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Clan Urquhart

MEAN WEIL, SPEAK WEIL, AND DO WEIL


The name Urquhart is of Gaelic origin and derives from the area of Airchair, on the northwest shore of Loch Ness.

Clan Urquhart have been described as having minor importance in Scottish history, perhaps compared to others. An eccentric, prominent writer of the seventeeth century, Sir Thomas Urquhart, believed that he was the 143rd direct descendant of Adam an Eve, a claim that would support the ancient origins of this clan.

The Urquhart clan motto is Meane weil speak weil doe weil" (Mean well, speak well and do well), and their clan crest depicts a lady holding a sword and a palm sapling.

Scottish History

of Clan Urquhart


Castles and conflict

Bearers of the surname of Urquhart are scattered widely across the globe today, but what links them in an indissoluble bond is that they can all trace roots back to the ancient soil of the northeast of Scotland.

While Urquharts flourished for many centuries in Moray and Aberdeenshire, it is in the area of Cromarty, in Ross-shire, and further south in Inverness-shire that they first made their mark on the pages of Scotland’s colourful story.

A Gaelic version of the name is Uchardan, believed to indicate ‘fort on a knoll’, ‘by a rowan wood’, or ‘the front of the knowe’, while another derivation is from the Brythonic ‘air’ and ‘cairdean’, indicating ‘at the woods.’

As a surname, Urquhart is a ‘location’ name, stemming from the territory known in Gaelic as ‘Urchard’, or ‘Airchartdan’, on the scenic northwest shore of Loch Ness, and this indeed was the name of the area as early as the sixth century when visited by the great missionary and future saint, Columba.

There is also an area known as Glenurquhart further northeast, in the Black Isle, however, and there is still debate as to whether or not this was the original homeland of the Urquharts.

What is not in doubt, however, is that both areas became firmly identified with the Urquharts from an early date.

‘Mean weil, speak weil, and do weil’, (with ‘weil’ meaning ‘well’) is the Urquhart motto, while a naked woman brandishing a sword in her right hand and a palm sapling in her left is the crest of this clan that claims as their founder a famed warrior known as Conachar Mor.

Conachar, a son of the Royal House of Ulster, is believed to have come to Scotland from Ireland during the reign from 1058 to 1093 of Malcolm III, better known to posterity as Malcolm Canmore.

A colourful legend associated with Conachar Mor is that, aided by his faithful hound An Cu Mor, he slew a wild boar that had been terrorising all who lived in the area of the present day Great Glen, and his sword is said to still lie buried somewhere in the glen.

The boar’s head that appears in Clan Urquhart’s heraldic devices is said to commemorate Conachar’s memorable slaying of the boar.

As one of Malcolm Canmore’s greatest and most fearless warriors, Conachar is reputed to have been rewarded with possession of the fortress that later became the site of the imposing edifice of Urquhart Castle, on the northwest shore of Loch Ness.

The occupation of the castle by the Urquharts in succeeding centuries appears to have been sporadic however, with Durwards, MacDonalds, and Grants its main occupants.

But the history of the Urquharts is still romantically linked with that of the castle, whose precious ruins are today in the expert care of Historic Scotland.

Situated near Drumnadrochit, Urquhart Castle is one of Scotland’s most popular tourist attractions, and its dramatic history is recounted in an exhibition and audio-visual display in the castle’s magnificent new visitor centre.

The ruins also overlook the stretch of Loch Ness that boasts the greatest number of sightings of one of Scotland’s other top tourist attractions – the elusive Loch Ness Monster, more fondly known as Nessie!

Built on the site of ancient fortifications around approximately 1200, Urquhart Castle survived centuries of turmoil only to be blown up in 1692 to prevent it becoming an impregnable and strategically important stronghold for dissident northern Jacobites.

An impressive tower house still defiantly stands among the ruins, however, as mute testimony to the past might of what was one of Scotland’s largest castles.

One of the most tumultuous periods in the castle’s long and bloody history occurred during Scotland’s late thirteenth and early fourteenth century War of Independence with England, a period that coincides with the Urquharts’ first appearance in the historical record.

This was in the form of William de Urchard, the first chief of the clan, who proved a loyal supporter of the great warrior king Robert the Bruce in his struggle to free Scotland from the yoke of English occupation.

At an early stage in the long and bitter conflict, William de Urchard commanded a hardened band of freedom fighters who prevented supporters of England’s rapacious Edward I from seizing the Mote Hill, overlooking the mouth of the Cromarty Firth, thereby denying them access to a strategically important ferry crossing.

Urquhart Castle also held a vital strategic importance and, in common with the other northern bastions of Banff, Elgin, and Inverness castles, changed hands many times before Bruce’s decisive victory at the battle of Bannockburn in June of 1314.

This was when a 20,000-strong army under Edward II was defeated by a Scottish army less than half this strength – a patriot army that included William de Urchard and his clansmen.

In 1358, during the reign of David II, William’s son, Adam, was rewarded for the family’s loyalty to the cause of Scotland’s freedom and independence with the award of the hereditary sheriffdom of Cromarty, an influential and powerful post in which the family served with great distinction for 300 years.

As the power and influence of the Urquharts increased and their fortunes flourished, Castle Craig, on the northern shore of the Black Isle, became their main stronghold.

