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"The most numerous and widespread of the clans, the
Clan Donald is one of the families, who, while
using different surnames or different methods of
writing the same surname, have an identical
genealogical derivation. Of these, the families
of MacDonald or McDonald, and MacDonell or
McDonnell, are the most important. The mode of
writing is immaterial, the name is the same; they
are of one stock; and the story of Clan Donald is
the story of their ancestors. As told later, the
Clan derived its generic name from Donald, the
grandson of Somerled: and hence the name
MacDonald, or son of Donald, Mac, or the Gaelic
Mhic, signifying son. By abbreviating the prefix
to Mc and M' many families write the name
McDonald and M'Donald. The surname MacDonell,
McDonnell, McDonell, and other forms and methods
of writing this name, came first into use, when Aeneas MacDonald of
the Glengarry branch was, in 1660, raised to the
Peerage of Scotland by the title of Lord
MacDonell. In the earlier chapters the family
name has been written in its unabbreviated form,
MacDonald, although, even in those bygone days
the shorter forms of Mac were frequently used;
and any record of names in Scotland of today will
indicate that the prefix is quite as frequently
Mc as Mac. In the case of the modern families
descended from the Clan, the mode of orthography
has been followed, which, from long usage, the
families have rightly been in the habit of using.
The important position occupied by the Clan Donald
and its branches invests the narrative of its
rise and history with unusual interest to all,
but more especially to those of the Clan, who may
well refer with pride to their noble descent from
the independent rulers of the island
principality, the Kings of the Isles. The early
history and descent of the Clan are involved in
the cloudy shades of antiquity; and its origin is
connected with many of the most interesting
questions of Scottish ethnology.
After the evacuation of Britain by the Romans, the
country north of the Firth of Forth was occupied
by a Pictish people designated the Alban Gael,
whom historians agree were of the same race as
the Cruithne of Ireland, and whose language was a
type of a modern Scottish Gaelic. This people
probably came first to Scotland between 500 B.C.
and 300 B.C. To the south, the Scots of Dalriada
occupied part of Argyll, and the country of Mull,
Islay and the Southern Isles. The Alban Gaels or
Picts, north of the Forth, were divided into the
Northern Picts, who held the country north of the
Grampians, and the Southern Picts. When, in 844,
the Dalriads, Scots and Southern Picts were
united in one kingdom by Kenneth MacAlpin, the
Northern Picts remained unaffected by the union.
Included in the territory occupied by these
Picts, or Alban Gael, were the Western Islands,
know to the Gael as Innse-Gall, or the Island of
the Strangers, which later formed part of the
dominion of the Kings of the Isles, progenitors
of the Clan Donald. In these early days the
Islands were constantly ravaged by the Norsemen
and the Danes, who kept the whole western
seaboard in a state of perpetual turmoil.
"When watch fires burst
across the main
From Rona, and Uist and Skye,
To tell that the ships of the Dane
And the red-haired slayer were nigh;
Our Islesmen rose from their slumbers,
And buckled on their arms.
But few, alas! were their numbers
To Lochlin's mailed swarms;
And the blade of the bloody Norse
Has filled the shores of the Gael
With many a floating corpse
And many a widow's wail."
When Harold, the Fair Haired, in the year 875,
constituted himself King of the whole of Norway,
many of the small independent jarls, or princes,
of that country refused to acknowledge his
authority, and came to the innse-Gall, or Western
Isles. Harold pursued them, and conquered Man,
the Hebrides, Shetlands, and Orkneys. The year
following this conquest, the Isles rose in
rebellion against Harold, who sent his cousin
Ketil to restore order; but Ketil exceeded his
instructions, and declared himself King of the
Isles, being followed by a succession of Kings,
until the Isles were finally added to Scotland.
Allied with these Norse sea rovers was a Pictish
people, called the Gall Gael, and Dr. Skene, the
historian, claims that from the Gall Gael sprung
the ancestors of the Clan Donald. The name Gall
has always been applied by the Gael to strangers,
and Skene maintains that the Western Gaels came,
by association, to resemble their Norwegian
allies in characteristics and mode of life, and
thus acquired the descriptive name of Gall.
