Clan MacBean
In Gaelic MacBheathain, from the personal name Beathan, Englished as Beane by 1481 and Bean by 1490 — those are the earliest dated forms of the surname we can source, from Dr Alexander MacBain’s Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language. Clan MacBean is a member and historic sept of the Clan Chattan confederation, settled chiefly in the parish of Dores in Inverness-shire, with branches at Faillie in Strathnairn and Tomatin in Strathdearn. The evidence of that membership is documentary and dated: Kinchyle signed the Clan Chattan Bond of Union in 1609, the Bond of Maintenance in 1664, and the Letter of Authority to Mackintosh to redeem the Loch Laggan estate in 1756. The older accounts — that the first MacBean came out of Lochaber in the suit of Eva, heiress of Clan Chattan, and that Myles Mac-Bean and his four sons slew the Red Comyn’s steward and took the protection of Mackintosh about 1334 — rest on manuscript tradition rather than charter, and should be read as tradition.
Clan MacBean fought with Clan Chattan at Harlaw in 1411 and suffered heavily: Mackintosh was recorded as losing many of his people, especially of the Clan Vean, and the succession cannot be traced again until about 1500. The twelfth chief gave up his lands for debt about 1685. Many MacBeans supported the rising of 1715 and were transported to the plantations in Virginia, Maryland and South Carolina. Major Gillies ‘Mor’ MacBean, second son of William MacBean of Kinchyle and chief in his own right, took a commission in Lady Anne Mackintosh’s Clan Chattan regiment and was killed at Culloden on 16 April 1746; he was succeeded by his son, Captain Donald MacBean. The Kinchyle lands were sold in 1759 or 1760, the sources conflicting. Hughston McBain petitioned the Lyon Court for the chiefship on 26 September 1958, and on Sir Thomas Innes of Learney’s advice that the Scots looked down their noses at landless chiefs he set about acquiring ground; after nearly two years of refusals he bought about two acres above Dores, and McBain Memorial Park was finished in the summer of 1961. Richard McBain of McBain was inaugurated there as 23rd Chief on 6 August 2022 by the Lord Lyon, the Reverend Canon Joseph Morrow.
About Gillies MacBean it is worth being precise, because his is the clan’s best-known story and the most embroidered. The commission, the regiment, the date, his parentage and his chiefship are recorded. The rest — that he stood at least six feet four, that he threw himself into a gap in the wall and cut down thirteen or fourteen of his assailants, the eyewitness line that he mowed them down like dockens — passed into legend and was set down in detail by John Prebble in Culloden (1962). The sources that carry those details hedge them themselves, with “said to have been” and “the story goes”, and we have found no eighteenth-century documentary basis for the number.
The MacBean tartan
MacBean’s tartan history is better documented than most, and it owes nothing to the Vestiarium Scoticum. The official clan tartan, MacBean (Clan), was taken from a sample in the Clans Originaux sample book of 1880 — a dated, named commercial source. MacBean Dress was designed by James Scarlett MBE for Hughston McBain of McBain, 21st Chief, for his wife Kathleen; the register’s note describes structural differences from its neighbour, not merely colour ones. MacBean of Tomatin is a branch sett first mentioned in writing in 1872, when it was described as a design taken from a very ancient piece of tartan cloth found in the house of Tomatin; a specimen of about 1880 to 1920 survives in the Alexander McBean & Sons of Inverness sample book, now in the Inverness Museum, and the chief officially recognised it as one of the clan’s tartans in 2022. MacBean Hunting (reference 13595, recorded 9 August 2022) was designed by Philip Beddows, Seanachaidh to the 23rd Chief, with the tartan historian Peter MacDonald advising, and is the official hunting tartan for all spellings and recognised sept names. A fifth entry, McBain, Chief, was recorded in the Lord Lyon’s register on 8 March 1960 by the 21st Chief.
A note on honesty: of those five, four are distinct chief-recognised designs, but the chief’s sett of 1960 is on the register’s own description a colour variation rather than a new pattern — it differs from the clan sett in having two shades of blue rather than blue and black. MacBean Modern, Ancient, Weathered and Muted are weavers’ colourways. The “very ancient piece of cloth” behind MacBean of Tomatin is the 1872 describer’s claim and not a verified dating: no MacBean sett predates the commercial era, the earliest documented source being the 1880 sample book. Two other register entries are personal tartans of the designer’s own family rather than clan tartans, and “Bannockbane Hunting (MacBean and Bishop)” is a fashion tartan named after a weaver’s swatch book — it is not a MacBean clan tartan, whatever its name suggests. Note too that a register search for “MacBain” returns no exact matches; the spellings on record are MacBean and McBain.
Clan facts
| Chief | Richard McBain of McBain, 23rd Chief of the Clan MacBean, inaugurated at McBain Memorial Park on 6 August 2022 by the Lord Lyon |
|---|---|
| Motto | Touch not a catt bot a targe — Scots, “touch not a cat without a shield” (bot = without, targe = a small round shield). This is a Clan Chattan motto rather than one unique to MacBean; the Mackintosh form is “touch not the cat bot a glove”. Single-sourced, so treat as conventional |
| Plant badge | Boxwood or red whortleberry, on a single secondary source and not corroborated. The clan’s slogan is given as “Kinchyle” |
| Lands | Kinchyle in the parish of Dores, Inverness-shire, sold in 1759 or 1760; branches at Faillie in Strathnairn and Tomatin in Strathdearn. The clan’s land today is the two-acre McBain Memorial Park above Dores, overlooking Loch Ness |