachlan was left in ruins and
s family was forced to flee.
Lachlan was declared forfeit for treason, but as
the estates had been conveyed to his son over a
decade before the rising, they escaped untouched.
A new mansion house was built in the nineteenth
century in sight of the ruins of the ancient
During the Second World War,
the chiefship was assumed by Marjory Mac Lachlan
of Mac Lachlan, the twenty-fourth chief. Her
father, Major John Mac Lachlan, had commanded the
Argyllshire Volunteer Regiment during the First
World War. He was Vice Lord Lieutenant of Argyll
and a member of the Royal Company of Archers (the
s bodyguard in Scotland).