Clan Buchanan

History

Clan Buchanan takes its name from the old barony of Buchanan on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond, usually explained as the Gaelic Both Chanain, 'house of the canon'; the Buchanan Society gives the clan's Gaelic name as Canonaich. Tradition holds that an Irish prince, Anselan Ó Catháin, crossed from Ulster to Argyll around 1016 and was granted land for help against Norse raiders — a striking, undocumented story. The clan's traceable history begins later, with charters of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

Solid record starts with the Earls of Lennox, who held superiority over the district. In 1225 the Earl of Lennox granted the small island of Clairinch, in Loch Lomond, to his seneschal Anselan of Buchanan (Absalon), for a nominal yearly rent; the island's name is said to be the source of the clan's war cry, 'Clar Innis'. In 1282 Donald, 6th Earl of Lennox, gave Maurice de Buchanan a charter of the lands of Buchanan itself, with the right to hold his own courts. A further charter, confirmed by David II in 1371, regranted the lands to Maurice's son; by then the family held Buchanan Auld House, near Drymen, as its seat.

The Buchanans backed Robert the Bruce during the Wars of Independence; tradition holds that Bruce sheltered on their land after his defeat at Dalrigh, though evidence for Bannockburn in 1314 is thin. Their best-attested feat of arms came a century later, in France: at the Battle of Baugé in 1421, Sir Alexander Buchanan is credited with striking down Thomas, Duke of Clarence, brother of Henry V, after Sir John Carmichael had already unhorsed him. The crest, a hand raising a ducal coronet, is said to recall that moment. The clan fought on at Flodden in 1513, Pinkie in 1547 and Langside in 1568; sources differ on whether the chief or his son Patrick died at Flodden.

The most celebrated Buchanan was not a soldier but a scholar. George Buchanan, born at Killearn in 1506, became one of Europe's leading Latin poets and humanist scholars, tutor to young James VI and a sharp critic of church and state; he died in Edinburgh in 1582. A lighter, local story concerns John Buchanan of Arnprior, uncle of the clan's 15th chief, said to have helped himself to royal deer meant for James V and, when challenged, replied that if James was king in Scotland, he was king of Kippen — a tale told locally, unproven but persistent.

The clan's fortunes declined through the seventeenth century under debt, its last fighting years spent in civil war. Sir George Buchanan commanded a Stirlingshire regiment for the Covenant, fought at Dunbar in 1650, and was captured at Inverkeithing in 1651, dying a prisoner. His successor, John Buchanan of that Ilk, was the last chief of the old line: he died in 1681 without a male heir, and his estate was sold to satisfy creditors, passing to the Marquess of Montrose. No chief was confirmed for the better part of 340 years. The Montrose family later replaced the ruined Auld House with Buchanan Castle, a Victorian mansion built nearby in 1852-58; roofless today, it survives as a listed building.

That long gap ended in 2018, when the Lord Lyon King of Arms confirmed John Michael Baillie-Hamilton Buchanan of that Ilk and Arnprior as Chief of the Name and Arms of Buchanan, after years of genealogical research into his descent from the old chiefly line. It was widely reported at the time as the first Buchanan chief in 337 years. He is styled 'The Buchanan', with his seat at Cambusmore, near Callander.