What is a Scottish Clan and which names belong to which clans?
There are a lot of misconceptions around Scottish Clans. Much of this was built up in the nineteenth century when a romanticised view of Scotland’s past was made popular; including the clan system and the wearing of tartan. The main misconception is that the Highland clan was made up of a chief and his followers, who all bore his name and were related to him by ties of blood. Actually, they were made up of three distinct groups: • the family of the chief • families descended from that of the chief and • followers who had no tie of kinship at all. tag –> For those of the second group it would depend on how closely related they were to the chief as to whether they had permanent or temporary possession of land. In the latter case they would be referred to as “tacksmen”. They may have a different surname to the chief. The third group, the followers, would often be sub-tenents of the tacksmen. Although they had no kinship ties, they may well have taken on the surname of the clan for protec
