Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 20 on 10/04/2005.

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Great clansmen (Cameron)

The Cameron clan comes under the spotlight in this issue. James Irvine Robertson reports

The image of a clansman is recognised across the world as personifying Scotland. No other country, particularly a small northern European country, has a similarly powerful symbol of its nationhood.

The reality has not existed for 250 years and it is a tribute to the colourful blend of romance, honour, gallantry and ferocity in the myth that it is still so dominant.

The Camerons would have to be chosen as the clan that most closely matches that image. Their ferocity was legendary – ‘Sons of the hounds come here and get flesh’ was their slogan or war cry.

They sustained a feud of 360 years against the MacIntoshes. Their loyalty to the Stuart cause was unswerving. Their chiefs were outstanding. And they had to fight for centuries against other powerful clans to hold their wild and beautiful country of Lochaber.

Like most Highland clans, their roots are shrouded in obscurity and legend but it seems that the family is first recorded in Fife in the 12th century as offshoots of the royal house of McDuff.

A member of the family was Sheriff of Atholl in 1296 when a kinsman was the earl. Another signed the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320. Another emerged after, perhaps, a judicious marriage or two as leader of a grouping of families in Lochaber with kinship links to the Lordship of the Isles, the regional superpower of the times.

The subsequent history of the clan tells of continuous strife. The chief rarely had the security of a Royal Charter over clan country and instead they h.....

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By James Irvine Robertson

Section : Scottish Clans

Page number : 46