MacDonald Highland Clans

For 400 years the MacDonalds ruled the seas,

building a vast empire here in the Highlands and Islands.

They became so powerful they challenged the authority of the kings of Scotland,

but, ultimately, their struggle for supremacy set father against son

in a bloody fight for the very soul of Clan Donald.

The Scottish Highlands have been shaped by centuries of clan history.

A past overflowing with countless tales of bloodshed and bravery,

rivalry and revenge.

But I'm making a personal journey beyond the myths and the tartan

to uncover the real story of Scotland's Highland clans.

Across the world 120 million people claim clan ancestry.

And millions of these belong to probably the biggest and most famous clan of them all, MacDonald.

And the story of this mighty Highland Clan starts with one extraordinary man.

Somerled was the greatest of the Celtic warrior kings.

In the 12th century "ri innse Gall", King of the Isles,

defeated the Vikings and rose to such power

that he and his descendents, the MacDonalds, challenged the kings of Scotland.

My journey starts just off the west coast in the Sound of Mull,

where Somerled launched his campaign to defeat the Vikings.

800 years ago the Vikings raided and pillaged the communities of the Hebrides,

and all along the west coast of Scotland.

And it was here in the islands that they built a network of fortresses

that allowed them to totally dominate the local population.

By the middle of the 12th century the people of the west coast

had endured almost 400 years of Viking oppression.

The key to Somerled's eventual victory was naval power.

To find out more about the technology that enabled him to defeat the Vikings,

I joined the crew of the Aileach,

the only working replica of a West Highland Galley.

Stroke!

We started with a bit of light rowing.

..and stroke, and stroke.

But it was soon clear we weren't going to win any Olympic medals.

-In...in...

-They say it's all about rhythm,

and I am definitely not in rhythm here.

I can't imagine what it must have been like,

spending all day at the oars...

It must have been absolutely knackering.

In the 12th Century Somerled's galleys would have been manned by truly expert mariners.

Today's crew are all volunteers who have little experience of sailing this ancient craft.

I'm a little worried.

The conditions are getting rougher,

and hoisting the sail is proving to be rather difficult.

Woah! Woah, woah, woah!

Drop it down! Down!

Once we're back on an even keel,

I take the opportunity to ask galley master Gordon about how this unique vessel

gave Somerled the upper hand in his fight against the Vikings.

Gordon, what kind of boat is this? It looks to me like a Viking ship.

Yes, you're right. She is a descendant of a Viking long ship.

The main difference is the way that we control the steering.

A Viking long ship would have had what is called a "steer board",

or steering board, where we get the word starboard from.

-Steer board, starboard.

-It was basically a big plank that was lashed to the side of the ship.

The galley... she has her rudder directly on the stern,

rather than on the side of the boat,

which gives you a lot more manoeuvrability,

gives you a sharper turning circle.

So this would have given Somerled a great advantage?

Oh yes, very much so. Certainly in battle against the Norse, yes.

So you say boats like this would actually go into battle?

Yes. They would, er...

Their first exchange would probably be arrow fire,

and when they got a little bit closer within range of throwing a rope

they would throw a grappling hook or axes over,

pull the two ships together,

lash them together, and they would have a fighting platform.

-Just knocking great lumps out of each other?

-Yes.

-On the sea?

-Yep.

At the start of his campaign,

Somerled faced seemingly impossible odds.

Short on men and fire-power,

he was forced to rely on Guerrilla tactics.

But using captured ships, Somerled was able to challenge the Vikings,

masters of the seas, at their own game.

As his campaign grew increasingly successful

he began to build his own ships, like the Aileach.

So why were these boats important to Somerled?

It was important to him,

because having the power he then commanded the seas.

By controlling the sea lanes,

was Somerled able to become a king, really?

Very much so, yes, a self-proclaimed king of the west coast of Scotland.

No image of Somerled has survived to this day.

So to gain a better picture of this remarkable figure,

and his importance to the story of Clan Donald,

I landed on the Isle of Mull.

