Macdonald of Keppoch

14/05/2026

29/04/2026

The MacIver (MacGlasrich) Campbells came to Keppoch in the aftermath of a creach (cattle raid) and battle in 1497. The sources present two slightly different versions of the event and the family's subsequent role.

The 1497 Battle and the MacIvers' Arrival.

In 1497, while the Brae Lochaber men of Clan MacDonald of Keppoch were absent on a foray, the MacLaurins of Balquhidder raided the Braes of Lochaber and drove off all the cattle [2]. The returning MacDonalds pursued them and recovered the creach, but the MacLaurins called upon their kinsman, Dugald Stewart, 1st of Appin, for assistance. A fierce battle followed at Leachdar (or Leachada) near the head of Glen Orchy on the side of Ben Dorain, where both Dugald Stewart and Donald of Gargavach (a Keppoch leader) were slain [2].

According to the Rev. Somerled MacMillan's account, the MacGlasrich Campbells returned with the MacDonalds after this 1497 encounter in Glenorchy with the Stewarts of Appin and the MacLaurins [1]. Another tradition holds that a Campbell family from Glassary in mid-Argyll had to flee the county—possibly due to killing a local official who had interfered with a Campbell's wife—and took refuge with Clan Donald of Lochaber, becoming part of Clan Donald [4].

Donald MacGillivantic and the Beheading of Dugald Stewart.

A notorious freebooter among the MacDonalds at the battle was Domhnaill Ruadh Beag Mac Gille Mhantaich (Little Red Donald, son of the Stammerer), also known as Donald MacGillivantic [2]. During the fighting, both Dugald Stewart, chief of Appin, and Donald of Gargavach were killed, it is said, by each other's swords [2]. Observing that Dugald Stewart was taller by a head than the fallen Keppoch chief, Donald MacGillivantic severed the head from the Stewart chief's body with his sword so that in future he would not be longer than his Chief [2].

Donald MacGillivantic was a celebrated cattle lifter and a noted figure among the MacDonalds. He later fell foul of the Mackintoshes: the Captain of Clan Chattan demanded that Iain Aluinn, the 4th chief of Keppoch, hand him over to answer for his crimes. Iain Aluinn agreed on condition that his blood should not be spilled—a condition fulfilled to the letter when MacIntosh had him hanged from a tree near Clach na Diolta, Torgulbin [2].

Their Role at Keppoch.

The MacGlasrich Campbells became bodyguards to MacDonald of Keppoch during the 16th and 17th centuries and also acted as foster parents to children of the Chief [1]. A notable incident occurred following the murder of Alexander of Keppoch in 1663, when the Campbell foster father of Alasdair Buidhe MacDonald's eldest son, Ailean Dearg, killed his foster son in a drunken skirmish and was hanged for the crime [1].

The MacIver branch that settled in Lochaber and attached itself to MacDonald of Keppoch was often referred to as the race of MacIver Glasrich, a name later shortened to MacGlasrich [5]. They maintained a separate clan identity even while serving Keppoch; at the Battle of Culloden, though fighting under Keppoch, they insisted on being drawn up as a separate clan under their own officers and refused to be positioned where they would have to engage the Argyll militia, mindful that they wore the Campbell tartan and carried Campbell colours [5].

The Hereditary Pipers Connection

There is an important distinction regarding the hereditary pipers. The sources note that there were other families by the name of MacGlasrich in Brae Lochaber, and it seems the name was also used by the MacGlashans, who were hereditary pipers to Keppoch [1]. This suggests the hereditary piping role may have belonged to the MacGlashan family rather than the MacGlasrich Campbells themselves, though both names appear in the Keppoch household.

References

[1] CCSNA. Septs of Clan Campbell. https://www.ccsna.org/septs-of-clan-campbell

[2] Clan Donald. Notes - Clan Donald. https://www.clandonald.org.uk/genealogy/notes.html

[4] CCSNA. The Campbells and MacDonalds. https://www.ccsna.org/the-campbells-and-macdonalds

[5] Electric Scotland. Clan MACIVER. https://electricscotland.com/webclans/m/maciver2.html

19/04/2026

On the night of February 13, 1692, Scottish soldiers accepted the hospitality of the MacDonald clan of Glencoe. They ate their food, slept under their roofs, and warmed themselves by their fires. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Then, before dawn, they killed them.

The Massacre of Glencoe was not a battle. It was a betrayal. Government forces, acting on orders from King William III, slaughtered 38 MacDonalds in their beds, including women and children. Dozens more fled into the frozen mountains and died of exposure. The glen fell silent.

What made it so devastating wasn't just the bloodshed. It was the violation of *sacred Highland law*: the law of hospitality. To harm a guest, or to harm a host, was considered one of the deepest sins a Scot could commit. The soldiers had broken something ancient and unforgivable.

The MacDonalds of Glencoe were not forgotten. Their story became a rallying cry, a wound that never fully healed, and a reminder of what Scotland endured at the hands of those who sought to break the clan system forever.

If you have MacDonald blood, or any Highland ancestry, this valley belongs to your story. 🦌⚔️

Drop your clan name in the comments. Let's honour them together.

03/02/2026

Long before tartan became a souvenir, the Highlands were a patchwork of kin-groups tied to land and name. A “clan” was family, alliance, and obligation: protect your people, answer the call, and keep honor in a world where a bad harvest or a feuding neighbor could ruin you.

When Scotland fought for survival in 1297, men from many regions rallied under William Wallace and Andrew Moray. At Stirling Bridge, the setting mattered as much as courage. The Scots waited, then struck when English troops were funneled across a narrow crossing over the River Forth. It wasn’t a romantic Highland charge—it was disciplined timing, local knowledge, and brutal close combat that shattered a stronger army’s momentum.

Centuries later, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, the Highlands did become a battlefield in their own right. In 1645 at Inverlochy, James Graham, Marquis of Montrose, led a hard-marching force—Highlanders alongside Irish soldiers—against the Campbell-led Covenanters. Dawn broke with snow on Ben Nevis, and the fight turned into a rout. For many communities, these wars weren’t abstractions of religion or crown; they were burned homes, seized cattle, and names remembered in laments.

After the Jacobite defeat at Culloden in 1746, the British state moved to break the power of the clan chiefs and disarm the region. Laws restricted carrying weapons and targeted Highland dress; military roads and garrisons tightened control. Over time, economic pressures and landlord policies pushed many families off ancestral ground, scattering Gaelic culture across Lowland cities and the Atlantic world.

Yet the Highlands were never only war. They were music, law, hospitality, and stubborn continuity—people adapting, surviving, and arguing over what their past should mean.

Even the symbols we associate with clans were shaped by politics: tartan patterns were popularized and codified in the 18th–19th centuries, not frozen in time.

18/04/2025