Other lands accrued over the centuries, including those of Braelangwell, Newhall, Meldrum, Byth, Craigston, Craighouse, and Kinbeachie, while it was at the beginning of the seventeenth century that John Urquhart of Craigfintray, known as the Tutor of Cromarty, built Craigston Castle, in Aberdeenshire.

William Urquhart, a grandson of Adam, the first hereditary sheriff of Cromarty, was rewarded for his family’s efforts on behalf of the Scottish Crown with the accolade of knighthood in 1416 from a grateful James I, while Thomas Urquhart was knighted by James VI in 1617.

By about the second half of the eighteenth century, however, the family had lost practically all of its lands, thus fulfilling a curious prophecy of the mysterious Coinneach Odhar (‘dun-coloured Kenneth’), better known as the Seer of Kintail, or the Brahan Seer.

Born on the island of Lewis in the first half of the seventeenth century, but later settling in the Urquhart homelands, the Brahan Seer is reputed to have received the gift of Second Sight, or prophecy, in the form of a divining stone.

Burned for witchcraft at some stage between 1665 and 1675 at Chanonry Point, in Ross-shire, the seer is renowned today for a series of prophecies that have proved uncannily accurate.

These include the dramatic fall of the powerful House of Seaforth, the battle of Culloden of 1746 and the subsequent Highland Clearances, and ‘horrid black rains’ over the Highlands that have been interpreted as referring to either the North Sea oil industry or, more alarmingly, nuclear fall-out.

The Brahan Seer is reputed to have told the laird of Urquhart, who may well have officiated at his execution in his capacity of sheriff, that ‘the day is coming and is close at hand when the grasping Urquharts will not own above twenty acres of land in the shire of Cromarty.’

Although considered far-fetched at the time in view of the Urquharts’ vast landholdings, the chilling prophecy has since proved accurate.

All that remains to the clan today is Craigston, in Aberdeenshire, owned by William Pratesi Urquhart, the ruins of Castle Craig on the Black Isle, and the ancient Cullicudden Old Kirkyard.

It was in 1959 that a Wilkins Urquhart, descended from Urquharts of Braelangswell who had immigrated to America in the eighteenth century, had his right officially established by the Lord Lyon King of Arms of Scotland as Chief of Clan Urquhart.

By that time Castle Craig had passed out of the family’s possession, but it was gifted to the chief by Major Iain Shaw of Tordarroch ‘as a unique symbol of amity between two great Highland clans.’

Castle Craig remains the seat of the clan chief, who at the time of writing is Kenneth Trist Urquhart of Urquhart, of Louisiana.

An Urquhart Clan Association flourishes today, promoting not only its own proud heritage and traditions in particular but that of Scotland in general.

There is also an official Urquhart clan tartan, while the stirring clan pipe music is ‘When the Urquharts return to Glen Urquhart’.

Bearers of the surname of Cromarty, meanwhile, are recognised as a sept, or sub-branch, of the clan.

Jacobites and eccentrics

A rather endearing strain of eccentricity appears to have flowed through the veins of a number of noted Urquharts, not least Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty, who died in 1557.

In his twilight years it was his habit to order his long-suffering retainers to carry him from his castle on a couch every evening, and then laboriously hoist him up to the battlements through a complex system of pulleys.

This nightly ritual, he believed, was ‘emblematical of the resurrection.’

He also appears to have been particularly virile, fathering no less than eleven daughters and twenty-five strapping sons – seven of whom fell defending their nation’s freedom.

This was at the battle of Pinkie, fought on September 10, 1547 near Musselburgh, on Scotland’s east coast, following the invasion of a 25,000-strong English army under the Duke of Somerset.

Three thousand clansmen and their kinsmen who fought under the leadership of the Earl of Argyll were either killed on the battlefield or forced to flee to safety.

The Urquharts proved unswerving in their support of the Royal House of Stuart, through all its various trials and tribulations, with the eccentric genius Sir Thomas Urquhart imprisoned for a time in the Tower of London for his loyalty to the ill-fated dynasty.

Born about 1611 in Cromarty, Sir Thomas is still famed for his celebrated translation of the work of the French satirist Francois Rabelais, in addition to a mathematical treatise published in 1645, a volume of epigrams, and his attempt to found a universal language.

Undoubtedly his most bizarre work, however, is the rather grandly titled Pantochronachanon, published in 1652, that traces the Urquharts’ descent from Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden!

During the bitter seventeenth century civil war between Crown and Covenant, Sir Thomas lent his support to Charles I and, following the king’s execution, to his son, Charles II.

Scotland’s nobles, barons, burgesses and ministers had signed a National Covenant that renounced Catholic belief, pledged to uphold the Presbyterian religion, and called for free parliaments and assemblies, at Edinburgh’s Greyfriars Church on February 28, 1638.

Copies were made and dispatched around Scotland and signed by thousands more, making war with Charles I inevitable.

The first shots in this war were fired on May 14, 1639, in an action in which Sir Thomas Urquhart is believed to have taken part.

More of a skirmish than a battle, and known as the Trot of Turriff, it involved a force of Covenanters being forced to flee the Aberdeenshire village of Turriff when attacked by a determined band of Royalists.

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The Crests

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