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Clan MacKay

MANU FORTI


Historically clan MacKay were one of the most powerful of the ancient Highland clans. They fought in many battles, both with their neighbouring clans and against the rebelling Jacobite forces, and occupied a large amount of territory in the north of Scotland in the area once known as Strathnaver.

The MacKay clan motto is "Manu forti" (With a strong hand) and the clan crest is a dagger.

Scottish History

of Clan MacKay


The blood is strong

The Mackays were prosperous and at one time could muster over 4,000 men under arms although that figure might also include warriors from other families who were supportive. The wild coast of the far north has huge cliffs and bleak moors and is split by lovely and often unexpected bays of golden sand which have the power to attract visitors to this day.

Their lands were marked by rivers and long straths, such as Strath Dionard, Strath More, Strath Naver (one of the black names of the 19th century Highland Clearances) and Strath Halladale.

Their best known corner was Strath Naver, one of the largest rivers in their lands. Strikingly beautiful lochs lay within their boundaries, such as Eriboll, Hope, Loyal and Naver. They became fishers of the sea as well as keeping large herds of cattle, goats and sheep. They bred ponies. The Laxford is still a famous salmon river and the Mackays lived well.

They had strongholds at Castle Varrich, on the southern outskirts of modern Tongue, and Castle Borve, near Farr Point. Local tourism has resulted in marked paths leading to Castle Varrich which has a spectacular siting on a prominent knoll.

The clan’s chief seat was the House of Tongue, on the eastern shore of the Kyle of Tongue. Until the 17th century every known marriage of a chief of Mackay was with a member of the Scottish gaelic aristocracy.

Their clan lands are well worth holidaying in today – the lovely bay of Eddrachallis with its pattern of islands, the breath-taking cliff and beaches scenery, little harbours like Kinlochbervie, communities like Scourie, Farr and Tongue, pointed Ben Stack and that queen of Scottish mountains, Ben Loyal, whose peaks figure in so many postcards and calendars and which had a near fey status long ago.

The clan’s principal branches and cadet houses were Aberach, Scourie, Bighouse, Strathy, Melness and Sandwood. Lord Reay, as chief of Mackay, is styled MacAoidh.

There were also Mackays in Galloway, Kintyre and Argyll, but it appears they had few or no links with the Northern Mackays.

The days of the clan’s ferocious battles with their neighbours, of their links with royalty or as soldiers in mainland Europe, have gone and the ruins of old townships and sheilings besprinkle the glens and straths where there are now sheep farms, conifer forestry and sporting estates. But their reputation lives on.

The Mackay tartan is a dark affair of blue/black and green and it does not perhaps fully mirror their character because they clearly had a kind of elan and it is no accident that their name is one of the best known Scottish surnames.

Even when the days of the clan ended and the Mackays were scattered to different parts of Scotland and abroad they still kept the spirit of the clan alive. A band of Mackays in Glasgow formed the first clan society in 1888.

An old story telling of the relationship between father and son and of the turbulent times conveys the spirit of this courageous people.

One of the most prominent chiefs, Angus Dubh (Black Angus) had a son, Neil, who was at one time a hostage/prisoner of King James I of Scotland on the Bass Rock, that grim, offshore fortress and prison off North Berwick.

King James could take tough measures against Highland chiefs who bucked his authority. He once summoned 40 leaders, including the Mackays, to Inverness for talks and then jailed them.

Angus then sent for his youngest son, Iain Aberach (Abrach), who was staying with kinspeople in Lochaber, in the west central Highlands, and Iain hurried home.

On arrival he asked for food and was directed to the door of the dining hall only to find it blocked by a fierce boar hound. The dog leaped at his throat, but tired and hungry though he was, he whipped out his dirk (dagger) and slew it.

Panting and angry, he was embraced by his father who expressed his delight at the test of courage of a son he had not seen for years.

He is reputed to have said “Dearbh thu do cridhe” (“You have proved your valour”), and that became the motto of the cadet Abrach family.

The clan tended to hold their lands by the sword, but a royal charter of 1499 shows Strathy and other lands being given (in reality, ‘regally approved’) as a reward for capturing a Sutherland outlaw.

The name Aodh dates back to the earliest pre-Christian Irish folk tales and gives us ‘Mackay’, Mac Aoidh. The name is sometimes given in ancient documents as Y or Iye.

