Clan Donald

iThis is a valuable work, and undoubtedly will become the reference book for allthose many people interested in the history of our Clan, and indeed thoseinterested in the history of the Kingdom of the Isles and of Scotland.<--The Right Honorable Godfrey James Macdonald, high chief of Clan DonaldBased on the three volumes also entitled Clan Donald, first published between 1896 and 1904 by Rev. Drs. Archibald Macdonald of Kiltarlity and Angus Macdonald of Killearnan, Clan Donald covers a period of six hundred years, from the foundation of the Lordship of the Isles until 1746, when the clans ceased to exist as separate organized entities.Clan Donald is not the history of one clan, but of several important clans that descend from the old Kingdom of Macdonald. Each of these clans played its part in the history of Scotland until the final disaster of Culloden. Beginningwith Somerled, and culminating in an overview of how the Celtic and Roman Churches were influenced by Clan Donald, this book is an all-encompassing reference book of interest not only to members of the Clan, but also to students of the Western Highlands and Isles.Chapters include"Angus Mor (1249-1300),""John of Islay (1330-1386)," "The Macdonalds of Dunnyveg and the Glens," "The MacDonalds of Keppoch," and "After the Lordship."Illustrations of the arms of clans, photographs of the Scottish landscape, and genealogical charts, maps, and plans make Clan Donald an invaluable guide to what the high chief of Clan Donald calls"an exceedingly complex" history,"certainly not a history to be absorbed readily at a first reading."About the AuthorDonald J. Macdonald, twelfth lord of Castleton, was born in Edinburgh in May 1897. He was educated at Royal HighSchool, where he was inspired by Dr. W. J. Watson (later professor of Celtic history at Edinburgh University) to take up the study of Highland history and the Gaelic language. After serving in World War I and living in British East Africa under the Soldier Settlement scheme, he returned to Edinburgh to settle and raise a family. For more than thirty years he was associated with the Clan Donald Society of Edinburgh, serving for nine years as president. His first book, Slaughter under Trust (1965), chronicled the Massacre of Glencoe.