![]() ![]() On July 20, 2001, Sir Lachlan MacLean of Duart, 28th Chief of the clan, unveiled a memorial cairn on a hillside overlooking the Forth at Inverkeithing to commemorate the 760 in total of his brave clansmen who had fought to the death to defend the honour of their clan. Seven men gave their lives in his defence and, as each fell, another stepped into his place, shouting defiantly, ‘Fear eile airson Eachainn!’ (Another for Hector!) and this wild shout became a clan war slogan. ![]() His own men saw that the enemy were trying to take him prisoner or kill him and they shielded him in the thick of the fray. When Red Hector, the 18th chief, was at Inverkeithing in battle against Cromwell’s Roundheads, he found himself surrounded. The MacLeans, despite the occasional act of savagery, were always renowned for their bravery. The so-called Lady’s Rock can still be seen on the ferry trip from Oban to Mull. ![]() A year later, while strolling through the midnight streets of Edinburgh, Lachlan was stabbed to death by his brother-in-law, Campbell of Cawdor. Surprisingly, the Campbells let him go – but they had not forgotten his action against one of their own. He travelled there to pay his condolences and, much to his consternation, found her sitting in a room flanked by her relatives. Lachlan sent news of what he described as a drowning tragedy to her kinsfolk at Inveraray, the Campbell H.Q. He had her bound tight with ropes then marooned at low tide on a prominent rock in the sea channel between the island of Lismore and Mull. Their marriage was not a happy one and he decided to get rid of her. They thus remained friends and allies ever after.Ī rather grimmer tale concerns Lachlan MacLean of Duart who married Elizabeth, a sister of the Earl of Argyll. He drew his dirk and pinned his rival’s hair to the ground and, when Duart awoke and realised his opponent had refrained from slaughtering him as he slumbered, he was touched by this act of chivalry - and vowed there and then that the families must end their feuding. Sometimes, too, the MacLean branches quarrelled among themselves and, after a fierce clash over land, the Lochbuie MacLeans defeated the Duart MacLeans.īut when the victorious chief was on his way home, he found Duart and some of his men, who had fled the field of battle, exhausted and sound asleep on the heather. This clash, which the MacLeans lost after the fall of their chieftain, was known as the Battle of the Rhinns. On the day of the ensuing battle, he climbed a tree and, when Sir Lachlan was within range, he spotted a chink in his heavy armour and put a fatal arrow straight through the slit. Sir Lachlan Mor MacLean (Lachlan the Great), the 14th Chief of Duart, consulted a witch about what he should do and was advised not to land on Islay on a Thursday and not to drink from a well called Strange Neil’s.īut fierce storms forced him ashore on Islay on the forbidden day and, unknowingly, he also drank from the haunted spring – and retribution duly fell on him.īefore fighting his arch enemies, a dwarf from Jura, known as Dubh Sith (the Black Elf) offered Sir Lachlan his help but was contemptuously brushed aside.Įnraged at this slight, the dwarf offered his help to the MacDonalds and was accepted into their ranks. Thereafter, the axe, the laurel and the cypress were incorporated into the MacLean coat-of-arms where they have remained to this day.Īlthough it was the encroaching and expansionist Campbells who the MacLeans were traditionally wary of, they also clashed with the neighbouring MacDonalds and had a long and bitter dispute over lands on Islay. Eventually he became so exhausted that he lay down to die but hung his axe on the branch of a laurel to mark his last resting place under a cypress bush. One story states that Gillian was hunting deer on Mull when he lost his way in a thick mist. They claimed descent from Gilleathain na Tuaighe (Gillian of the Battleaxe) who fought ferociously at the battle of Largs when the Scots trounced the invading fleet of the Vikings in 1263. The MacLeans lived in some of the most spectacularly scenic areas of the rugged West Highlands and were spread along the mainland coastline and over the neighbouring islands.Īs a result, they were expert seamen and their war galleys slicing up sea lochs brought terror to their enemies. ![]()
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