Author and local historian Kathleen McPhee

is taking me to where Somerled's story began.

Kathleen, what kind of man was Somerled?

I think he was a person of tremendous character,

determination, intelligence.

He it was who had the charisma to rally the people

and get them to fight back against the Viking thugs.

How was he connected to this part of the world,

where had he come from and what was his mission?

Somerled was the son of a dispossessed chief, Gillebreachy,

of who belonged to Morvern on this side of the Sound.

So Somerled's interest in this part of the world

had to do with a lost inheritance in a sense,

and he wanted to grab this back for himself?

Exactly. He gradually started to take over not just Morvern but Mull,

which was infested with Vikings,

and then Kintyre, Lorne, mid Argyl, Nutdale,

in fact, he very soon had the whole of Argyl back.

I think the idea came into his head,

that perhaps he could become a king of his own territories.

It sounds as if Somerled was driven

by something other than just the desire to get back his patrimony,

his inheritance, what do you think that other thing was?

Without him the whole Gaelic culture and language and presence might have disappeared.

He saved it. He started the resurgence of all things Gaelic,

and he created a kingdom which challenged the King of Scotland.

By 1153 Somerled's Gaelic empire stretched from Lewis in the north

all the way down the west coast to Kintyre in the south.

However, to the east lay Scotland,

whose young king, Malcolm the 4th,

wanted Somerled's lands for himself.

For a decade an uneasy peace existed between the two kings.

But when the Scots began to push west,

down the Clyde into Somerled's territory,

the King of the Isles mobilised his forces.

Somerled was 64, almost retirement age for many of us,

when he assembled a massive taskforce of 164 galleys

and 15,000 men from across the west coast and the Hebrides.

Now this Celtic Armada sailed right up the Firth of Clyde,

determined to stop the westward advance of the Scots.

Somerled's army disembarked where Erskine Bridge now stands today.

The two sides eventually came face to face

in what is now a housing estate.

The Battle of Renfrew took place here at Bargarran in 1164.

obviously this land has long since been built over,

and is presently occupied by a housing scheme.

It's all very peaceful here. So it's almost impossible for us to imagine

the brutal scenes that once took place - a titanic clash between two mighty armies

struggling to control the destiny of Scotland.

So you'd think such a momentous event in our shared history

would be remembered somehow,

but there's not a monument, a cairn or even a plaque.

It was here that Somerled, the great warrior king, was finally slain.

An account of the Battle is given in a medieval poem

which outlines the moment of his death.

"Wounded by a spear, slain by the sword, Somerled died.

"And when this fierce leader was struck down, the wicked took flight,

"and very many were slaughtered, both on sea and on land."

This poem reads like a heavily biased piece of war reporting on behalf of the Scots.

But it's more than just a little ironic to think

that when so much of Somerled's power and success

depended on being able to control the seas,

it was on land that his campaign finally came to an end.

And I wonder too what would have happened if Somerled had actually won the Battle of Renfrew.

Perhaps a lot more of us would be speaking Gaelic today!

After the battle, Somerled's kingdom was not swallowed up by Scotland.

The death of the King of the Isles eventually led to the formation of Clan Donald.

I've come to Paisley Abbey to speak with historian Andrew McDonald.

I want to find out about the birth

of what is perhaps the greatest dynasty in highland history.

Andrew, what happened after the battle of Renfrew?

Well, the first thing that happened

was that Somerled's Kingdom or empire was divided up amongst his sons

and within a couple of generations one of the dominant figures that emerges in the west

is Somerled's grandson named Donald,

and it is from Donald, of course, that we get the Clan Donald,

the MacDonalds, that eventually go on to become

one of the most powerful families in the region.

What was the key to Clan Donald's success?

Sometimes it's easier to work from within the system

than it is to oppose it from without.

One of the best examples of what I'm talking about

is in this Abbey all around us,

because even though it was founded by the man who defeated Somerled

it was actually patronised by Somerled's descendents, including Donald.

