"McLauchan, MacLagan  These two names are merely variations of the original name of McClauchan. The clan was at first confined to the Weem District, and in the 15th century the Parish of Weem was known as Machlagan. Weem or Uamb means a cave, and there is a probability that an old Celtic word Lach meaning a hollow or pit may be the foundation ot the name, and had got corrupted into MacLachlan, which might mean Son of the Cave. Some translate McClagan as "Son of the Little Bell", but the original spelling of the name is against this, and there is no reason to connect the clan with the bell of any Saint. The old spelling of McClauchan sometimes became McClauchlan, and sometimes McClaggan, till the present names of McLauchlan and McLagan emerged. The Atholl McLauchlans have no connection with the Norse McLachlans of the West Coast."

    Dr. R.C. Maclagan first noticed the connection between the surnames MacLagan and Mclaughlin in a series of articles in the "Celtic Monthly" in 1901.


THE "CELTIC MONTHLY"
Vol. IX 1901

(the article continues through succesive issues).

p. 87

MACLAGAN

THE CLANS CUIL AND CLACHANE, AND
THE COMBAT ON THE INCH OF PERTH

BY R.C. MACLAGAN, M.D.


    About a score of years ago, having found that the meaning of the name Maclagan was the subject of the merest gueswork, the writer put together his own suggestions and speculations in a little pamphlet which he submitted to those whom he thought likely to be interested, hoping that any mistake made, or further information of which they were in possession, would be brought under his notice. The purpose of the pamphlet was in no way successful, the only result being that, like the writer himself, not a few accepted the theory propounded, namely, that the word meant "son of the little bell." In the pamphlet, it was pointed out that the name of one of the clans, that fought on the Inch of Perth, do signated the little clan, of which the name was discussed Since then much information, if one can use the expression where the total amount would make but a few pages of printed matter, has been found; and further, the meaning of the name has been discussed by a skilled Scottish Gaelic philologist, whose view, however, is not here accepted, and will be argued against.} 

    The Tay valley is the historical habitat of the clan. 

    First, then, to give a short account of the religious teachers mentioned with the district. In the 11 Eulogy of Saint Columba" the writer Dallan says:-" He subdued to benediction the the mouths of the fierce ones"' who dwelt with  Tay's; (2) high king,"    he overcame, or he shut the mouths of the fierce ones who dwelt with the overking of Tay ; for though it be malediction they intended, it is benediction which used to result from it ut fuit Balaam." 

    Columba died in A.D. 597.    There is, how ever, a considerable interval between the date of his death and the composition of the  "Eulogy" which Stokes says is probably of the ninth century. The above is quoted to point out the belief in the ninth century, in there having been a considerable religious establishment among the tribes of the Tay valley, and the credit they got for ferocity. Where Columba is commemorated, he is in very many cases followed by his biographer, Adamnan.    The church at Dull in Weem, Upper Tay valley, is said to have been dedicated to him, and in the immediate neighbourhood of Dull is Tobar min Adamnan's well, while Feill Eonain, the festival of Adamnan, was a market day at Dull on the 23rd September,
-------------------------------------------------
footnotes:

(1) Thrice nine druids : whomsoever they blessed,
he was blessed; whomsoever they cursed, he was
cursed, YBL. col. 697.
2) Toi nomen fluminis for lar Duine Cuillind i
Cruithintuaith Alban.    Tuatha Toi desede na
tuatha &tat imon sruth sin, Eg. 9a 2. 11 Tay is the
name of a river in the middle of Dunkeld in the
Pictish district of Scotland. Hence the tribes that
are about the river (are called) the 'tribes of Tay."
(The Bodleian Amra Choluimb chille, by Whitely
Stokes, in the "Revue Celtique," vol. xx., p. 401.)
------------------------------------------------------
 

the Saint's day. ("A few Notes on the Parish of Weem," by the Rev. Robert Grant Dunbar, minister of Weem, 1897).      Reeves in his edition of the "Life of St Columba" does not give Doll in his list of churches dedicated to Adamnan in Scotland; but in his introduction he mentions the Saint being commemorated at Dull. Reeves "Life of St. Columba," Intro. clxx).

    In reference to the form of the name Eonain,  Reeves points out that there was a Eunan celebrated in Ireland on the 7th September.

     The next religious teacher to be noticed is  Saint Cuthbert, to whom Weem, is specially  dedicated. Saint Cuthbert's connection with Weem is supposed to have  been between 651 and 661, while he was a monk at Melrose.  (Dunbar-'a "Notes on Parish of Weem," p. 9.) This is recorded in a chapter "annexed" (Skene's  "Celtic Scotland," ii, 206) to the "Irish Life of  St. Cuthbert"-& Latin MS. of the fourteenth  century.

     "Cuthbert came to a town called Dull and  dwelt as a solitary, or hermit, in a steep and  richly wooded bill, at Doilweme, about a mile distant. Here he brought from the hard rock  a well of water, erected a tall stone cress, built  an oratory of rough wood, and constructed for himself, out of a single stone, a bath, in which  he used to immerse himself and spend the night  in prayer to God. He remained here for some time,  until, being accused by the daughter of the king  of that province of having seduced her, he prayed  to God, and the earth opened and swallowed up the  young woman, at a place called Corruen. He would  not continue to dwell longer there, but removed to other parts of the country." For the present,  we need not consider the power ascribed to this  fountain of overflowing the country, nor how the  devil having constructed for himself a bath of  enormous size, and imitating St. Cuthbert, so  irritated him, that one day seizing a huge cudgel,  like a fuller's pole, and rushing upon his  antagonist he drove him away.

     Doilweme, can only mean the Weem of Dol.  There can be scarcely any doubt that that is  the meaning of the word, the curious thing about  it being, however, the use of the Lowland word Weem, or as it would be spelled now, wame, meaning,  of course, womb, belly, though applied to a cave,  as in Fifeshire, where there are several, Wemyss;  also in Shropshire, about ten miles north of Shrewsbury, Wem, Weme of Domesday Book, which is  a hollow but no cave, disposing of the derivation of Weem as a mispronounced Gaelic uaimh-cave.  Weem is also applied to the earth-houses common  in some parts, and it; the translation in the  sense of womb of the word brugh-applied to the Irish tumuli on the Boyne and elsewhere, and to fairy dwellings in the Hebrides.

     We happen to have a Gaelic name for this parish used in the year 1592, say about two centuries later than the composition of "The Irish Life of St. Cuthbert." In that year authority was given to the Justice-General, Archibald, Earl of Argyll, to convocate the lieges within the bounds of the shires of Bute, Tarbett, and as much of the shires of Dumbartane and Perth as lies within the parishes of Fothergill, Mclagan, Inchechaddin, Ardewinch, Killin, Strapbillane, etc. (Register of Privy Council of Scotland, Vol. V., p. 41).

    The name here suggests a connection with the word machlag, Ir. - machlog, matrix, womb. Now in Irish Gaelic, at any rate, districts were called from the tribes that inhabited them, and  there are instances of this in Scotland as in the Gaelic names for Sutherland and Caithness, Cataobh and Gallaobh, and in the expression "Mackay's Country." It would then be quite a fair deduction in accordance with Gaelic habit, to believe this parish of 'Mclagan" was called after those who inhabited it. The question, of course, arises, how does it happen to appear in an English dress, "Weem," in so Highland a district? That name was undoubtedly in use  in the year 1296, when Alexander de Meyners  got from John, Earl of Atholl, the lands of Weme and Aberfeldy - the first mention of Weyme. As marking the special religiousness of the locality, it was not till 1463 that another Earl of Atholl gave to Menzies the right of presentation to the "Rectory and glebe of Weyme."  The solution of the enigma might be simply, that the Lowlanders with Meyners, interpreted the  Gaelic word as if it had been Machlag.

     For this they had sufficient reason, seeing  that a cave, Gaelic uaimh-weem, was a very special  feature in that part of the country. That such a  name may possibly be applied to a suitable locality without any question of a tribal appellation in its  neighbourbood, is proved from an Irish map in the  British Museum, dated 1609, on which at the mouth  of the bay of Sligo there is marked "Enish a mochloigh, or the Conie." (Captain Cuellar's  Adventures in Conacht and Ulster in 1588. Elliott  Stock) - a very suggestive name indeed.

