Clan Arthur
The MacArthurs, properly Clann Artair, held lands around Loch Awe opposite Inishail, with further ground at Strachur, in Glen Falloch and Glen Dochart, on Loch Tay, Loch Lomond, Islay and in Lochaber. The descent from Arthur of the Round Table in the Red Book of Argyll, and the old saw that there is nothing older save the hills, the Devil and the MacArthurs, are folklore. The clan enters record in 1308, when it supported Robert the Bruce at the Battle of the Pass of Brander and was rewarded with forfeited MacDougall lands at Loch Awe. A MacArthur seal appears on the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320.
The clan’s power was broken in a single act. In 1427 James I summoned Iain MacArthur of Strachur to Inverness, imprisoned him and had him executed, and the Crown took nearly all the clan lands save Strachur and some Perthshire property. In 1567 the chief Duncan MacArthur of Tirivadich and his eldest son drowned in Loch Awe in disputed circumstances. Patrick MacArthur, the last chief, died in Jamaica without an heir in February 1771 and the chiefship lay dormant for 231 years. Research begun in 1986 led to the Court of the Lord Lyon recognising James Edward Moir MacArthur of that Ilk as chief on 28 August 2002; he was inaugurated on 13 April 2003, died on 1 April 2004, and was succeeded by his son.
The MacArthur tartan
The Scottish Register of Tartans holds four MacArthur records in the clan and name categories: MacArthur, reference 2278, dated 1842; MacArthur (Highland Society), reference 2280, dated 1815; MacArthur of Milton Hunting, reference 2281, dated 1823; and MacArthur (Variant), reference 2279, dated 2002. A further group registered under MacArthur-Fox — personal, blue, dress, green and hunting — sits in the Name category and these are not clan tartans.
The 1842 sett, a single yellow line on black and green, is the one most people mean by MacArthur, and it comes from the Vestiarium Scoticum published that year by the brothers styling themselves Sobieski Stuart, a book whose supposed ancient manuscript was shown in 1895 to have been chemically aged. The 1815 Highland Society sett, with double yellow lines, was recovered from a family portrait predating that year and is a genuinely different threadcount. The chief regards both as legitimate MacArthur tartans, so either may properly be worn. MacArthur of Milton Hunting is the chiefly family’s own pattern rather than a general clan sett. No MacArthur sett appears to come from Wilsons of Bannockburn.
A note on honesty: MacArthur Ancient, Modern, Weathered and Muted are dye colourways of the 1842 sett, not separate tartans; the 1815 Highland Society pattern is the only alternative that is a real second design. No MacArthur sett predates the commercial era, and nothing survives to show what the clan wore before 1815 — five centuries after Brander.
Clan facts
| Chief | John MacArthur of that Ilk, Chief of Clan Arthur, since 2004 |
|---|---|
| Motto | Fide et opera — “By faith and work”. The battle cry is Eisd O’ Eisd, “Listen, O listen” |
| Plant badge | Wild thyme |
| Lands | Loch Awe in Argyll, with Strachur, Glen Falloch and Glen Dochart; the original seat was Tirivadich, now Hayfield, and the present one Tiricladdich on Loch Awe |