They gave money to the Abbey, they pumped money into it,

they were benefactors, and in fact what we see in the 13th Century,

is these men coming much closer in to contact with the Scottish Kingdom itself.

The descendants of Somerled cease to use the title of king that Somerled had used,

and they now tend to describe themselves as lords,

or in one document of 1284, Barons of the Realm of Scotland.

But originally they were fighting against the crown, now they're fighting with the crown,

so there's a complete turnaround. What was in it for them?

Well, I think what was in for them was, again, opportunism,

a means of enhancing their power and their prestige, and that's exactly what happens.

Instead of fighting the Scottish Crown,

the MacDonalds were now courting its favour.

In the Highlands and Islands, they continued to battle

with clans such as the Macleods and the MacLeans, for supremacy.

But the Lowlands would be the stage for the next chapter in the story of Clan Donald,

when they played a vital role in the most pivotal moment in Scottish history.

After his coronation in 1306,

Scotland's new king, Robert the Bruce, was forced on the run,

but was given sanctuary from his enemies on Islay,

by a young MacDonald Chief, Angus Og.

And when, in 1314, Bruce faced the might of England at Bannockburn,

Angus Og was at his side.

It was here on the flat marshy ground below Stirling Castle

that they defeated the English despite being outnumbered 3-1.

The Scots' victory came about because of the close relationship

that existed between the King of Scotland,

and the MacDonald Clan chief, Angus Og,

who brought 5000 clansmen to fight here at Bannockburn.

Bruce sent the MacDonalds into battle

with the words "my hope is constant in thee."

The Scots drove the English from the battlefield.

Thousands were slain and Stirling Castle fell to Bruce.

Without Clan Donald, Scotland would never have won its independence from England.

Angus Og was richly rewarded for his loyalty to Robert the Bruce.

With royal backing, the McDonalds were soon riding high,

and by the end of the 14th Century had become

the most important and powerful clan in the Highlands and Islands.

For the next 200 years the MacDonalds would be the dominant force in the west of Scotland.

Wealthy and well travelled, the chiefs of Clan Donald

were a real power to be reckoned with in the British Isles.

And here, in the Highlands and Islands, they created a Gaelic empire,

at the heart of which was a vibrant and unique culture.

SINGING IN GAELIC

The MacDonalds didn't write much of their history down.

Instead, events and personalities were immortalised in poems and songs

that were handed down from generation to generation.

This great oral tradition can still be heard on Islay today.

Iseabail MacTaggart is leader of the Islay Gaelic Choir

whose repertoire includes songs written by the bards of Clan Donald.

Originally performed hundreds of years ago they still resonate today.

Iseabail, that was a really beautiful song and beautifully sung. What's the story behind it?

That's a song written by one of the last remaining Bards of Clan Donald about him as Bard

being able to really extol the virtues of Clan Donald, but in a very loud and proud way.

He's comparing himself to the songbird of Clan Donald

and the songbird was always a really important symbol in Gaelic society

about being able to sing loud and proud about things and that's what he's doing.

The third verse, for example, Cheern and Coory.

He's talking about this land of heroes

having this influence in society and being a real force.

SINGING IN GAELIC

In what way were bards important to Gaelic society in the past?

Hugely important. They recorded everything. They were the people that communicated the history.

They were the tradition bearers and because the culture was oral

they were the people that basically passed it down through generations

and generations, so hugely important people.

What's it like singing these songs today? Does it connect you to the past?

It's quite remarkable to think that we're singing songs that were written

by people that were here hundreds of years ago that are talking about the physical place that we're in,

and they're celebrating our culture and I think that's fantastic.

SINGING CONTINUES

Throughout the 14th and 15th centuries, the MacDonalds ruled the Hebridean Islands.

And from Lochalsh in the north to Kintyre in the south,

they controlled vast areas of the Scottish mainland.