     Every cave may not be a weem. Weymss in Fife  and Weyms in Ayrshire are both in the immediate  neighbourbood of water (the sea), as is the case  evidently in the Bay of Sligo. In the Weem in  Perthshire, a fountain gives it a characteristic.  The cave itself is very shallow, but has an  excellent exposure, and with a little artificial assistance would make quite a comfortable  shelter for a religious. If St. Cuthbert ever was there,  few people now-adays at any rate, will believe that he  was the cause of the spring. It is unnecessary here to further discuss the physiology of holy wells, but it  seems a very fair speculation, especially considering  the traditional matriarchy of the Picts that this  machlag was held in reverence before Columba, Cuthbert,  or any other mint of the Christian church had bad anything to do with it. The well is called St. David's  Well.

     There was a David's Fair and the Episcopal church  at Weem is now dedicated to St. David. This saint is  supposed to be David de Menzies of the fifteenth century,  who divested himself of his lairdship, and took to a  religious life. (Dunbar's "Few Notes," 1). 25). 

     We have thus evidence of a successive change of  proprietorship of the locality by Christian saints,  Columba, Adamnan, Cuthbert, David, which certainly  adds to the probability of their in turn having succeeded to the fierce Druids of the Tay Valley.      In reference to Dull, the writer of Cameron's "Guide to Aberfeldy and its Neighbourhood " points out that Dull in Gaelic signifies a noose,a loop, and that local tradition explains this by saying that Adamnan on his deathbed ordered his body to be carried in a withe loop suspended, from a pole to be buried where the loop broke,  which occurred at Dull.

     Tn addition to these, Dul seems to mean, on  the authority of the dictionaries, the "terraqueous globe"; it is the genitive plural of duil; dul also (Windisch) an element, Dia nan dul, God of the elements of nature. Dula is also a  pin or peg, which Mr. MacBain connects withdolo, the Latin for an iron pointed staff; and in Cormac's Glossary, we find Duillen, O'Clery's duilleann, glossed a javelin (ga). There can be no doubt that this meaning of the word plays its part in the cudgel with which St.. Cuthbert drove the Devil out of his tub, and Adamnan's pole with its loop-the constituents of an ordinary snare trap, dula, Gaelic.

     Those speculations as to the meaning of  the name Dul have very little to recommend them,  and have a strong flavour of the fanciful derivation. A much less recondite meaning has  a good deal of support. I have to thank Mr.  Henderson for calling my attention to the fact  that the d may be a remnant of the old article,  or might be an English spelling of the Gaelic t  after n of the article. The name Dull had evidently of old a diphihongal sound, oi, oi Doilweme."

    When called Mclagan - The Parish of Dull  ( Weem) though in charge of a Maclagan, not so  named from its minister-Craigdull i.e. The Crag of the Mac-gillean-lag and Macgille-an-lagan,  son of the. lad of the Cave- Wintoun's clans Qwhewyl and Clachinyha - They become Quhele and  Clan-Kay (Hay).

    It's interesting to notice that in 1592, when the parish of Weem is called Mclagan, there  was a Duncan McGlagane then occupying the manse of Dull,  which is described as follows:-"The half of the hill of Craigdull and the lands of Auchtavie, with  teind sheaves of the whole included in the  regality of St. Andrews and the sheriffdom of   Perth, formerly held of the vicars of Dull,  excepting the manse of the vicar of Dull, with  the gardens, tofts and crofts, occupied by Mr. Duncan McGlagane, with the house called McKiltishouse  (1566, MacKiltishouse; 1602, Makiltreshouse; 1620,  MoGillishouse)." Here we see that the modern rock  of Weem, the Graig-an-t-Shepail, is called the  Craigdull, and it can scarcely be anything else in origin  in than Craig-n-tuill, the Rock of the  hole, or hollow, or 'fissure of the soil.' In Breton,  the equivalent word toull appears in the phrase 'Toull an ibil kamm' le trou de Is chiville courbe"  (the hole of the bent plug). (Kruptadia vi., p. 64).  Compare this now with the name, Rock of Weem, as  already explained, and compare it with the word cuil, a corner, nook, private place, cuile, the apartment  in which stores are kept. And compare this with the  entry in the Book of the Dun Cow, which speaks of  the "cuil sibrine," the recess of Sibrenn on the river Lee in Roscommon, explained by the following  gloss:-"hi Cuil Sibrinne . i. loch Carrcin agus o silind ingine Madchair roainmniged," i.e., "Loch  Carrcin, and it is from the 'silind' mun of  Madchar's daughter that it was (so) called."  (Kruptadia ii., 353).

     It follows also from the description of the  neighbourhood of Duncans manse, that it was  situated at the modern Weem and not at Dull  itself, showing that the vicar's residence  had retained the early position immediately  below the sacred Weem, some miles from what was subsequently the monastery of Dull.  Sinchronously with the incumbency of Duncan  at Weem, John Makclagene was minister at Inverchadden (modern Taymouth), having been  transplanted from Strathardle and subsequently  having charge of Moulin and Logierait. There  was therefore some considerable excuse for  calling a parish, in that neighbourhood, at  that date, Mclagan, though as John Makclagen's  parish is mentioned by its own name "Inchechaddin,"  the name applied to Weem. must have had some other  origin than that of its temporary incumbent.     There is, however, another very important fact  in connection with this name and the church lands  of Dull, viz, that the principal portion of them  is mentioned in several charters as Croft-Clauchane (1566). Beg. Great Seal. Croft Clachane, 1603. Compare  this with spellings of the clan name, McClauchane  matriculated at St. Andrews in 1537, and Maklachane,  St. Andrews Registers, ) 666. At a very early date there was a strong non-Gaelic element in the church  of Dull. In the account of the Court held there in 1264 there is mention of but one Gaelic cleric, while William of Cheater and John of Carham are mentioned as canons. (Celtic Scotland, ii., 406. Skene).

    Church traditions, such as we have been considering, coming down to us as composed hundreds of years af ter the events they are supposed to chronicle, cannot be expected to give accurate history. Have we any indication in the neighbourbood of the existence of followers of any one who may be supposed to have resided in some such cave  In the "Black Book of Taymouth," p. 200 and 314, we learn that on the 4th of June, 1556, the Clan MacIntyre renewed their bond of man-rent to the Lairds of Glenurquhay, previously given to the first Sir Colin Campbell for "sythmant and recompens" of the slaughter of his foster-brother, Johnne M'Gillenlag. The first Sir Colin was born in or about the year 1400. The slaughter is stated to have taken place during the minority of James (I.), which fixes the date between 1406 and 1424. The house at Balloch, now called Taymouth, was built by Sir Colin Campbell who died in 1583, so that, supposing it to have been built in 1570, having succeeded to the property in 1550, we thus find the laird who had renewed the bond establishing himself in what is now a part of the parish of Weem, that is at Taymouth Castle. In 1621 we find another Johnne, this time called M'Clagan, an honoured guest at Finlarig. If the reading of the name of the slaughtered foster-brother is correct, it can mean nothing else but John, the "son of the lad (servant) of the cave," den.

    It scarcely needs evidence to prove this derivation ; but we have it though in a different part of Gaelic speaking Scotland. Mr. Mae- Bain gives us the following: - " A curious name appears in Islay in 1686 in M'Linlagan. This comes from M'Gillefinnlagan; St. Finnlagan had his name from a diminutive form of Findluch, which either means 11 Fair Mouse" or "Fair Light."  (Northern Chronicle, 26th August, 1896).

     Now there are different ways of looking  at a question of that sort. While Mr. MacBain's  derivation had not come under notice of the writer,  looking over "The Book of Islay " by G. Gregory  Smith, his notice was attracted by the following  entry:-" Rentall of Ila: Beltan sett 1666. Stromneis  Beg set to Archibald McLinlagan and payee of siluer maillis and tynd siluer, liij lib, vjs, viijd."

