| The Highland Clans - Alistair Moffat |
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Alistair Moffat’s handy-sized volume of 176 pages and 80 illustrations (30 in colour), is the best popular text of its kind I’ve read on this subject. My male-line family connections are with the MacEwans and the female line with Clan Ross and the Gunns. Additionally, I’m an honorary member of the Clan Gregor Society and served for a time on the Council of the Scottish Tartans Society.
Alistair Moffat has excellent credentials for writing this book because he is both a scholar and a writer in touch with ordinary folk. His previous books include Before Scotland and The Sea Kingdoms and he has an admirable feel for Gaelic culture.
Alistair Moffat has chosen to write what one might call an extended essay, starting with the roots of the clans in pre-history and moving on through the main events of Scottish history, including the Wars of Independence, the Union of the Crowns, the Treaty of Union, and the Clearances.
He deals with controversial topics expertly and keeps the facts in focus. This is particularly true of his treatment of such issues as the Glen Coe Massacre and the role of Alasdair MacColla, war leader of Clan Donald and Montrose’s fearsome second-in-command in the 17th-century Scottish Wars of the Covenant.
A refreshing touch is not to treat the clans as the dead past, but to continue the story into modern emigration and the role of present-day clan societies.
More people at home and abroad are researching their clan roots, sometimes with spectacular results. Scientists at Edinburgh University have discovered that a huge percentage of men with the surname of MacDonald, Donaldson or Donald are descended from a single lineage, Norse in origins.
There are now approximately 1.6 million MacDonalds and variant surnames in the world and this DNA research continues. The clans are still on the march, but in different guise, and their story continues. This book ends with a potted history of most of the main clans and families.
Alistair Moffat has produced a lively account of communities and “tribes” who at one time occupied half of Scotland and a sixth of the land mass of Britain. |
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