Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 30 on 01/12/2006.

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To conquer or die (Macdougal)

James Irvine Robertson turns his attention to one of the oldest clans in Scotland, the clan Macdougall

Son of the Black Stranger is the meaning of Macdougall. It is doubtful whether the original of the clan was that dark and he was certainly not that strange since his family had been amongst the most powerful in Scotland for generations.

He was a descendant of Somerled the Viking, progenitor of the Lords of the Isles. Somerled ruled the west coast and the islands before being defeated in 1164 at Renfrew by the forces of Malcolm IV under Walter the High Steward. In the early 13th century Donald, Roderick and Dougal were Somerled’s descendants and had split his realm between them. Dougal and his family held sway on the mainland as Lords of Argyll and Lorne.

But with such power, and so much to keep under control, it is impossible to be static. You must either expand or perish, and that means that you have to engage in politics, and becoming involved in politics means that you have to make alliances and compromises. It is not the right side you must back, but the winning side. And Alastair, the head of the Macdougall family and 4th Lord of Lorne, didn’t.

It was bad luck. He could not foretell the future, and he seems to have done all he could to further his family’s fortunes by marrying into Scotland’s most potent dynasty, the Comyns, with three earldoms and 32 knights in the family. He wed the daughter of the Lord of Badenoch. Her nephew was one of William Wallace’s most redoubtable supporters, a Guardian of Scotland, victor of the Battle of Roslin in 1303, and a true champion.....

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By James Irvine Robertson

Section : Scottish Clans

Page number : 52