     Having a good correspondent in Islay, a letter  was written to Miss Elizabeth Kerr, F.C. Manse,  Port-Charlotte, saying, could she recognise in the  Island a place called Stromneis Beg, and if she could, was there any tradition of a folk-lore sort about it? The answer was prompt -.

     I have spotted Stromneis, pronounced Stremneis and sometimes Streneis. The first e pronounced like e in hen. It is almost at the point of the Mull of Oa. You should find it in  one of the Ordnance Survey maps. There is a  Stremneis Mor and a Stremneis Beg. I have been  trying to get the traditions about the latter,  but the only information I have got is, that  in a cave quite near it or on it smugglers used to have a small still. It is s ometimes called Strevneis. Macnab was the name of the  oldest remembered tenants. They cured King's Evil."

     There can be surely no doubt that Archibald  Mae Gille an Lagan, that is to say Archibald,  the son of the lad of the (little) cave, is quite a reasonable translation of his name as it appears  in the rental of Islay. Possibly the spirit which  caused the different families to frequent their different caves was not the same, but the name was.

     If the Druids of the King of Tay were ferocious,  we may conclude that their followers were not behind  them in this particular. An historical statement of  a connection with the district of Weem, of the two  clans of which we are now going to speak, there is  not. Sir Walter Scott, in his historical novel "The  Fair Maid of Perth," speaking of them, however,  locates one at the southern end of Loch Tay, showing  the trend of opinion.

     In or about 1420 Andrew of Wyntoun, Prior of St.  Serf's Inch, Lochleven, wrote his "Orygynale Cronykil  of Scotland," and in it he informs us that in the year  1396, at Perth, beside the friars, three score wild Scots  fought, thirty against thirty, within barriers. There the chiefs with them were "Schir (sic) Ferqwharissone,"  the other "Cristy Johnesone." He does not say which thirty was  commanded by Farquhar's son or by John's son, nor does  he tells us, as he says himself " quha, had the ware at the  last," but he does my that fifty of them were killed, and  that the lose was greater than at the skirmish of Gasklune,  in which a " great company " under three chiefs quarrelled with Sir David do Lindsay, and slew or wounded a large  number of prominent men, Wyntoun says (B. ix. c. 17):
 
Tha three score ware Clannys twa,
Clahynnhe Qwhewyl, and Clachynia:
Off thir twa kynnys ware tha men."

    The question here is how often does the word clan appear? Certainly twice, and in the latter of these two, an h is  inserted and a final accented a in order to fill up the metre. The third word has a chi where no such letters should  be, if the word were clan, and the straightforward  reading then is that like the word (Qwhewyl), it is not to be divided and made into Clanny Ha, but is  to be read in its entirety.

     Thus, we would put the two lines if writing  under modern rules:

These three wore were Clans two,
Clan Qwhewyl, and (Clan) Clachinyha:

names which would be written if modern surnames  MacQwhewyl and MacClacbinyba. But a mistaken reading  happened. Twenty years after Wyntoun, in 1441, Walter  Bower, the Abbot of Inchcolm, wrote a continuation of  Fourdon's History of Scotland, calling the united work  "The Scoti-chronicon." In this he informs us that the fight was between "Scheabeg et suos consanguinarios qui  Clankay, et Cristi Jonson ac suos qui Clanquhele,  dicebantur" (see Appendix for Historical Extracts).  Here we find Bower himself making a word Clanquhele  the same as he supposed was the word Clanyha, which, however, must have struck him as a very curious name,  and he amended the original further, and made it  Clankay.

     A more conscientious copyist of Wyntoun, in the  "Registrum Moraviense," calls them Clanhay and  Clanqwhwle. (See Appendix).

     Let us remember that Wyntoun, as a contemporary,  and within a day's walk of Perth, might have gone up  to see the show himself, and though anyone-even in  our days of newspaper correspondents, shorthand and  typewritten MSS.-who has taken part in public functions,  and knows what mistakes can be made, will not insist on too accurate reporting by the Prior of St. Serf's,  yet all will give him credit for being more likely to be accurate than those who evidently took their  information from him.

     From the order in which the names of the chiefs occur in Wyntoun, and the names of the clans, one would suppose that Cristy Johnesone was  the chief of Clan "Clachinyha," and the other of Clan Qwhewyl. In the  Scoti-chronicon, we find Cristi Jonson is credited to Clanquhele, and the other appears as Scheabeg, and is given to the suppositious Kays  or according to the Registrum, Hays. We have as yet spoken of one  MacClagan only, as to whom there can be no doubt, but probably also  of another, and both of these had the name of John; and though this  is not a rare name in any connection, it is certainly very frequent  among Maclagans, as frequent as Christian is among the women of the  name, though it is to be confessed that no Christopher has ever been  encountered among them. Was the defaulter in the combat a woman I  (See Appendix). According to Wyntoun's editor he does not write Schea,  or Shaw as it becomes later, but what might be "Sir Farquhar's son."  If he were a Pope's knight, he would be a Macpherson -t he son of the  parson, and so a claim might be advanced on behalf of the Clan Cattan, which by the time of Boece and George Buchanan (1526 and 1565 respectively) was actually the case, one of the families present being said to be Clan Cattan.  With Sir Walter Scott's more recent assistance, this is the accepted version,  and the strengthening circumstances to the tale has appeared in the bagpipe  chanter said to have been used on the occasion, now in the possession of  Cluny Macpherson.

     There were more parsons in the position of Highland chiefs than the Clan Cattan Macphersons, and one of the earliest of these was Crinan, Abbot  of Dunkeld and Dull, his jurisdiction reaching apparently to Argyll. He was  a layman and a great chief, and was, according to the Irish "Annals of Tighernac,"  slain along with "nine score heroes" in 1045. His opponent  being apparently Macbeth, who in the Irish and Pictish additions to the Historia britonum is called "Macbethad mac Fin mic Laig," who reigned in Cruithintuath (Pict-land) sixteen years. (Chronicles Picts and Scots, p. 30).

     If Schir is a mistaken writing for Schea, it was not a patronymic but a personal anme, and if it is to be qualified by the word "little" (beg), it might be nothing more recondite than a Gaelic "Joey."  It certainlly is remarkable that personal names in so Lowland a form as Cristy and John should be applied to the leaders of these wild Scots.  the fact seems to point to their having been borderers.

     Maurice Bucnanan, writing in 1461 in the "Book of Puscarden," does not name the clans, but connects the Battle on the Inch with the Raid of Angus, "and implies that the same parties were concerned in both," to quote Skene.

  Before proceeding further, let us consider the opinion formed of the name Maclagan by MacBain in his Etymological Dictionary, "Maclagan, G. M'Lagain (Lathagain in its native district of Strathtay), documentary Maklaagan (1525), M'gillaagan, sod quid?" MacBain's statement of the pronunciation is evidently based on his "documentary Maklaagan," as no oral evidence has ever been forthcoming of such a pronunciation in Perthshire.

     In the Oban Time of may 23rd, 1896, the  Rev. Charles Roberston gave an answer: -  "Hoc est quid, viz. Mac gill' Adhagain, from ulitmately Adam, Gael. Adhamh, but whether as a direct double diminutive or another variant to the forms Adhamhnan, Oghamhnan, Gilleagamnan, of Adamnan, is hard to say.  The probability is that it is a double diminutive form of Adamnan's name.  Double diminutivesd do not appear to have been much noticed, though attention has been directed to them by Professor Mackinnon, who compares the german chen, eg. mutterchen, little mother, and the Aberdonian ikie, eg., wifikie, Eng. mannikin.  Gaelic examples are Seumagan from Feuman, Eoghnachan from Eoghann; cf. ailleagan from aille, beaut y; suidheagan from suidhe, a seat."

    Mr. Robertson's derivation was accepted by Mr. MacBain in the 'Northern Chronicle,' July 15th, 1896.  "M'Lagan, Gaelic M'Lagain, in 1525 Maklaagan, from gille-adnagain, little Adam (Adocan? a form of Adamnan?)"

   The exact value of any single spelling of a name is not very much.  One of the clan residing in the classic city of St. Andrews married twice, and had a considerable family.  In the records of Births his name appears in the following different manners. It is fair to mention, though we have not followed them out, the same freedom from exactness prevails  in the spelling of the names of the wives.

