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Each month we present a chapter in the history of Scotland. We move forward in time each month.
Peoples of the Kingdom
Highlands and 'clans' (continued)
Between the ninth and fourteenth centuries Highland society had experienced a long, complex process of absorbing different waves of settlers. Different clans reflected the various stages of this process: the MacLeods were of Norse descent, and the Macdougalls and the MacDonalds (both descended from Somerled whose very name underlines the point) were of mixed Gaelic and Scandinavian extraction; the Chisholms, Frasers, Sinclairs and the various branches of the Stewarts (of Appin, Grandtully and others) were originally of Anglo-Norman extraction. Highland society was an eclectic as in any other part of Scotland. As in Lowland society, the size and structure of the kindred could vary widely - from the confederate clan like Clan Chattan (which embraced, with varying degrees of closeness, the Farquharsons, McCombies, MacGilvrays, Macbeans and Macqueens) to small family groups, which often voluntarily put themselves within the protective ambit of a greater chief. There was no such thing as a typical clan, still less was there a 'clan system'.
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Scottish Radiance
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