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Mac
Laren
There is much that remains
shadowy and speculative about the origins of
Clann Labhran. If they take their name from a
13th-century Abbot Lawrence of Achtow in
Balquhidder, their early conflicts with the Mac
Gregors and Mac Larens are explicable, but not
their massacre of Mac Larens in Strathyre in the
12th century. Descent from a mediaeval Abbot in
Strathearn suggests a branch of the Celtic
Dynasty of earls who succeeded the Pictish kings
of the Dark Ages there. Yet it was on grounds of
descent from owners of the island of Tiree that
John Mac Laurin, Lord Dreghorn, son of Professor
Colin Mac Laurin, established his claim in 1781
to the chiefship of the Mac Laren clan. The
rallying cry of the clan is Creag an Tuirc, which
means Boar's Rock, and this rock stands near
Achtow and Achleskine in Balquhidder - a far cry
from Tiree. When the line of Lord Dreghorn came
to an end the clan remained without a chief
until, only a few years ago, the representative
of the Achleskine branch was recognised as Mac
Laren of Mac Laren. These circumstances do not
inspire confidence that much is known for certain
about the identity of the Mac Laren chiefs during
the period when their office played a meaningful
part in Highland life.
During the 15th century one of
the Stewart lords of Lorne married a daughter of
Mac Laren of Ardveche, and their son Dougal was
the progenitor of the Stewarts of Appin. The line
of Ardveche itself continued until 1888, but it
does not appear to have been considered as the
house of the Mac Laren chiefs.
Mac Larens were emigrating to
serve as soldiers in France and Italy before the
end of the 15th century. When the Chief of Mac
Kay took his clansmen to do the same over a
century later he stated that it was because
conditions had been made impossible for him at
home. Was it the same with the Mac Larens? They
were overrun twice by the landless Mac Gregors in
1542 and 1558, and described as a broken clan. By
the time of the Thirty Years' War they were
enlisting in the Swedish service in which Mac
Kay's regiment fought. The modern Swedish writer
Carl G. Laurin is one of many who commemorates
their names. The insecurity caused by the policy
of successive Stewart sovereigns and the actions
of their Campbell and Gordon lieutenants were
especially severe in the area in which the Mac
Larens lived
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