Johne Maklachon and Jenot Couts contracted,
October 5, 1665.
Maklachan.
Maklachane, a son, May 3, 1666.
MakLachen, a daughter, Seot. 17, 1671.
Mclachen, a daughter, Dec. 26, 1674.
Mackclathan, a daughter, Nov. 7, 1674.
Mackclathen and Helin Buckles married,
Nov. 21, 1679.
Macclachlan, a daughter, Aug. 17, 1680.
Mclachlane, a daughter, Mar. 30, 1682.
Makclachan.
Makolan, a daughter, jan. 14, 1686.
MckClaquan MackClaquane, July 23, 1692.

The following is a list of the spellings of
undoubted Maclagans, except it is the first
of whom no record but the name remains.

1497, Claquin, Loys de (Scots man-at-Arms,
in Italian Wars).
1529, Makclaagan (Grantully man).
1537, McClauchane, Duncanus, Angusianus
matriculated at St. Andrews.
1566, Makclaggane (Parson in Dull).
1578, Makclagony, Mcclagony.
1595, McClagane, Duncanus, matriculated
grad. 1598.
1597, Maclagene (Minister, Kirkmichael).
1602, McKlagane.
1602, McClagan.
1605, McClaggane (Mill of Cluny).
1608, Maclagan (one Little Dunkeld tombstone?).
1613, McLagane (Bofrack).
1613, McIlglegane.
1613, McGlagane.
1619, McLagan (Tailyeour, Dalshiane, 1620).
1624, McGilleglagane (follows "Stewarts," in
the list of Macgregor fines).
1665, Maklachon.
1666, Maklachane.
1668, Maklachan.
1670, McClaggan.
1674, Mc clachen.
1674, Mc Clathan.
1674, Maklachan.
1679, Mackclathen.
1686, Makclan.
1692, Mack-Claquane.
1694, McLagine.
1699, Maclachan.
1703, MackClachan.
1720, McKlagan.
1732, Mc clagen.
1733, Mc laggan,
1734, McClaggon.
1734, Mc claggen.
1737, Mc Glageon.
1738, McKlagon.
1754, Mcaglan.
1772, MacClagan.
1773, McLagen.
1775, McGlagan.
1776, Maclaggan.
1887, MacGlagan. ("The late Peter of Ledneskey,
Grantully," in "Scotsman" of  14th January).

   In the Scottish Antiquary, vol. xiv., p. 217, is a contract of marriage between the Earl of Orkney on the one part, bestowing his daughter with a dowry on Sir John Drummond of the other part, written in the vernacular, in the year 1396.  The property bestowed by the Earl includes "al his landys of the Murtclauch."  The modern spelling of this is Mortlach, Mortlach Church being close to Dufftown.  Compare this with the spellings of the name McClauchane and the later one of MackClachan.

  In the older records, as well as in more recent, the name is sometime mis-spelt so as to make it Maclachlan and such like, as may be seen in the St. Andrews Record agove; these spellings, however, are only evidence of an indistinct appreciation of  the pronunciation.

     Before entering on philogical discussion and to explain the position of the writer, the following story, picked up in Perthshire, told of a clansman, whose relationship would be gladly claimed it it could be distinctly demonstrated, may be given: - In the American War, the chaplain of the 42nd knowing that warm work was before his charge, said in his discourse, that soon some of them would be supping with the Lord.  After the engagement some of the others of the regiment insinuated that the chaplain was not likely to find himself so hurriedly as they in the company mentioned.  The chaplain's ready answer was, "the Lord knows I am not a supper man."  One must partake of supper though he be not a "supper man," so one may embark on philological questions though not a philologist.

     MacBain say "M'Lagain" is the "G" (aelic) form of the name.  With the foregoing list before us surely this is not so.  To judge from correspondence addressed, Maclagan generally comes from English people and Lowlanders sufficiently educated to know that Mac stands for son of, and that a proper name is invariably written with a capital.  In the Parish Records of Perthshire, it is very general among those of the district near Dunkeld; Alexander Maclagan who was settled in the church of Little Dunkeld in 1687, and is mentioned in the "Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae" as a Master of Arts of Saint Salvator's College there, has the name spelt McClagan. It should not be so, it is McLagan at his graduation M.A. in 1673.  He matriculated at Edinburgh in 1670 as McLagan, and had his settlement at Little Dunkeld contested and delayed because he wanted the Gaelic.

  An instance of dropping the second C in another case of a non-Gaelic speaker is, when in the beginning of the last century, the name was changed for simplicity to Maclagan from MacClaggan by a medical man (Dr. David Maclagan) who stated the reason, but who did not confess that he himself had committed the indiscretion.  Personal experience is that  the name is spoken Mac-clag-an, but on matters of this sort a deaf man is a bad authority.

    There need be no question as to the frequency of which the word Mac is written Mack, and such a name as MacAmbroise may become McCambridge.  In cases where macc or mack is followed by an L, a contraction for Gille - a servant lad, there must be doubt as to the origin of the second C, but, when one sees the name in the form of MacIlglagane, there can be no doubt that the clan name would, as used in Wyntoun, properly appears as Clachinyha not Lachinyha.

     MacBain's hypothetical "Mcgillaagan" is founded apparently upon the form of the name in the "Red Book of Grantully," given udner the year 1529, which by some accident has been quoted as Maklaagan though, in the published edition of the Red book it  appears as Makclaagan.

   Precendents fo the use of all the other letters in the word Clachinyha are to be found in the list of spellings of Maclagan, but it must be confessed there does seem a redundancy in the yha at the end.  That there was a vowel sound after the n seems quite clear.  It is written both as y and e, Makclagony and McClagane, but Wyntoun had the exigencies of rhyme to consider and the name had to take its place in apposition to the word "Taw," he therefore would naturally use a instead of e for his vowel, and the semi-vowel y corresponds with the semi-vowel in Qwhywyl. The h seems as ornamental as in his epelling of the word clan  "Clahynnhe."  From the rhymesters point of view, the word must have finished in a sound represented by ya possibly with a slight aspiration of the final a.  In the indubitable words clan,  wyntoun uses nn, in the name of Clachinyha but one. 

    What is the significance of the vowel sound at the end of MacClagane, MacIlglegane?  it is a gentive, thus we have in the Gaelic Genealogy of the MacNabs, "Do genelach ic an abhane."  So much for the name itself.

  That the native locality of those of the name was the Tay valley, there can be no manner of doubt. Among the older mentions of the name Duncanus MaClauchane; Angusiansus. Saint Andrews student in 1573, is explicit.

  In 1623, William McClagan in Glengowlanlie (Ordnance map. Glengoulandie), in the Barony of Weem, was accused of having a fank of stolen sheep.  He is described as "a poore fellow," evidently showing that something better was to be expected of him.  His locality is clear as a commission to try him was given to the Lairds of Wyme and Ballachane.

  In 1620, Tailyeour McLagan, in Dalshiane, was complained against by the King's Advocate for harbouring "Egigtianis."

   In 1613, during the hunt of the Macgregors, Duncan MacLagane in Bofrack (in 1602 he is McClagane in Bowraick), William M'Glagane, Donald M'Lagane, and John M'Ilglegane, were fined for harbouring the outlaws.

  In 1605, "McLaggane alias Miller, and John McClaggane of the Mill of Cluny," assisted a brother of the Laird of Ballachan to abduct a certain Rachell Bonair.

  The above are all from the "Register of the Privy Council."

   In 1590, the Rev. John Makclagene was translated from Kirkmichael in Strathardle to Inverchaddin, and subsequently had charge also of Kyllin, Straphillan, and Muling.

  In 1566, the Rev. Duncan Makclaggane occupied the manse with pertinents, and the house called "Mackiltis," and the "clerkis" in the Parish of Dull.  In 1573, he was presented to the Vicarage of Dowle.

  The earliest notice of an individual Maclagan is Donald Makclaagan, 129, who formed one of a jury of twenty-five of "the best and worthiast of the said schirefdome" (Perth) finding the lands of Pettequharne, Caltulyth, and Abirdeldy to be pertinents of the lands of Grantulie. ('The Red Book
of Grantully," vol. i., p. 67 to 69).

