The clan shaw

James Irvine Robertson looks at one of Scotland's familes.

The ancestors of Clan Shaw are believed to be immigrants from continental Europe who settled in Caithness well before the dawn of history.

When records began the head of the family was the Pictish king of Moray. His descendants became the mormaers and earls of this ancient province of the nation. When Kenneth MacAlpine united Pict and Scot in 843 he appointed a progenitor of the clan, governor or thane of Fife.

The clan were MacDuffs - dubh or dark in Gaelic – but they became Shaw - Sitheach or wolf – when a son of the thane with this Gaelic personal name was given lands in Perthshire, Aberdeenshire and made constable of Inverness castle in the middle of the 12th century. Shaw became the toisech and his descendents became known Mac-an- Toisich, the MacIntoshes, as well as Na si'aich – son of Shaw.

The latter became the leading group within Clan Chattan, the remarkable confederation of a dozen full-blown clans that occupied the heart of Scotland from Inverness to the Boar of Badenoch, the mountain that squats by the modern route north alongside the Sow of Atholl.

Although designated as the third chief, the first leader of a Clan Shaw, distinct within the Clan Chattan, was Shaw Mor who held the lands of Rothiemurcus. He led the Clan Chattan contingent on the notorious Raid of Angus in 1391 but is believed to have obtained his estate from the leader of Clan Chattan for commanding its warriors at the equally notorious Battle of the North Inch in Perth. The details of th...

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• By : James Irvine Robertson
• In : Scotland Clans
• Issue : 53
• Page : 71
• Words : 945