Clan MacAulay

History

The name is Gaelic MacAmhlaidh, 'son of Aulay', and Aulay is a form of the Norse Olaf. That much is agreed. What is not agreed is whether everyone called MacAulay shares one origin. The Clan MacAulay Association says its DNA project has found several genetically separate MacAulay families, including more than one on Lewis and another in Wester Ross. We treat Ardincaple and Lewis here and keep them apart.

The MacAulays of Ardincaple held land at the mouth of the Gareloch, around Rhu and Helensburgh. One account says the Earl of Lennox granted Aulay of Faslane the lands about 1225, but that is a late-recorded tradition. The earliest figure on record is Maurice de Ardincaple, whose name appears among those pledging loyalty to Edward I in 1296. A bond of 1406 between his son Arthur and the Earl of Lennox names Colquhoun of Luss as the chief Arthur looked to. The family seems to have taken the MacAulay surname only in the sixteenth century.

Where the family came from is disputed. One tradition makes them a cadet line of the Earls of Lennox, a view favoured in some older accounts. Another rests on a bond of 1591 with MacGregor of Glenstrae, in which both sides claim descent from the same old stock, the 'M'Alpins'. Some writers suspect Ardincaple signed mainly to protect himself from MacGregor revenge, so the bond may say more about politics than blood. The Register still records a tartan linking MacAulay to the MacGregors.

Aulay MacAulay, the last chief of the Ardincaple line, sold the castle and estates to the Duke of Argyll in 1767. The line ended with him.

The Lewis MacAulays were a separate family, centred on Uig in the south-west of the island. Hebridean Connections places them in Uig well before the sixteenth century, but the written record stops at Dugald, whose son Dòmhnall Cam (Donald Cam) lived roughly 1560 to 1640. Uig still tells stories of Dòmhnall Cam, and some local families trace their descent to him. Much of that oral tradition concerns feuding with the Morrisons of Ness, so it is best read as tradition rather than record.

Today there is no chief recognised by the Lord Lyon. A clan commander was appointed in 1997, and the Clan MacAulay Association was re-formed in 1998. The Lord Lyon, Robin Blair, declined a petition for chiefship in 2002, ruling that ten years must pass after a commander's appointment before a chief could be considered. The Association has since elected its own chief for fixed terms, adapting the old tanistry custom. That is a clan arrangement, not a Lyon-recognised title, and we do not name the present holder.