  Though the older mentions of the Maclagans point to a Tayside locality, they were latterly very strong, relatively speaking, near Tummel; and the only evidence of their having to follow anybody for warlike purposes is to be found in the Roll of the Duke of Atholl's fencible men in 1705, where, in Moulin and Tulliemet, eight of them are mentioned as "armed" more or less perfectly.

    Having this given as good a ground work as possible in order to form an opinion how themselves and others looked upon their clan name, and having fixed their locality, let us consider what may have been the origin of their name.

     Undoubtedly a considerable number of what now come down to us as patronimics show tha the family (clan) was only so in a sentimental sense, much as a Russian or German colonel speaks of his men as his children.  But at the present day among primitive people, we see how the chief, though there is no genealogical connection, calls his people his children.

     In the "Heart of Heathen Africa," the Rev. Duff Macdonald informs us, when a man intends to set out on an expedition he goes to the chief of the village, who, to see if the expedition will be successful, makes an offering to the spirit of his predecessors. As the chief puts down his offering he recites the words, "My son has come, he goes a journey, enlighten his eyes, preserve him on his journey, escort this child, amy he return with his head unscathed" (p. 76).  Mr. Macdonald furthe tells us how a "clan," so to say, arises.  Given a man who chooses to make a new settlement. Besides his daughters and sons-in-lsaw, if he had means he purchases slaves who become his "children," the offensive word slave being seldom used.  If he have daughters unmarried, he would give them slave husbands.  Also freemen may come to him and say, "I wish to live with you."  The village chief gives them permission and calls them "younger brothers," or, he may at first be accompanied by friends (p. 152) who are also "younger brothers."  The village council consists then of all those "members of the tribe" which is the literal meaning of the word freemen, as used by Mr. Macdonald. Slaves and women cannot be members of this council, which is presided over by the headman - the "father."  but we have also a glimpse of the effect of the introduction of christianity among these Africans, which seems to have had its exact parallel among the Gaelic tribes of Scotland and Ireland.  When Mr. Macdonald (p. 162) spoke to them of a Day of Judgment, they remarked, "on that day we shall plead that we are the white man's sons, and you, father, will not forsake your children."  (Africana: or, The Heart of Heathen Africa," by the Rev. Duff Macdonald, of the Blantyre Mission).  We have sons of Colomba, Bridget, and others.  Originally our Gaelic names were not directly MacCallum, MacBride, but had the form MacGillecoluim, MacGilleBride, "son of Columba's servant," etc., but the Gaelic and the Yao principle is the same.
 
    Saint's names, however, sometimes at any rate, recorded their peculiarities, thus for instance, we have Maol-Mocheiridh - the early rising tonsured one, the origin of the family whose name is now in English, Early.  There is, therefore, nothing to hinder a holy hermit being kept in memory as Mmol-an-Lagain, or Gille-an-Lagan, or Gille-an-Lag, simply.  That there was such a hermit, we have already seen, but the position seems a little complicated by the name of his hermitage being the Weem, Machlag, a word in which in Irish the accent is in the last syllable.  Compare the early irish Mogruith, slave of (the) wheel; a Druid.

     It is pointed out that in modern times at any rate, there was in the Highlands a tendancy to  calla district after the principal clan which inhabited it, ans so the abbacy lands of Dull are known as Appin nam meineireach.  But in old times men undoubtedly were called from some peculiarity, as in the case of the Firbolg, Bag or Belly Men, one of the traditional races in Ireland; and also from their district, as for instance, in the case  of the Firu Fortrenn, the men of Fortrenn mentioned in the  Annals of Ulster, of whom, in 865, Tuathal, Abbot of Dunkeld,  is said to have been Bishop. ("Chronicles of the Picts and Scots," pp. 361, 362).

     If there was in this district at that date a holy Weem,  those who were connected with it by locality might therefore  be called Firu Machlagan. To the writer Machlag is merely a  dictionary word of which the genitive is Machlaig, and in the  case of the Irish Weem, mentioned previously, the Irish word is declined after that fashion (Enish a mocloigh). The Rev.  0. M. Robertson in his Prize Essay "Perthshire Gaelic,"  while finding evidence of older inflexions, points out that  the tendency is to use one form for all cases in the singular,  and this seems to have been equally true at the date of writing. The Black Book of Taymouth, writes of 11 Gille-an-lag," not Gille-an-luig. "Son of the den"- Mac-an-lagan, is a curious  enough name of itself, but it becomes even less intelligible  if the definite article is left out. Of course this is a strong  support of the "servant of Adam" theory, but if that is right,  "Ilglegane" means the servant of the son of the servant of Adam.  It is also to be noticed that the little Adam local name is not  Adamnan but Eonan.- In the face of these difficulties, may one  who is not a philologist suggest that the name was in some cases looked on as meaning Gille-Machlagan (Lad of Weem).

     Clan names are, of course, a comparatively late invention,  and we are speaking here of the two first clans of whom there is  literary mention as clans in Scotland, with the exception of the  clans mentioned in the Book of Deer. The majority of Highlandmen whose names have come down to us, of dates much subsequent to the Battle of the Inch of Perth, are not spoken of by clan appellations, but by their own and their father's christian names. 

     Whatever the value of the above suggestion, there can be no reasonable doubt that some professing christians, utilized the shelter of the hollow of the rock of Weem, and from the date at which  patronimics became fashionable, it memo probable that he would give rise to a clan name comm on in that district. If St. Cuthbert was the anchorite of the Weem which he must have inhabited about the year 650,  there was plenty time between his day and that of John MaeGille-an-lag,  1415, for uncertainty to creep in as to the meaning of names. Nay more,  when at the present day men from modesty deliberately mistranslate  Folk Tales-may not a few centuries since some of the name have had  also a misguided shamefacedness.

     Let us now turn to the clan "Qwhewyl." The date at which these men first make their appearance is in 1391, when, according to Wyntoun  and Bower, they invaded the Braes of Angus under Duncan Stewart, son of  Alexander, the Wolf of Badenoch. Bower, here, gives particulars which  are not in Wyntoun, and he makes the principal chiefs, after the Stewarts,  Patrick and Thomas Duncanson, omitting a Gibbon Duncanson mentioned by  Wyntoun. He then goes on to say that taking part with those mentioned  and others, were Slurach and his brothers and the whole Clanqwhevil,  William Mowat, John de Cowts, Donald de Cowts and their adherents;  David de Rose, Alexander M'Kintalyhur, John M'Kintalyhur, Adam Robson and their adherents, and others. Those mentioned before Slurach were from Atholl Strathtummel, and Strathtay. The Mowats and Cowts belonged  to Buchan. Skene (Celtic Scotland, iii., p. 309) makes no guess from  what locality came the "sons of the tailor "-M'Kintalyhur. Between  Bofrack and Aberfeldy is Duntaylor. There has been already mentioned,  in 1620, Tailyeour McLagan in Dalshiane who harboured gypsies, and  Alexander and John are common Maclagan names. These are not very strong  proofs in themselves that we have here to do with the principal Maclagans,  but they seem to be straws blown by the general current. The "Tailyeour"  was probably a name equivalent to that of Mercer, one of which family,  Henry Mercer, is recorded as in 1602 becoming possessed of lands in  Dull (see Register of the Great Seal, vol. vi., p. 459). In the list  of Scottish families which in or about the time of Malcolm Canmore  came from France, Leslie in his history mentions immediately after  the Betouns "Taileyefer" (Leslie's History of Scotland, b. vi., p. 312).

     The next mention of the Clanqwhevil is in the Battle of the Inch, where Slurach has given way to Sir Farquhars son, or be is the same man.

     Still more recently among the broken clans themselves in 1594, we find the name "Clanchewill," and in the Roll of the Landlords and Bailies  in whose districts broken men dwelt and presently dwell, mention is made  of the Laird of Weem, the Laird of Balleachane, and the Laird of Grantullie  (Collectanea de Rebus Albanicis, p. 39).

     The spellings of the name with which we have to do are : ,

Qwhewyl (Wyntoun).

Quhele (Scotichronicon).

Qwhwle (Registrum Moraviense).

