The clan MacBean

James Irvine Robertson looks at one of Scotland's great families

The origin of the name is still open to debate. Pronounced, and sometimes spelt, Macbane, some say it comes from the Gaelic ban, meaning fair; others that it derives from beathan, the lively one; still others that it derives from beinn, as in Ben Nevis, meaning that the family lived on high ground. Since much of the highlands is pretty lofty and difficult enough to farm without resorting to the mountain tops, this last seems unlikely.

The MacBeans are part of the great Clan Chattan federation of 16 clans that united under the leadership of the Mackintoshes to control and protect their territories in the central Highlands.

They are thought to be part of the kinship group of Eva, daughter of Dougal of Clan Chattan, who married Angus, 6th Chief of the Mackintoshes, who became the first leader of the federation. The dominant family in this part of the Highlands at the time were the Comyns, deadly rivals to Robert Bruce. William MacBean and his four sons are said to have killed the Red Comyn's steward at Inverlochy after Bruce had stabbed his master in front of the altar of Greyfriar's Kirk, leaving him to be finished off by his followers. The MacBeans were at Bannockburn on the side of the king.

Although some of its members fought with the Camerons, the clan as a whole was close to the Mackintosh chiefs of Clan Chattan throughout the centuries. Their own stretch of country was on the southern shore of Loch Ness as tenants of the Mackintoshes. In 1609 the chief, Angus MacBean, ...

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• By : James Irvine Robertson
• In : Clans
• Issue : 59
• Page : 70
• Words : 992