Clan Logan

History

Logan is a place-name before it is a surname. The Scottish Nation derives it from a word meaning low-lying, flat country, which would link it to Laggan in Inverness-shire. The Council of Scottish Clans and Associations gives the old seat as Logan, near Cumnock in Ayrshire. Logan history is not one tidy line, so we treat it as several families that share a name.

The earliest firm record is Walter Logan, whose seal hangs on the Ragman Roll of 1296, when Scottish landholders swore homage to Edward I. The Clan Logan Society treats it as the first recorded appearance of Logan arms. Tradition adds that two Logans died in Spain in 1329 while carrying the heart of Robert the Bruce towards the Holy Land. We cannot show that from documents here. The heart on later Logan arms is said, but not proved, to refer to it.

The Logans of Restalrig held a barony on the edge of Edinburgh, where South Leith now stands. Marriage is said to have brought them the land in the reign of Robert I. Sir Robert Logan married a daughter of Robert II, granted Edinburgh rights over Leith harbour in 1398 and became admiral of Scotland around 1400. A later Robert Logan of Restalrig died in 1606. Two years later the notary George Sprot was executed over the Gowrie conspiracy. Letters he produced were used to forfeit Logan after death, and the family lost Fast Castle and Gunsgreen. Historians still debate the plot itself.

The Ayrshire line is a different family. The Society finds Alexander Logan 'of that Ilk' in 1516, and George Logan, a lawyer at Old Cumnock, registered arms with the Lord Lyon in 1672. The Society doubts any close tie to the Restalrig Logans and says more research is needed. The line ended without direct heirs, and the lands passed to a sister who married into the Campbells. The Society gives 1802 as the death of the last chief, Hugh Logan.

A Highland branch claims descent from the Logans of Drumderfit in Easter Ross. Electric Scotland retells a tradition of a chief called Gilliegorm, killed with most of his men in a fight with the Frasers near Kessock. It describes the Logans and MacLennans as closely linked, though the story is tradition rather than record. The Register notes a shared sett with MacLennan.

Logan therefore has no chief confirmed by the Lord Lyon. The Society is seeking an heir and has elected a Commander, whose commission it says came from the Lyon Court in December 2025. We do not name him, and a commander is not a chief.