Qwele (Extractr e Variis Cronicis Cocie).

Chewill (Roll of the Broken Clans).

    The first question which arises concerns the value of the Q which in every case but the last commences the name; being exceptionally replaced by the letter C. It is scarcely necessary to explain that the letter Q occurs in the Ogmic inscriptions at the end of the word Mac, son, in place of the letter 0, Maqq. In Manx Gaelic, the letter Q takes the place of the word Mac in such names as Quayle. W is not in the Gaelic alphabet, and is in this case therefore used by the English speaking scribes to represent some other sound which may be a U or a V. Coming af ter Q it is probably the U sound, and this is proved by the spellings of the Scotichronicon and the Roll of the Broken Clans. By regarding these latter spellings one comes to the conclusion that the pronunciation of the name was something like Cueil or Cuil.

     The e in the centre of Wyntoun's spelling is undoubtedly misleading, and the writer at first took the name as equivalent to the Manx name Quayle above mentioned, and it evidently misled
Skene when he formed the opinion that the name was something like Kevil. I have to thank Mr. George Henderson for putting me on the right track in this instance, and for calling my attention to a fact unknown to me that there is a small sept in Glenorchy (at least four or five families) known locally as MacCuail, they in English call themselves Macdonalds, and they came into Glenerchy from outside.

     The MacCueils of Wyntoun, to adopt for the old clan a more modern phonetic spelling, were from Angus, and the boundaries of this nation are given in the following words in Father Dalrymple's translation of Leslie's History of Scotland. "Angus is induet with thrie riueria, first northerlie with the riuer of Esk, secundlie sutherlie with the sam. river of Esk, thridlie with the beat
riuer of all the riuers in Scotland named Tai: of quhilkes, Tai, rinning throuch diuerse cuntries flowis out of a loch of the sam name, xxiii. myles lang, and twa myles braid; at last rinis into the main Sey" (p. 52). It will thus be seen that Angus extended as far as the east end of Loch Tay.     

Recalling then the fact that the student at St. Andrews in 1537, Duncan McClauchane, was described as "Angusianus," and that this other clan was an Angus clan, we have to look in that "kingdom" for further evidences of their connection with it.

    In local tradition we find the following (Historic  Scenes in Perthshire, p. 412)

"On the north-east shoulder of Drummond Hill, in this parish (Weem), are the remains of a large and strong fortress. It had been a parallelogram in form. Its walls are of prodigious thickness, and had been constructed without lime or mortar; but the stones had been regularly coursed and banded. The precipitousness of the lofty rock on which it stood made it all but inaccessible on the south and

     east sides; and on the north and west sides, it bad been defended by trenches and other outworks, which may yet be traced. It is said to have been erected and occupied by MacTual, son of Tuathal, Abbot of Dunkeld, who, according to the Annals of Ulster, died in A.D. 865. This Mac Tual's name is of frequent occurrence in Gaelic legend and song; but of his works, the only memorial of him that survives is this ruined fort. "

    This Macthuathal may very well be the eponymus of the clan Qwhwle, and that may undoubtedly be the proper pronunciation. The fortification here described is not the only memorial of Macthuathal. On the Tay close to Caputh, we have another. Pennant in his Tour (vol. ii., p. 67) gives a plan of a fortification which he thu's describes: "Late at night reach Inchstuthel, the modern Delvin, the seat of John Mackenzie, Esq., where I found a continuation of Highland hospitality. The situation of this house is of strange singularity; on a flat of one hundred and fifty-four Scotch acres, regularly. steep on every side, and in every part of equal height; that is to say, about sixty feet above the great plain of Stormont which it stands on.
The figure is also remarkable and much better to be expressed by the engraving than by any description of mine." In a note Pennant says:- "Mr. Mackenzie's father, who was a good antiquary, held this to have been part of the land granted by Kenneth to the gallant Hay, the hero
of the battle of Loncarty, whose descendants possessed it for four or five centuries''

  Pennant then describes the circumvallations, and on page 70, refers to Boethius History (lib. iv., p. 64), where it is mentioned as "Inchtuthel."

     In the translation by Bellenden (b. iv., c. 14), the passage is as follows:

'The Pichtis, effrayit be cumming of Romanis
sa far within thaie lands, brint ane riche town,
namit Inchecuthill, which stood upon the river Tay,
that the samin suld be na refuge to thair ennimes.'

We have thus in 1530, the date of Bellenden's work,
his pronunciation of Innis Tuthal.


Who this Tuathal was, we find from the Annals of the Four Masters, where in the year 963 we are told,

"Tuathal, son of Ardghus, chief bishop of Fortrenn, and Abbot of DunCeallain (died)." The same appears under the year 864, in the Annals of Ulster, where Ardghus' name is called Artgus, Abbot cf Dun-Callen. The abbacy of Dunkeld then was at this early date hereditary. What is more probable than that in Angus a clan should  exist called after so potent a warrior who occupied extensive furtifications at either end of a country stretch- from within a few miles of Cupar Angus to the east end of Loch Tay, and whose death was mentioned by the Irish historian, than this same Tuathal, and the name of such a clan would, using Boece's spelling, be MacCuhill. The initial T is mute, being aspirated as in the second T in Tuathal's name.

     If a Pictish word may be supposed to have remained in this district, might not the religious of Dull have been called the son of the cliff," the Welsh clogwyn phonetically clogooin, a word which would give a very  apposite meaning for the 'Crof t Clauchane,' the croft of the ciiff (dweller?) of the Vicarage of Dull, situated at the foot of Craigdull. Did not Ossian Macpherson in 1762 know by tradition a Culdee. a "lonely dweller of the rock," the famous Mac Alpin (Ailbhinn, ailp-a precipice, a protuberan ce) of whom he says tradition has not "handed down the name of this son of Alpin." The Clan Alpin (Macgregor) situated close to the district under consideration have already been alluded to.

     To prove a much more recent local connection between the clan which we call now Cueil and the clan Clagane, the following is very much to the purpose :

     In 1603, King James VI. bestowed of new upon Alexander Meinzeis of that ilk, and on his descendants, the lands and Barony of Weyme. It is unnecessary to go over the particulars of the charter, suffice it to say, the only two other names mentioned in the deed, besides that of Menzies, as having interest in the property, are in the first case, where reference is made to the 20s. lands of Nether Mewane, 11 formerly occupied by the late Donald McQuoill," and secondly, where it mentions the manse of the Vicar of Dull, "occupied by Mr. Duncan McGlagane." (Register of the Great Be&], Vol. A., p. 502).

     Tuathal was succeeded in his various offices by Crinan, who had married Bethoc, the daughter of Malcolm MacKenneth, whose son, Duncan, reigned five years, and was slain by Macbeth in the
year 1040. Crinan survived his son, Duncan, by five years, being himself slain in the year 1045. The notice of this event occurs in the Annals of Tighernac (died 1088) in the following sentence: "Battle between the Albanich araenrian in which Crinan, Abbot of Dunkeld, was there slain and many with him-nine score heroes." Of course, the original is in Gaelic, but the only doubtful word it; given as in the original. Skene, making a pure guess at it, translates it "on both sides." It was a difficulty to Stokes who says (Revue Celtique, xvii., 385) "on one road," but suggests that perhaps it is an idiom for the etarru fein of the Annals of Ulster, meaning "among themselves." To step in with confidence where Stokes walks gingerly is apt to suggest the proverb in which angels' habits are compared with those who are not overburdened with wisdom, but we have good hope that calling attention to the historical parallel which we now do, that our suggestion that it means "by a disposition" or "arrangement" will meet approval. At anyrate, Mr. Henderson says he would translate it "on one mode," i.e., by similar arrangement (on either side) a view borne out by the AU variants - among themselves." This suggestion, if adopted, proves clearly that the duel, it we may so speak of a combat of many but of equal numbers, fought on the Inch of Perth in 1396, was not a new thing in the history of the country or of the district, the only difference being that in the more recent combat the numbers engaged (slain) were only one sixth of the number engaged in the former instance, which may be accounted for possibly by the more ancient combat dealing with the forces of the leaders of two parties in a kingdom, Crinan and Macbeth, himself or his general, while in the latter case it was between two divisions of one tribe.