This powerful clan was known as the Clan Morgan as well as the Clan Aiodh, a name claimed from Morgan, son of Magnus, in the early 14th century, and the better known name from his grandson, Aodh or Hugh.

The clan claims descent from the old royal House of MacEth, in the province of Moray. Malcolm MacEth, Earl of Ross, was displaced from Moray by King Malcolm IV in 1160.

His grandson, Kenneth, joined in a rebellion against King William the Lion of Scotland (1143-1214) and was killed. Kenneth had a son called Iye and the clan story then becomes more clear and almost grows into an unbroken tale of war and intrigue.

Fighting and feuding

Martial virtues of courage, fidelity, hardiness, efficiency with weapons, tenacity and military skills were respected and admired in bygone days. It bred a race not easily cowed and among whom, despite occasional blemishes, honour was strong.

The virtues of such warriors served European monarchs well and the Scots Brigade which fought for the Protestant cause and King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, the Lion of the North, in the Thirty Years War, is remembered to this day. The Thirty years War (1618-48) was actually a series of religious and political wars caused mainly by political rivalry between Catholic and Protestant princes in Germany and the interest of foreign powers in German affairs. The war devastated Germany and increased France’s power at the expense of Spain.

There was a follow-on tradition among the Mackays to call some of their children Gustavus.

Kenneth became chamberlain to Walter de Baltrode, Bishop of Caithness, and his son, Iye Mor, married the bishop’s daughter and acquired lands in Durness (pronounced Durnis) in what became the heart of the Mackay lands.

Iye Mor was succeeded by his son, Donald, born in 1265 and who married a daughter of Iye MacNeill of Gigha, the small island off the coast of Kintyre.

Their son, another Iye, became chief around 1330 and then the long and bitter feud between the Mackays and the Sutherlands flared up.

Sutherland takes its name from the ‘south land’ of the raiding Norsemen who eventually settled and added their genes to the complex mix that became the Scottish nation and whose descendants became ‘clans’.

The Sutherlands were very powerful and to ensure royal control of a kind from far off Edinburgh and Stirling, King David II granted the earldom of Sutherland ‘in reality’ to William, Chief of Sutherland, in 1345, giving him near total power in the area.

He claimed feudal superiority over the Mackays who made clear that such an arrangement was implacably opposed. The issue went to arbitration, but the Sutherlands got their retaliation in first (as the modern rugby players say) and in 1372 Iye Mackay and his heir, Donald, were murdered in Dingwall Castle by Nicolas Sutherland of Duffs.

Donald’s son, Angus, then became the 5th chief. He married a daughter of Torquil MacLeod of the Lewes (Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides) and died in 1403 when his son, Angus Dubh, inherited the position of chief.

Under Angus Dubh, the Mackays began to flex their muscles and full blown battles took place.

Angus’s uncle, Huisdean Dubh, who was tutor or regent of the clan during the time the chief was a boy, quarrelled with the young chief’s widowed mother. She called her MacLeod relations to her aid and they invaded Strath Naver in 1408.

They burned and pillaged, but the Mackays caught up with them in Strathoykel in a fierce battle known as Latha Tuiteam Tarbhach (the Day of the Great Slaughter). The Mackays won and the MacLeods died almost to a man.

Angus Dubh also commanded a force of Mackays, Sutherlands, Munros and Rosses which took the field in 1411 against Donald, Lord of the Isles, who was in rebellion against the regent Albany who controlled Scotland when James I was in prison in England.

The Lord of the Isles claimed the Earldom of Ross, but was defeated at the north east battle known as Red Harlaw. When Angus Dubh tried to prevent Donald taking the town of Dingwall he was himself defeated and taken prisoner.

But after being crushed at Harlaw, Donald felt he had to release Angus Dubh and it may be that these two pugnacious leaders got on well together because Donald gave Angus Dubh his sister Elizabeth in marriage.

What Elizabeth thought about this is not recorded, but extensive lands came with her.

The Mackays, in the manner of the time, did some raiding, often regarded as a manly sport rather than full scale war. In 1425 Angus Dubh took much plunder from Moray and the next year he invaded Caithness and did the same to the Sutherlands.