The historical founder of the Family of the Isles was
Somerled, Rex Insularum, for whom some writers
have claimed a Norwegian origin, but although the
name is Norse all other circumstances point to a
different conclusion. The traditions of the Clan
Donald invariably represent that he descended
from the ancient Pictish division of the Gael,
and the early history of the Clan Cholla , the
designation of the Clan prior to the time of
Donald, penetrates into far antiquity. Tradition
takes us back to the celebrated Irish King,
Conn-Ceud Chathach, or Conn of a Hundred Fights,
the hundredth "Ard Righ," or supreme
King of Ireland. Conn's court was at Tara and he
died in 157 A.D. The Scottish poet Ewen
MacLachlan refers to this early royal ancestor of
the race of Somerled.
"Before the pomp advanced
in kingly grace I see the stem of Conn's
victorious race, Whose sires of old the
Western sceptre swayed, Which all the Isles
and Albion's half obeyed."
Fourth in descent from Coon came Eochaid Duibhlein, who
married a Scottish Princess, Aileach, a daughter
of the King of Alba. An old Irish poem describes
the Princess as "a mild, true woman, modest,
blooming till the love of the Gael disturbed her,
and she passed with him from the midst of Kintyre
to the land of Uladh." Their three sons all
bore the name of Cholla - Colla Uais, Colla Meann
and Colla da Crich. The designation Colla was
"imposed on them for rebelling," and
means a strong man, their original names being
Cairsall, Aodh and Muredach. The three Collas
went to Scotland to obtain the assistance of
their kindred to place Colla Uais on the Irish
throne, and with their help placed him there, but
he was compelled to give way to a relative,
Muredach Tirech, who had a better title to the
sovereignty. The three brothers then returned to
Scotland , where they obtained extensive
settlements and founded the Clan Cholla. Colla
Uais came Erc, who died in 502 A.D., leaving
three sons, Fergus, Lorn and Angus. Fergus came
from Ireland to Scotland and founded in
Argyllshire the Kingdom of Dalriada in Albany,
which later extended and became the Kingdom of
Scotland. At this point the Clan Donald line
touches that of the Scottish Kings, showing their
common origin and ancestry. Fergus had two sons,
Domangart, the elder, who succeeded his father
and was the progenitor of Kenneth Macalpin, and
the line of Scottish Kings; and Godfruich, or
Godfrey, the young son, who was known as Toshach
or Ruler of the Isles, and was the progenitor of
the line from which the Clan Donald sprang.
The Seannachies carry the line through several
generations, through Hugh the Fair Haired, who
was inaugurated Ruler of the Isles by St. Columba
in Iona, in 574, through Ethach of the Yellow
Locks, and Aidan of the Golden Hilted Sword, who
died in 621, down to Etach III, who died in 733,
having first united the Isles after they had been
alternately ruled by Chiefs of the houses of
Fergus and Lorn. Kenneth MacAlpin, the first King
of the united Dalriads, Scots and Picts, married
the daughter of Godfrey, a later Lord of the
Isles. We now arrive at the immediate ancestors
of Somerled.
Hailes in his Annals related that, in 973, Marcus, King
of the Isles; Kenneth, King of the Scots, and
Malcolm, King of the Cambri, entered into a bond
for mutual defense. Then followed Gilledomman,
the grandfather of Somerled. Gilledomnan was
driven from the Isles by the Scandinavians, and
died in Ireland, where he had taken refuge. His
son, Gillebride, who had gone to Ireland with his
father, obtained the help of the Irish of the
Clan Cholla, and, landing in Argyll, made a
gallant attempt to expel the invaders. The
Norsemen proved too strong, and Gillebride was
compelled to hide in the woods and caves of
Morven. At this time, when the fortunes of the
Clan were at the lowest ebb, there arose a savior
in the person of one of the most celebrated of
Celtic heroes, Somerled, the son of Gillebride.