     The question will naturally be asked why of one tribe, when the various authorities speak of them as separate clans. It is a widely spread tradition among the Maclagans that they were Macdougals,  a name spelt in the Black Book of Taymouth, M'Cowle, and by the Dean of  Lismore, MacKowle, while J. F. Campbell says that the modern pronunciation  is represented by the combination MacCooil, a tradition which has taken a  concrete form which I here give in the words of Dr. MacLagan Wederburn:-   "The three brothers who pursued Robert Bruce were of the clan of Macdougall  of Lorn. Two, I believe, were killed, and Bruce left his cloak with the famous brooch in the hands of the third. The chief of the Maedougalls not only claimed  the brooch, but wished to claim the honour of having taken it, and the  survivor, afraid of being got rid of as an inconvenient witness of the truth,  fled to Perthshire, where he took refuge either with the Earl of Athole or  the Campbells, I forget which, and took the name of MacLagan."

     The running away and the taking refuge were no doubt common enough incidents in individual cases, and thus form it plausible method of explanation when one  finds a family claiming a connection with one more potent located in a  different part of Scotland from that in which the weaker is at home.

     Whether or not the attack on the Bruce was made by Maclagans or other  MacCuaills can never be settled, but it is a fair deduction from the  facts before us that the mistake has been made between the names  MacThuathail (Machuhail) and MacDougall (MacCooill), probably because  the former had sunk into insignificance, while the latter still  flourished as territorially important.

     To return to Crian. We can scarcely doubt that in his day and among his own followers, the correct derivation of those calling themselves MacThuathail was accurately remembered. In the Orkneyinga  Saga, we find, Duncan, Crinan's son called Hundason, and his father,  who fought with Sigurd, Earl of Orkney, was called the Hundi Jarl  (Skenes Celtic Scotland, i., 400). This name seems to have been given  to him by his enemies, and appears strange to Skene, and would seem  to require some explanation. Looking at the sound of the name as it  appears in Boece's History, it is easy to understand how such a  name might find justification by the sound of it. 11 Outhiil," the T remaining mute, contains the first element of the word "Cuilen," Catullus, a whelp (Windisch Irish Glossary, s.v.), a word which MacBain says may be from cut a dog. This would therefore mean apparently that Crinan's followers were the clan of Tuathal, and Duncan was called "the Dog's Son," seeing that his father, Crinan, was the chief of what sounded like the Clan of the Whelps, whether dogs or wolves. There is a common story in the Highlands in which two chiefs meeting, each with their followers concealed in the near neighbourhood, the one who first espied his opponents men asked who  they were, the answer was to the effect that they were the sheep of  the speaker. The other then called up his men and said these were the dogs or the wolves come to eat up the sheep. Such a story as this is probably of very old application. The exact composition of  the word cuilean, a whelp, is certainly not clear. Cu appears in composition in such words as Cuchulain, Culans dog. Cu Cumine, the dog of St. Cumine, names applied in either case, the first to a great warrior, the second to a saint. One is tempted to suggest that it is compounded of the word out a dog, and gille, a youth, a servant, the servant dog, as it were, and at; the word servant implies juvenility, so the word signifies a whelp, a young dog, and has the diminutive attached to it. There is nothing strange even at the present day in foreigners being misled as to the meaning of a name, taking the sound of it as it appears to them as being its real meaning. Is not this the case with what we are calling at this present moment the Boxers, with whom we are fighting in China, the proper meaning of the word we have so translated having something to do with righteousness  and harmony.

     To leave the chiefs of Macbeth's day and come down to the name given  of the leader of the whole clan Qwhewyl, Slurach, at the date of the  raid of Angus. This name suggests a hereditary title, or we might say,  perhaps, a nickname, "the chain bearer." In the Irish tale of 11 The  Lad of the Ferule" (Irish Text Soc., vol. i., p. 22), we are told of the "herald of the mansion" who stood up and shook the "Slabhra eisteachta,"  the chain of hearing, which he had. The story though only preserved in recent  MS. and transparently fictitious in its incidents, does not seem to be modern  (Trans. Ossian Soc., 1855, p. 23).

     To judge also from the Ossianic poems of the Dean of Lismore, the adorning  of the dogs of the clan Chumhail with gold chains was the rule, he talks of  "Deich ceud cu air slabhraidh oir," ten hundred hounds with golden chains;  and in another place he mourns that there is no mention of dog trappings,  or of dogs. "Gun luaidh air chonbheirt no air chon." The dogs here are  evidently the members of the clan of Cumhal, and the near connection in  sound between this name and that of the clan of Tuathal, as explained  in composition Machusbail, is sufficiently striking, and explains  apparently how the poet, preserved in the Dean's book, and the  authorities for the Orkneyinga Saga, both spoke of these people as  dogs. Slurach, then, is a phonetic spelling for a name equivalent  to what would be written in modern Gaelic Slabhruidheach, furnished  with a chain.

     Seeing there is a succession of saints connected with Weem, and a consequent difficulty of being certain of any single one of them having a proved claim as the original inhabitant of the hermitage,
we may look round the neighbourhood for any whose name suggests a connection with a cave, uam, or weem. In the Irish Calander a certain Fillan, the Leper, it; said to be of Rath Eran in Scotland, evidently St. Fillan's at the southern end of Loch Earn. He is in evidence in Strathfillan, and is also connected with Pittenweem on the coast of Fife. The word "weem" we hold not to be Gaelic, nor is the word "Pit" necessarily so. Pit seems a Pictish remainder, and being frequently rendered by the Gaelic 11 baile," a town, is considered by authority to be allied to the Welsh peth, part, Gaelic, cuid. To say the least of it, it is a curious co-incidence that the word which commences Pittenweem is in the Gaelic equivalent to the second name of the island in Sligo Bary
mentioned above.

     The period of St. Fillan is much about the same as that of Adamnan. By philologists the name is accepted as meaning 11 the little wolf "from the old Irish fael, more modern faol, a wolf. In composition, in Ireland, the name appears in Killhelan; in Scotland as Kylheylan, also Killallan (Origines Parochiales, vol. i., p. 81). In the martyrology of Aberdeen, the saints name is spelled Felan (Calendar of Scottish Saints,  p. 127). The Dean of Lismore spells the name the same way, "Felan", in the  Irish Leabhar Breac it is Foelain (Felire of Angus, p. 95). From this it  seems clear that the vowel likely to be used in a word, compounded of the  same elements as that of St. Fillan, would be an E. Wherever we have now  to look for the patron saint of the clan Qwhewyl, authority (the Lyon Office)  connects the Maclagans neither with Adamnan nor Cuthbert, but with St. Fillan.  In a collection of blazons preserved in the Lyon Office, made 'by Joseph  Stacie, a Scottish herald who died in 1687, not, however, as part of his  original MO., but an a later addition by a different band, is the following entry:

"M'lagan, a branch of the M'CIeland, or, two cheverous sable within a bordure  of the last. Crest, a Morter piece. Motto, Superba Frango."

     The name M'CIeland is thus explained by MacBain: - " Mac-Lellan, G. M'Gillfhaolain, M. G. M'Gillelan (D. of L.), Gillafaelan (1467 MS.), St. Fillan's slave, E. Ir.  Faelan, 0. Irish Failan, from fail, now faol, wolf."

     Notice here that in spite of the spelling of the name M'Lagan, the punning crest  points to the authority for this originally as having spelt his name with two  C's or with a C and a K (Macklagan), change the vowels and you have Muckle gun,  the "Morter piece." The rather pretentious motto shows Jacobite predilections.  David MacClaggan who died of old age in Edinburgh in 1766, and was mid to have been engaged in the troubles of 1715, seems the probable originator. Some Maclagans have used as a crest a running dog. In connection with this we,  may note that the Clelands of Cleland (ic-gille-fhillan) who were hereditary  foresters to the Far] s of Douglas have for arms, as shown on the bookplate  of an ancestor of the writer's, a greyhound with a hunting horn hung round  its neck.

