Clan MacLeod

History

The MacLeods take their name from Leod, who lived on the western seaboard in the thirteenth century. The clan societies describe him as a Norseman, born around 1200. Older histories go further and make him a son of Olaf the Black, King of Man. That descent was already doubted in the nineteenth century by the historian W. F. Skene, and later genealogical work points to a more distant link, possibly through a female line. The honest position is that Leod's parentage is not known for certain.

Two lines descend from him. Sìol Tormoid, the seed of Tormod, became the MacLeods of Harris and Dunvegan. Sìol Torcaill, the seed of Torquil, became the MacLeods of Lewis, with later branches in Assynt and on Raasay. Tradition makes Tormod and Torquil brothers. The clan societies now describe Torquil as a great-grandson of Leod. Dunvegan, on a rock above a sea loch in north-west Skye, is described by the clan societies as the chiefs' seat since Leod's time.

In the Middle Ages both branches followed the Lords of the Isles. MacLeods were with Donald of the Isles on the campaign that ended at Harlaw in 1411. A chief of the Dunvegan line was killed at the sea battle of Bloody Bay off Mull, which the sources date variously to the early 1480s. Alasdair Crotach, the eighth chief, built St Clement's Church at Rodel in Harris in the early 1500s. He commissioned his own tomb there in 1528 and was laid in it after his death in 1547. It is now in the care of Historic Environment Scotland.

Feuding with the MacDonalds ran through the sixteenth century. Tradition holds that in May 1578 MacDonalds from Uist burned the church at Trumpan with the congregation inside. The MacLeod revenge is remembered as the Battle of the Spoiling of the Dyke. The Lewis branch fared worst in this period. Its main line failed and the island passed to the Mackenzies in the early seventeenth century. At Dunvegan, Sir Rory Mor was knighted by James VI and is remembered in the great drinking horn that bears his name.

The clan fought for Charles II at Worcester in 1651 and its losses were severe. One old account says the other clans agreed the MacLeods should be spared further fighting until they had recovered. In 1745 the chief did not join Prince Charles. He raised Independent Companies for the government, although some MacLeods, notably from Raasay, fought on the Jacobite side.

Dunvegan still holds the clan's treasures: Rory Mor's Horn, the Dunvegan Cup and the Fairy Flag. The castle describes the flag as silk, probably from Syria or Rhodes, and tells three different legends of how it arrived. In the twentieth century Dame Flora MacLeod of MacLeod, who succeeded as 28th chief in 1935, instituted the first gathering of Clan MacLeod in 1956. She died in 1976, aged 98. The present chief is the 30th and succeeded in 2007.