He was living with his father in the caves of
Morven and is described in an ancient chronicle
as "A well tempered man, in body shapely, of
a fair and piercing eye, of middle stature and
quick discernment." His early years were
passed in hunting and fishing; "his looking
glass was the stream; his drinking cup the heel
of his shoe; he would rather spear a salmon than
spear a foe; he cared more to caress the skins of
seals and otters than the shining hair of women.
At present he was as peaceful as a torch or beacon -
unlit. The hour was coming when he would be
changed, when he would blaze like a burnished
torch, or a beacon on a hilltop against which the
wind is blowing." But when the Isles' men,
over whom his ancestors had ruled, were in dire
need of a leader Somerled came forward in his
true character. A local tradition in Skye tells
that the Islesmen held a council at which they
decided to offer Somerled the chiefship, to be
his and his descendants forever.
They found Somerled fishing, and to him made their
offer. Somerled replied, "Islesmen, there is
a newly run salmon in the black pool yonder. If I
catch him, I will go with you as your Chief; if I
catch him not, I shall remain where I am."
The Islemen, a race who believed implicitly in
omens, were content, and Somerled cast his line
over the black pool. Soon after a shining salmon
leapt in the sun, and the skilful angler had the
silvery fish on the river bank. The Islemen
acclaimed him their leader, and as such he sailed
back with them "over the sea to Skye,"
where the people joyously proclaimed that the
Lord of the Isles had come. Such a tradition in
Skye. Other accounts say that the scene of
Somerled's first achievements was in Morven, and
his conquest of the Isles later.
Somerled, Rex Insularum, took his place as a leader of men,
from whom descended a race of Kings, a dynasty
distinguished in the stormy history of the Middle
Ages, who ranked themselves before the Scottish
Kings.
"The mate of monarchs, and
allied On equal terms with England's
pride."
The young hunter uprose a mighty warrior, who with
dauntless courage and invincible sword struck
terror into the hearts of his foes. Nor did he
depend along on his matchless courage. In one of
his first encounters with the Norse invaders he
made full use of that "quick
discernment" ascribed to him by the early
chronicler. It happened that while on a small
island with a following of only one hundred
Islemen, he was surrounded by the whole Norwegian
fleet, and, realizing that his small force was
utterly inadequate to resist their attack,
conceived a clever stratagem to deter the
norsemen from landing on the island. Each of his
men was ordered to kill a cow, and this having
been done, and the cows skinned, Somerled ordered
his little force to march round the hill on which
they lay encamped; which having been done, in
full view of the enemy, he then made them all put
on the cowhides to disguise themselves, and
repeat the march round the hill. He now ordered
his men to reverse the cowhides, and for a third
time march round the hill, thus exhibiting to the
Norsemen the appearance of a force composed of
three divisions. The ruse succeeded, for the
enemy fleet withdrew.
This story is related in another form by the bards or
seannachies of Sleat, as follows: There was a
little hill betwixt them and the enemy, and
Somerled ordered his men to put off their coats,
and put their shorts and full armor above their
coats. So, making them go three times in
disguised manner about the hill, that they might
seem more in number than they really were, at
last he ordered them to engage the Danes, saying
that some of them were on shore and the rest in
their ships; that those on shore would fight but
faintly so near their ships; withal he exhorted
his soldiers to be of good courage, and to do as
they would see him do, so they led on the charge.
The first whom Somerled slew he ript up and took out
his heart, desiring the rest to do the same,
because that the Danes were no Christians. So the
Danes were put to flight; many of them were lost
in the sea endeavoring to gain their ships, the
lands of Mull and Morverin being freed at that
time from their yoke and slavery.
Somerled prosecuted the war into the heart of the enemy's
country; and having gained possession of the
mainland domain of his forefathers, he took the
title of Thane or Regulus of Argyll, determining
to obtain possession of the Kingdom of Man and
the Isles and thus form a Celtic Kingdom.