To defend their territory they built a series of impressive castles right across the west of Scotland.

Now just a ruin, Dunyvaig Castle overlooks Lagavulin Bay on the south coast of Islay.

It was once an important MacDonald stronghold and naval base.

Successive generations of Clan Donald chiefs would have stood here

to survey a huge empire that at one point surpassed even that of their great ancestor, Somerled.

The music and song served as a reminder that here on Islay

far from the reach of the Scottish kings, the MacDonalds truly were Lords of the Isles.

The most convincing evidence of MacDonald supremacy can be found in the most unexpected of places.

Loch Finlaggan lies right in the middle of Islay and is miles from the sea.

Surprisingly, it was here that Clan Donald, rulers of a great maritime empire, built their seat of power.

Dr David Caldwell of the National Museums of Scotland has spent 10 years excavating this historic site.

His findings have given him a unique insight into Finlaggan's importance.

David, this is obviously a very ancient site?

Yes, it is.

We have evidence going back to the time of Somerled in the 12th Century

and the evidence carries right through for the Lords of the Isles

being here right to the end of the 15th Century.

A whole impressive series of buildings here.

You've got the chapel which dates to the 14th Century,

and over here we found evidence for quite extensive kitchens

and then this building that we're standing in was the Great Hall.

But what's even more surprising is the significance of the smaller of the two islands in the loch.

What's the name of the wee island?

Eilean na Comhairle which is Gaelic for the Council Island,

and that's where they had their council meetings

and that's where the administration of the Isles took place.

Every summer vast numbers of people came here and they could see their betters meeting on the island,

but yet they couldn't actually get in the way.

They had to see it from a distance.

This is really a parliament. It's a government, is it not?

This lordship of the MacDonalds was like a separate state which had the same government apparatus

as other great states in Europe,

and it's what really marks out the importance of the Lordship.

Does a Lordship in a sense represent an alternative Scotland?

The Gaelic title, Lord of the Isles, can also be translated as King of the Isles.

They saw themselves as a Celtic Society and more importantly,

I think that they were challenging the Stewarts as being potential kings for the whole of Scotland.

The Lords of the Isles had a deeply troubled relationship

with the Stewart kings of Scotland,

who were intent on imposing their authority on the whole country.

But the MacDonalds' formidable military strength

allowed them to keep the Crown at bay.

Being a thorn in the side of the Scottish kings was almost second nature to the Lords of the Isles,

who saw themselves as independent in their own right and did everything in their power to stay that way.

This struggle for independence came to a head in 1462

when John MacDonald, the 4th Lord of the Isles and Chief of Clan Donald,

entered into an alliance with Scotland's number one enemy.

England was at war with Scotland.

John MacDonald made a secret pact to support the English against the Scots.

This reckless alliance would trigger a bitter family feud.

It was here at Bloody Bay, just off the coast of Mull,

that John MacDonald clashed with his son and heir Angus Og.

Historian Domhnall Uilleam Stiubhart has researched how their struggle

ultimately lead to the demise of Clan Donald's Lordship of the Isles.

-What a wonderful view.

-Ardnamurchan all the way along here...

Ben Hiant, the sacred mountain over there, and here we've got Bloody Bay.

500 years ago this seemingly peaceful stretch of water

would have been a scene of carnage as father and son fought each other for the very soul of Clan Donald.

What on earth were the Lords of the Isles doing in supporting the ancient enemy, England?

It's one of these things that seemed a good idea at the time.

But looking back on it,

maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all.

Both sides had very good reasons for making a treaty at the time.

The King of England is planning an invasion. He needed help in the north of Scotland.

Who better to give him help than the Lord of the Isles?

But surely, John, Lord of the Isles was a traitor at this time?

Really you could say what the Lord of the Isles was doing

was merely trying to protect his own state, if you like, or a state within a state, against a very aggressive

and perhaps rather brutal bunch of gangsters down in Edinburgh that were trying to take it away from him.