     Is there Any reason for being positive that the name Fillan means Little Wolf.  Has not this derivation been arrived at on purely philological grounds? There  seems no objection to believing that there was a name Little Wolf at the date  ascribed to the saint; but., we have in enduring brass what must be considered  a symbol of, or at anyrate is somehow connected with the mint on the handle of  his bell. It is ornamented with two indubitable phalli. This seems to be explained quite satisfactorily by the old Irish fele, the male pudenda (Whitley Stokes,  Archiv. fur Celtische Lexikographie, vol. i., p. 478). There can be little doubt  that the maker of that bell$ at anyrate, gave the latter word as much credit  for the origin of the saint's * name as the word fael, a wolf. If, then, in  the seventh century, Faolan, now Fillan, meant a little wolf, at the date  of the manufacture of that bell, certainly anterior to 1396, Fillan meant   to some, at least the equivalent of St. Phallus.

In discussing the termination ane of the name Maclagan, attention was called  to the Gaelic MS. of above 1450, in which the words

     Do Genelach ic an abbane" were quoted to show that they were a genitive  termination to the word ab aba, an abbot. On P. 153 of Henderson's Bricriu's  Feast is mentioned on the authority of Rhys, apropos of the word Vipogeni,  "the Picts, adopting this name, treated the ending en as their own genitive  termination, so that they next inferred Vepog, the Vipoig of the list of Pictish  Kings."

     The Tay valley we found was in Pictland, now compare with this Abe, Abbane Stokes'  Fele, and the Dean of Lismore's Felane, the genitive of Fillan's name. Then cloch,  old Gaelic clochane, and form a name MacClauchane. 

     Local traditiom, accentuates the feminity of the locality of Weem. Below the cave with a spring in it, is a rocky fissure which is- said to communicate with Loch Glassie, two miles away in the moor above. The story is that the lady of the district sent her daughter and stepdaughter, or by another version, her two daughters and her step-daughter to seek a calf that had strayed into the rock. She protected her own child with a cross as a talisman (or a bible, other version), but during their wanderings the child handed the talisman to the step-daughter. They followed the lowing of the calf until it led them to the cave into which the younger sister entered, but only re-appeared as a mangled body floating at the head of Loch Glassie. In the ballad describing the incident, the one who enters complains of being retained by "iron gates," and says that "the man of the red hood " is between her and returning. Compare this with the esoteric explanation of the incident of Lohengrin and the Venusberg, and other such phallic stories. Now, the Loch Glassie,. in another legend of the near neighbourhood, is called Loch Lassie from a girl the only one saved of a party of children who had mounted a waterhorse which plunged with them into the loch, the little "lassie" saved having fallen off in a fright. We see in this legend how the rock of Weem communicates by an underground passage with a reservoir called Loch Lassie (Dargo Duncanson in the Highland News, 3rd March, 1900). Here, we have another Low country word forming the basis of the folk-lore of this district. Referring to the incident of the calf in the above local legend, the following, also communicated to me by Dr. Maclagan Wedderburn, is another traditional explanation of the name Maclagan. 

On some cattle-lifting expedition, a man swam across the river Lagan, in the north of Ireland, when in flood to recover a calf, and swam back with it; in remembrance of which feat his companions dubbed him the son of Lagan. This man, however, had nothing to do with our family
who were really Macdougalls, and only adopted the name." Dr. Wedderburn, though a descendant of James MacLagan of the well-known Gaelic MS., when he wrote this was probably not aware that Loegan (Rev. Celt. x., p. 224) is Gaelic for a calf, and may be quoted especially as another evidence of the small account paid to vowels in traditional etymology, at anyrate. As the swimmer swam the Lagan, we have also evidence of the piling on of etymologies for an incident which could only have originated in one of the ways mentioned.

     In connection with St. Fillan we would call attention  to the Police Duties performed by the Dewars, the  keepers of his staff. There is a Gaelic word cuaill,  cuaille, a weapon of the bludgeon sort, a rung, a thick stick. Compare with this other known bachulls  and the staff with which St. Cuthbert drove the devil  from his bath. Now, the Earls of Atholl had the same  rights for their district as the Abbots of Glen Dochart  possessed in their territory. This is made clear by the  law called 11 Claremathane" of William the Lyon. If the  Dewars held office on the strength of St. Fillan's staff,  which they undoubtedly did, were they not sons of Cuaille.  No doubt their staff was called the coigreach, which seems  to mean, the stranger, a name thoroughly accounted for by  the fact that one crozier head contained within it an older  one which probably disappeared more or less notoriously when the strange one represented it. Now, at Logerait,  the so-called 11 bal no maoir," translated "the town  of the thief-takers," the head of the earldom of Atholl,  had in its immediate neighbourhood at Strowan, which is  dedicated to St. Fillan, the clag buidheann, the bell of  the troop, which in 1879 was in the possession of Miss Maclnroy of Lude. Putting the presence of the clan Donnachie in the raid of Angus in connection with this St. Fillan dedication of Strowan, we have corroborative evidence of his consideration from the south
end of Loch Earn to Logierait, and from thence to Glendochart, the very country in which we have located the clans Cuaill and Clachynha. Of course, the criticism of the sticklers for exactitude will tell us that the Dewars of the Coigrach-the pilgrims of the stranger (staff)-are not called MacCuaille; but students of folk-lore must admit that when it comes to Gaelic derivation, even in our oldest authorities, it is by no means singular to find several interpretations of the same name quoted one on top of the other as if they had equal authority. It seems to us as if in this case those who had been ranged under the authority of the Abbott of Dunkeld and Dull as the men of Angus, had subsequently acquired distinctive names from their possession of various relics, which relies themselves were liable to change as in the case of the crozier; or to seizure by those who wished to exercise the power which they represented. Jealousies would creep in, and the disputes would naturally be settled by the arbitrament of the sword. One set of MacCuaills might hold by the Tual derivation, some by the staff derivation, some by the cave, storehouse, weem derivation. And apropos of this we may quote what Spencer.and Gillen say of the duties of the headman of a group of native Australians (The Natives Tribes of Central Australia, Introduction, p. 11). 11 The most important function of the Alatunja is to take charge of what we may call the sacred store-house, which has usually the form of a cleft in some rocky range, or a special hole in the ground, in which, concealed from view, are kept the sacred objects of the group. Near to this store-house, which is called an Ertnatulunga, no woman child, or uninitiated man dares venture on pain of death."

     One is loath to give up as non-historical so exciting an incident as the capture of the Bruce's brooch by members of the Maclagan clan. One may say that they may have done it., at anyrate; that they did do it, or who are the representatives of those who did it, probably we shall never know. When we find, however, such Gaelic words as leag, a precious stone, leicc, the crystal of a watch, leice, an oval charm crystal, one begins to have a strong suspicion especially when one remembers the sort of brooch it is supposed to have been, indeed that it is, that a diminutive from some of such words as those quoted (see O'Rielly's Irish Dictionary) are the basis of the story, much as the word loegan, a calf, and lagan, the river, have been made name-fathers to the Maclagans.

     It has been mentioned that the MacCuaills of Glenerchy call themselves Macdonalds. Some Maclagans also say they are Macdonalds.  The story in support of this tells how it was in crossing a river in the time of Prince Charlie that they changed their name. Crossing the river is of course in accord with the swimming of the Lagan for the calf, formerly mentioned. The referring to Prince Charlie's time is absurd, but many other old stories are loaded to to the back of some personage within the knowledge of the reciter, and all one can say is  that apparently the repeater of the story had in this case merely mentioned what seemed to her a probable period.


Variants in Irish Records


Griffith's Valuations


Mc Cloughan (all in Down)
Mc Cluckan (Down)
Mc Clugen (Antrim)
Mc Cluggan (Antrim)
Mc Clughan (Antrim)

Other Variants

McLughan
McLuhan


     We have a group of Mclaughlins and McCloughans in our Mclaughlin DNA Project at FTDNA that all match the same modal (Leinster modal, called by some the Irish Sea Modal). The McCloughan spelling is nearly unique to Co. Down, Ireland and was probably introduced into Ireland at the time of the Pantation of Ulster or later. The name would be McClochan in Gaelic (or McClachan, McClagan). But other variants in the same records are closer to the form Maclagan.