Profile: The interactive clan map, a guide to Scottish families

Months of painstaking work, which included consultation with 121 clan societies, have resulted in the map, the first of its kind.

The map displays the ancestral lands of Scottish clans and allows users to hover over each clan name and discover the history, motto, and tartan specific to the clan.

It has been developed by Lochcarron of Scotland, established in the Borders in 1892 and now the world’s leading manufacturer of tartan.

“We created the map in order to provide an engaging resource for people who are interested in learning about their clan history,” said a spokesperson. “There are numerous clan maps out there but no interactive maps. We felt that by creating an interactive clan map we could make learning about clans fun and easy for everyone.”

HOW WAS IT MADE?

WORK began on the project in May and during the initial stages the design team had to draw by hand all the clans holdings featured before sending them over to their development team to create the interactive version. The map began with only two interactive features which were used to gain initial feedback from clan societies from the UK and US before adding in the other 63 features.

“The map gives people the chance to see which clans ruled every part of Scotland so you can trace back if your family lived elsewhere,” said Lochcarron. “By working closely with the clans, and in a lot of cases speaking directly with the clan chief, we believe that we have created a factually correct map that is interesting for clan experts and the average layperson.”

The biggest clans featured on the map are Clan MacKenzie and Clan Campbell.

WHAT IS A CLAN ANYWAY?

THE word “clan” is derived from the Scots Gaelic word “clann” meaning the children, offspring or descendants. In the 12th and 13th centuries the concept grew beyond close family to cover a network of people who felt they had loyalties to a particular chief. Occasionally the extension of the clan territory was achieved by alliances, marriage or conquest.

In time, as the Scottish monarchy became established and started to exercise control, the distribution of clan lands was granted, or at least authorised, by the monarch.

The clan chief had responsibilities for clan members, which included giving help, resolving disputes and dispensing justice. In turn, clan members were expected to join the clan chief either in defending their territory or on raids on neighbouring land to steal cattle and provisions or extend clan lands. Raids would also be carried out in revenge for an earlier attack by another clan.

As the raids were so important it was not automatic that the eldest son of a chief would inherit the post. Elections could and did happen and the priority was usually who would be best to lead a clan in battle.

A distinctive feature of the system was that the chief was not put on a pedestal and thought of as a superior individual. English visitors to Scotland, more used to the idea of nobility, landed gentry and subservience, were often amazed by the close relationship between the people and their chief.

HOW ACCURATE IS THE MAP?

THE National’s history columnist Hamish MacPherson said: “The clan system served Scotland well for several hundred years, especially in the Highlands and Islands where chiefs effectively ruled over little kingdoms in which people were linked by kinship and their relationship to the chief who was their landlord, hereditary judge, chief of police and military commander rolled into one.

“The map shows accurately how clans became attached to various areas, though it would be quite wrong to presume that everyone who lived in a particular area such as a glen would all be of the same name.

“Historians recognise that much more research is needed into how the clan system developed and why it became almost exclusively associated with the northern half of Scotland. The map shows how, in the southern half of the country, certain names came to be dominant in particular areas but there was never quite the rigid clan system that evolved in the north.

“Many people assume that the clan system died almost overnight after the Battle of Culloden in 1746, but in truth it was already on the way out as power became more and more concentrated around the monarch and the Parliaments, first in Edinburgh and then in Westminster. It was the Act of Union in 1707 and the fact that lowland Scots accepted it, albeit mostly grudgingly, which really sounded the death knell for the clan way of life as the British state gradually became the maker and enforcer of laws that the clans eventually had to accept.”

Visit the interactive map and find out more about where your ancestors came from!