Did John, Lord of the Isles, pay any penalty for this treachery?

Well, the King of Scotland, James III and the King of England, Edward IV,

they had a sort of love-in in the early 1470's.

Edward the IV decided to dob in the Lord of the Isles.

Lord of the Isles was found out. King of Scots had to do something about it.

He was stripped of his titles and very much put under the thumb of the King of Scotland.

And also, henceforth, the title, The Lord of the Isles, is now in the power of the King of Scots to grant

and not in the power of the islanders themselves. That was a big change.

He fell out with an awful lot of people in the Lordship, most notably his own son, Angus Og MacDonald.

Angus drove him out of the house and, oral tradition tells us,

made his father sleep under an old rotten boat on the seashore, things had got that bad.

Where does Angus fit into this picture? Is he trying to take over as Lord of the Isles?

Yes, it was getting to a point where he was seeing his inheritance being taken away from him piece by piece.

So Clan Donald is deeply divided at this point with father and son at each others' throats?

Yeah, the tensions grow and this is where it all explodes. The battle of Bloody Bay.

One of the greatest sea battles that Scotland has ever seen,

perhaps one of the greatest sea battles of its time in the whole of western Europe.

-And who won?

-In a sense Angus Og MacDonald won because he beat his father,

but the long term losers were Clan Donald as a whole.

There's a lot of very expensive state of the art medieval naval technology at the bottom of this bay.

It's estimated the MacDonalds lost up to half of their fleet at the Battle of Bloody Bay.

And with the loss of this naval might, the Lordship of the Isles would never be the same again.

Without the backing of his clan, John remained Lord of the Isles only in name.

Angus Og continued his campaign to reclaim his inheritance for another ten years,

but in 1490, he was mysteriously murdered in his sleep.

His body was brought to Iona, the spiritual and intellectual centre of the Lordship of the Isles.

It's here that the mighty chiefs of Clan Donald are buried and, many believe, the great Somerled himself.

In ancient times funeral processions carried the dead along this road

which is still called The Way Of The Dead, up here to the burial ground of Reilig Odhrain.

Now, St Oran's chapel is a very beautiful, very simple building overlooking the Sound of Iona

and traditionally it's here that the great MacDonald chiefs,

the Lords of the Isles, have their final resting place.

But John MacDonald never made this journey.

In 1493, he was finally stripped of his title by the King of Scotland.

Poverty stricken, the fourth and last Lord of the Isles died a few years later in Dundee,

far from Clan Donald's ancestral heartland.

These are some of the grave slabs of the Lords of the Isles, and here's a great sword

and up here a traditional symbol of sea power - a Highland Galley.

But of course, John MacDonald, the very last Lord of the Isles,

never made it here to lie amongst the bones of his ancestors.

And somehow this exile in death, if you like, symbolises for me not just the end of a great dynasty,

but the end of a possibility or dream of a Gaelic-centred, Gaelic-speaking Scotland.

But the story of Clan Donald didn't end here.

Somerled's ancestors still gather from all over the world

to celebrate their ties of kinship here on the Isle of Skye.

I've always wanted to come back here since I was a wee chap, even though I live on the other side of the world.

This is our ancestral home and when we come here to the Isle of Skye, we feel that we've come home.

These men are the current chiefs of Clan Donald.

Recent research suggests that one in four MacDonalds can trace their origins back to Somerled.

I am actually a direct descendant from Somerled, King of the Isles.

How are you sure you are related to him?

I know I'm related to Somerled through agreeing to have a DNA test,

and was quite relieved to know I am related to Somerled.

Only one man, Genghis Khan, has more living descendents.

The MacDonalds are no longer a great power, but they remain perhaps

the most famous and certainly the largest of all the Highland Clans.

Do you know how many there are worldwide?

-Millions...

-3 million...

-15 million, it is by far the largest clan.

-We're everywhere.

And 800 years after he conquered the west,

perhaps this is the most lasting legacy of the King of the Isles.