Clan History

MacKinnon Clan History

Excerpt from 'The Scottish Highlanders' by Charles MacKinnon. 

     The Clan MacKinnon is one of the Siol Alpin family (see Appendix I) and is among Scotland's most ancient clans. Its associations have always been Hebridean. 
     The clan counts King Alpin as its founder, and its slogan or war-cry is 'Cuimhnich bas Alpein', meaning 'Remember the death of Alpin', who was beheaded in 841, in memory of which the MacKinnon chiefs have a second crest showing a severed head crowned with an antique crown. 
     It was Alpin's great-grandson Findanus, the 4th MacKinnon chief, who gave the chiefs their Gaelic patronymic of MacFhionghuin, sons of Fingon of Findanus, which is now the clan surname. It was Findanus too who brought Dunakin into the clan around the year 900 by marrying a Norse princess nicknamed 'Saucy Mary'. The castle, Dun Haakon, was an old broch or  fortress commanding the narrow sound between Skye and the mainland, through which all ships had to pass or else attempt the  stormy passage of the Minch. Findanus and his bride ran a heavy chain across the sound and levied a toll on all shipping passing up and down! 
     The Princess lies buried on Beinn-Caillaich in Skye, her face reputedly turned towards Norway. 
     It was in the shadow of Dunakin that King Haakon IV's war galleys mustered in 1263 before the Battle of Largs, at which their  power was finally broken in Scotland. 
     Findanus, however, had his lands in Mull, and there were MacKinnons in Arran too who gave shelter to Robert Bruce. The clan did not receive its great Skye estate unfil after Bannockburn when Bruce rewarded them with it. It stretches from Kyleakin up to Broadford and then runs across Skye to Elgol and includes the islands of Pabay and Scalpay. 
     The chiefs, after Bannockburn, took their Lowland title from this estate of Strath Swordale or Strathardale and had their seat at Dunringill Castle, of which nothing now remains, and Dunakin was held by a collateral branch of the chiefly family. 
     Like all the Hebridean clans, the MacKinnons were vassals of the Lords of the Isles, and they were made hereditary custodians of the standards of weights and measures. 
     From the beginning the clan had very strong links with Iona where for centuries a branch of the chiefly family were hereditary abbots, a position of such great prestige in the Highlands that it is certain that the MacKinnons belonged to the kin of Columba.
     Iona is the burial ground of MacKinnon chiefs as well as of Scottish kings. There was a Fingon abbot of Iona in 966, and the last abbot of the holy island was John MacKinnon, who was also Bishop of the Isles and who died in or around 1500. 
     During the time of the Lordship of the Isles the MacKinnon were frequently at feud with the MacLeans. One of the more pleasing clan stories describes an early incident, probably fourteenth century, when MacLean of Duart and MacLaine of
     Lochbuie seized the lands of the MacKinnon chief in Mull at a time when he was away in Skye. On his return The MacKinnon heard about it and obtained the help of forty warriors from the Earl of Antrim. On his way back to Skye to raise more of his clan, he stopped on Mull to find out how the land lay and heard that the MacLeans were lodged in Ledaig House without  sentries and that their followers were sleeping off a heavy carousal. 
     The MacKinnon made every man in his party cut and trim a fir caber, which they planted in the ground before Ledaig House during the night. The chief himself planted an untrimmed one in front of the others and left his naked sword above the door. Nex  morning the MacLeans realized that they had been at the mercy of the MacKinnons and had been spared, and they are said to have withdrawn from the MacKinnon lands. 
     After the fall of the Lordship of the Isles, the MacKinnons and the MacLeans are generally to be found acting in concert and were frequently linked by marriage ties. 
     The MacKinnon crest is an unusual one. It is a boar's head, which is common enough in the Highlands, but with the shankbone of a deer in its mouth. The story of this crest is that in the fourteenth century The MacKinnon was hunting on the shores of Loch Scavaig in Skye. He became separated from his hunting party and sheltered for the night in a cave, where he kindled a fire to broil some venison. A wild boar entered the cave and attacked him just as he was slicing some meat from a haunch. With presence of mind, he thrust the bone into the jaws of the beast, jamming them open, and killed it with the knife. 
     The MacKinnons were always a small clan but seem to have enjoyed a prestige greater than one would expect, perhaps from their Iona and Columban connection. Sir Iain Moncreiffe has descibed them as a 'sacred' clan. 
     They had supported Bruce, and in due course they supported Montrose too and took part in the attempt to restore the Stuart monarchy in 1650-1, being present at the Battles of Inverkeithing and Worcester. At Worcester Sir Lachlan Mor, the 28th chief, rendered some sort of special service to Charles II for he was created a knight banneret on the field of battle, the last or second-last such creation ever made. 
     The estate of Strath had been erected into a barony by Charles I on 15 January 1628 in favour of Sir Lachlan MacKinnon, the 26th chief, who died shortly afterwards. 
     The MacKinnon chief Iain Dubh was out in '15 and '45 and has been described in Part One of the book. His son was forced to part with the clan lands, and his grandson John died unmarried in 1808. 
     The chiefship now passed to the descendants of the second son of sir Lachian Mor, the 28th chief, who became a banneret a Worcester. This second son Donald had emigrated to Antigua circa 1680, as a result of a quarrel with his hot-tempered father.
     The present chiefly family was therefore in the West Indies all during the Jacobite risings and had nothing whatever to do with events in Britain. When the Antigua branch succeeded to the chiefship in 1808, there were no clan lands left, and they therefore had also nothing to do with the shameful episode of the Skye clearances. 
     The only MacKinnon possession still in clan hands is Dunakin Castle, which belongs to the author, who is a direct male descendant of Findanus who obtained it by marriage early in the tenth century; he also belongs to the Antigua branch of the chiefly family.