Clan Lachlan Association of Canada  & Clan MacLachlan Society

Origins of the Clan.

The name MacLachlan means Son of Lachlan and in Gaelic, Son of the Northlands which in those days referred to Norway. Prior to the 18th century, the normal spelling was MacLochlainn.

The Irish Era.

This is a mixture of fact and legend; ancient annals claim that the MacLochlainns descend from the Milesian tribe from the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula; they were one of the Celtic tribes to settle in what is now Ireland and became known there as the Mileache tribe.

The MacLochlainns were a branch of the Northern Ui Neill.

The Irish-Scottish Era.

In the 6th century warriors from Ireland founded the Ulster -Scottish kingdom of Dalriada and called that part of the West Coast of Scotland, Earra Gael (Argyll), "the land of the Gael."Then in 563, St. Columba established himself on Iona. It is reputed that MacLochlainns have been in Argyll since that time.

About 1038, Anrothan O'Neill, resigned as King of Aileach in favor of his brother and moved to Kintyre where he married a princess of a local king; she brought as a dowry the lands of Cowal which is the peninsula lying between Loch Fyne, the Firth of Clyde and Loch Long, and also the lands of Knapdale which lies on the western side of Loch Fyne. From old Gaelic manuscripts, the family Maclachlan of Maclachlan can claim descent from Anrothan and the Kings of Aileach and High Kings of Ireland.

The MacLochlains of Donegal, Kings of Aileach, and the O'Neills, Lords of Tyrone, both descended from the legendary High King Niall Mor bitterly contested for supremacy in the north of Ireland, from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries. In 1241 Brian O'Neill, backed by the Norman Earl of Ulster and by the O'Donnells triumphed in battle and slaughtered King Domnhall MacLochlainn with ten of his immediate family, his chieftains and most of the adult MacLochlainn males; the MacLochlainns, for centuries Kings of Aileach and High Kings of Ireland, never again challenged their kinsmen the O'Neills for supremacy.

The Scottish Era.

In 1249 only seven years after the death of King Domnhall, the MacLochlainns of Cowal began to be recognized as a clan under their chief Lochlainn Mor( Lachlan the Powerful). The Maclachlan of Maclachlan family is directly descended from this Lochlainn Mor.

There are few recorded facts in the highlands at this time but there is an important charter dated 1238 in which Lochlainn's father Gillapatrick is a witness to the granting of lands to Paisley Abbey; Gillapatrick is shown in Gaelic manuscripts as being a direct descendant of Anrothan O'Neill.

For over 700 years since the 13th century, the Clan Lachlan has been a Scottish Highland clan and has held the lands of Strathlachlan on Loch Fyne, Argyll. The present Chief of the Clan is Euan Maclachlan of Maclachlan, 25th of that ilk, Castle Lachlan, Strathlachlan.

There is more on "The heritage and beginning of the Clan" and "the history of the Chiefs" in the "Lachlan Library "

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