But he got into trouble. His first cousin, Thomson Neilson Mackay of Creich, committed sacrilege by burning the chapel of St. Duthan (Duthac) at Tain and was outlawed. Thomas’ lands were held from Angus Dubh who had been granted them in charter by the Lord of the Isles. King James then – unfairly – appointed the land between Thomas’ brothers and their father-in-law, all descendants of the Sutherlands. More strife was to follow.

Then, in 1433, they and the Sutherlands marched on Tongue, determined to destroy the Mackays once and for all. Angus Dubh was ill and had to be carried to the battlefield on a stretcher. Because Neil, his heir, was still held hostage on the Bass Rock, the clan was led by Angus’ teenage younger son, Iain Abrach, the courageous boy who killed the great hound.

The Mackays met the invaders at Druim nan Ceap, near Tongue. Both armies were about 1,500 men each, which was big for the time. Being satirised or taunted was considered a very serious insult in those days and the Mackays were enraged when the Sutherlands taunted them about the youth of their commander. They called him a calf and said they would hobble him (tie his legs).

But the Mackays won and hunted the fugitives on the slopes of Ben Loyal and around Loch Loyal. A stone marks where the last Sutherland was killed in flight. The indomitable Angus Dubh, alas, was killed by an arrow while tending the wounded.

A gaelic proverb says “better a swift death in battle than a slow one in bed” so he may not have been displeased at dying in a manner which was regarded as heroic.

The victory and even his death may well have inspired the Mackays because in 1437 they invaded Caithness and defeated the Sutherlands at the battle of Sandside Chase.

Because Neil was on the Bass Rock, Iain Abrach, despite his youth, led the clan with courage although there were to be strains between that house and the main chiefly line.

Neil’s son, Angus Roy (Red Angus) carried on the main line and became the 8th chief of Mackay. The Mackays eventually settled their feud with the Sutherlands by the marriage of one of the chief’s daughters to Sutherland of Direled, but another feud began, following a deed which cried out for vengeance.

The Rosses of Balnagowan, in 1486, burned Angus Roy to death in the church at Tarbet where he had sought sanctuary. The Mackays were not going to ignore that sacriligeous deed and they invaded Strathcarron of Ross and slaughtered the Rosses and their allies at Aldicharrish in 1487.

Iye Ross Mackay, son of the murdered Angus Roy, became chief and during his time the clan finally got royal charters in 1499, 1504 and 1511 for their lands after helping the King to crush the Lordship of the Isles and the MacLeods in Lewis.

The new chief believed that attack was the best form of defence and in 1493 he again gave the Rosses a battering.

He also fought at Flodden in 1513, that crushing Scottish defeat when James IV did not want to go to war with England, but because of the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France the King felt honour-bound to do so.

Nearly every leading clan had casualties of major rank at Flodden and the battle gave birth to the heart-moving song and pipe lament “The Flowers of the Forest”, which is nowadays played at all major Scottish events of grief.

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Family History Mini Book


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121 Clan MacKay

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The Crests

of Clan MacKay

Clan MacKay
Clan MacKay
Clan MacKay (Balmaghie)
Clan MacKay
Clan MacKay
Clan MacKay
Clan MacKay
Clan MacKay
MacGhie family
MacKey family
MacKey family

69 Clan MacKay

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Divisions

of MacKay

MacKay of Strathnaver
MacQuiod
Morgan
Neilson
Reay
Scobie
Williamson

Spellings

of MacKay

MacCaa
MacCay
MacGaa
MacAth
MacAy
MacCa
MacCaidh
MacCaoidh
MacCey
MacCoid
MacCoy
MacGee
MacGhee
MacGhie
MacHie
MacKee
MacQue
MacQuery
MacQuey
MacIye
MacKa
MacKaa
MacKaay
MacKai
MacKe
MacKeay
MacKeiy
MacKew
MacKey
MacWhaugh
MacWhaw
MacWhey
MacWhy
MacYe
Makaw
Makay
Makca
Makcaw
Makcawe
Makcoe
Makkaw
Makkcae
Makke
Makkee
Makkey
Makkie
Maky
Morgund
Murgan
Neelson
Neillsone
Neilsone
Neilsoun
Neilsoune
Neleson
Nelesoun
Nelsone
Nelsonne
Nelsoun
Neylsone
Nilson
Nilsone
Nilsoune
Nylson
MacAoidh
MacKy
MacKye
MacQha
MacQua
MacQuhae
MacCue
Nielson

188 Clan MacKay

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