Clan MacLeod

Clan MacLeod takes its name from Leod, a Norse-Gaelic figure of the thirteenth century, and divided early into two lines: Siol Tormoid, the MacLeods of Harris and Dunvegan, and Siol Torcaill, the MacLeods of Lewis.

Siol Tormoid held Harris, Glenelg on the mainland and Dunvegan on Skye, where the castle has been the chiefs’ seat since the fourteenth century. Siol Torcaill held Lewis until the Mackenzies displaced them in the early seventeenth century, keeping Assynt, Cadboll and Raasay, the last until 1846. The present chief, Hugh Magnus MacLeod of MacLeod, is thirtieth of his line and succeeded his father in 2007.

The MacLeod tartans

MacLeod tartans are documented mainly from the nineteenth century. The striking yellow sett overchecked in black, popularly called Loud MacLeod and registered as MacLeod of Lewis, is credited in the Scottish Register of Tartans to the Sobieski Stewarts, meaning it comes from the Vestiarium Scoticum of 1842. That book was later shown to be a fabrication, though its patterns passed into everyday use.

The green and blue sett usually sold as MacLeod of Harris is closely related to the Mackenzie pattern. An older specimen, MacLeod of Gesto, is attributed by the Register to Wilsons of Bannockburn, placing it among the commercial patterns of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

A note on honesty: earlier surviving samples of the yellow sett have narrower yellow stripes than the version sold today, so the modern proportions should not be described as unchanged. The Fairy Flag of Dunvegan is a real object, but the stories attached to it are clan legend.

Clan facts

References

1. MacLeod tartans — The Scottish Register of Tartans
2. Symbols — The Associated Clan MacLeod Societies
3. Our clan chief — The Associated Clan MacLeod Societies
4. Vestiarium Scoticum