Clan MacLeod: Hold Fast in the Isles

Overview

Clan MacLeod is one of the great clans of the Hebrides — sea-lords of a Norse-Gaelic world, with the blunt motto “Hold Fast.” Two branches sprang from the founder Leòd: the MacLeods of Harris and Dunvegan (Sìol Tormod), whose chief still lives at Dunvegan Castle on Skye, and the MacLeods of Lewis (Sìol Torcail).

How the clan came about

The clan descends from Leòd, a Norse-Gael traditionally said to have been a younger son of Olaf the Black, King of Man, and to have died around 1280. That royal descent is tradition, not record: the clan’s documented history begins in the mid-14th century, when Leòd’s grandson Malcolm MacLeod appears in a royal charter of about 1343. Before then, as the clan’s own historians put it, “all is folklore.”

Rise & fall

The MacLeods held Skye, Harris and Lewis through centuries of feuding with their great neighbours Clan Donald of Sleat — a rivalry written across the west in bloodshed and beautiful piping, for the MacCrimmon pipers to the MacLeods more or less invented the classical pìobaireachd. The Lewis branch lost its lands to the Mackenzies in the early 1600s, and heavy losses fighting as Royalists at Worcester (1651) so bled the clan that others reportedly excused them from later risings. The Harris and Dunvegan line, and its home at Dunvegan, endures to this day — keeper still of the Fairy Flag, the ancient silk banner said to save the clan three times in its hour of need.

Battles — won and lost

The most notable actions the clan fought, and how they ended:

• Bannockburn (1314) — vs the English — WON
• Harlaw (1411) — vs the royal/Lowland army (for the Lord of the Isles) — DRAWN
• Bloody Bay (c. 1481) — vs rivals within Clan Donald (chief killed) — LOST
• The Spoiling Dyke (Trumpan) (1578) — vs Clan MacDonald of Sleat — WON
• Coire na Creiche (1601) — vs Clan MacDonald of Sleat (last private battle on Skye) — LOST
• Worcester (1651) — vs the English (as Royalists) — LOST
• 2nd Inverurie (1745) — vs the Jacobites (MacLeod fought for the government) — LOST

The clan’s defining feud was the long, bloody rivalry with Clan MacDonald of Sleat for control of Skye and the isles.

Where they lived & ruled

The MacLeod heartland was Skye and the Outer Hebrides: the Dunvegan/Harris branch held Duirinish, Bracadale, Minginish and Glenelg with Dunvegan Castle at its centre; the Lewis branch held Lewis (from Stornoway), with cadet lands at Waternish, Raasay, Gairloch and Assynt.

Orange markers = the clan’s chief castles, seats and territories. Click a marker for its name; where we have a page, it links through.

Clan & whisky

MacLeod country is now whisky country too: Talisker on Skye was founded on land leased from the Dunvegan chiefs; Isle of Harris distils on the clan’s old estates; and Raasay stands on the domain of the MacLeods of Raasay.