Olave the Red, then King of Man and the Isles, becoming
alarmed at the increasing power of Somerled,
arrived with a fleet in Storna Bay. The
"quick discernment" of Somerled again
proved equal to the occasion. He was desirous of
obtaining the hand of Olave's daughter,
Ragnhildis, in marriage, and went to meet the
King of Man. Somerled wishing to remain unknown
to Olave, said, "I Come from Somerled, Thane
of Argyll, who promises to assist you in your
expedition, provided you bestow upon him the hand
of your daughter, Ragnhildis." Olave,
however, recognized Somerled, and declined his
request. Tradition says that Somerled was much in
love with the fair Ragnhildis, and considering
all is fair in love and war, agreed to the
following plan to obtain her father's consent:
Maurice MacNeill, a foster brother of Olave, but also a
close friend of Somerled, bored several holes in
the bottom of the King's galley, making pins to
plug them when the necessity arose, but meanwhile
filled the holes with tallow and butter. When,
next day, Olave put to sea, the action of the
water displaced the tallow and butter, and the
galley began to sink. Olave and his men in the
sinking galley called upon Somerled for aid. who
sent to his marriage with Ragnhildis. The promise
was given, Olave found safety in Somerled's
galley, Maurice MacNeill fixed the pins he had
prepared into the holes, and, to the King's
amazement, his galley proceeded in safety. The
marriage of Somerled and Ragnhildis took place in
the year 1140. In 1154, Olave was murdered by his
nephews, who claimed half the Kingdom of the
Isles.
Godred, son of Olave, who was in Norway at the time,
returned to the Isles, but his tyranny and
oppression caused the Islesmen to revolt, and
Somerled, joining forces with them, seized half
the Kingdom of the Isles, and became Righ
Innesegall, or King of the Isles, as well as
Thane of Argyll. Later Somerled invaded the Isle
of Man, defeated Godfrey, and became possessed of
the whole Kingdom of Man and the Isles.
The power of Somerled, King of the Isles, now caused
great anxiety on the neighboring mainland, and
King Malcolm IV of Scotland dispatched a large
mary to Argyll. Somerled took up the challenge,
and a hard fought battle left both sides too
exhausted to continue hostilities. Peace was
established between the King of Scotland and
Somerled, but after suffering great provocation
from Malcolm and his ministers, the King of the
Isles again took up arms in 1164, and gathering a
great host, 15,000 strong, with a fleet of 164
galleys, sailed up the Clyde to Greenock. He
disembarked in the Bay of St. Lawrence, and
marched to Renfrew, where the King of Scotland's
army lay. The traditional version of what then
occurred is, that feeling reluctant to join issue
with the Highland host, and being numerically
inferior, Malcom's advisers determined to
accomplish the death of Somerled by treachery.
They bribed a young nephew of Somerled, named
Maurice MacNeill, to visit his uncle and murder
him. MacNeill was admitted to Somerled's tent,
and finding him off his guard, stabbed him to the
heart. When Somerled's army learnt of the fate of
their great leader, they fled to their galleys
and dispersed.
Tradition tells of a dramatic episode that is said to have
occurred when King Malcolm and his nobles came to
view the corpse of their late powerful foe. One
of the nobles kicked the dead hero with his foot.
When Maurice MacNeill, the murderer, saw this
cowardly action, the shame of his own foul deed
came upon him. He denounced his past treachery,
and confessed that he had sinned "most
villainously and against his own
conscience," being "unworthy and base
to do so." He stabbed to the heart the man
who had insulted the mighty Somerled, and fled.
Through one Maurice MacNeill had Somerled won a
bride, and at the hands of another Maurice
MacNeill met his death.
"With regal pomp and
ceremony the body of the King of the Isles
was buried ......... In Iona's piles, Where
rest from mortal coil the mighty of the
Isles."
Family tradition, however, says that the Monastery of
Saddel was the final resting place of the mighty
founder and progenitor of the line of Princes
that sat upon the Island throne, from whom
descended the great Clan Donald."
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MacDonald of Sleat
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