Mac Millan History

In Gaelic literature a Mac Millan is referred to as Maolanach (a tonsured person), or as Mac Ghillemhaoil (son of the devotee of the tonsured one). The tonsure of the Celtic church consisted in shaving the hair from the front half of the head, and there can be little doubt that the clan descends from some unremembered dyanst of the early church in Dalriada. It' s chiefs acquired territories in Knapdale, in the heart of this area, through a Mac Neill heiress: and they are commemorated there by the Mac Millan tower of Castle Sween, the oldest stone-built castle in Scotland, and by the elaborately engraved cross in Kilmory churchyard, upwards of twelve feet high. On it is inscribed "Haec est crux Alexandri Mac Millan". Possibly the Highland chief hunting the deer on one side of it is Mac Millan himself; as probably, the claymore beneath the crucifix on the reverse side is his. But his descendants lost the lands of Knap, which became a bone of contention between MacNeills and Campbells, and were purchased in 1775 by Sir Archibald Campbell of Inverneil. But long before this disintegration occurred, the earliest known sept of the Mac Millans had become settled in Lochaber. Its cadet chiefs descended from Iain, eldest son of Malcolm Or, the 1st of Knap. In Lochaber they soon became involved in the troubles which followed the failure of the Lord of the Isles at Harlaw in 1411. During that period of insecurity Mac Donalds, Camerons, Mackintoshes and many lesser clans shifted their allegiance uneasily between the Lordship and the Crown, seeking safety or gain where they thought it might be found. In 1431 Mackintosh bestowed Murlagean upon the Mac Millans and they became dependents of Clan Chattan and dwellers upon the western shores of Loch Arkaig. The learned Chief of Mac Farlane recorded that Charles Mac Millan bound himself and his posterity as "hereditary servants"to the Mackintosh who died in 1457. This Charles was the ancestor of the Inverness Mac Millans and younger son of Ewen the 1st of Murlagan. So the Lochaber clan proliferated, as Mackintosh tenants living in the heart of Cameron country. In the 17th century the chief of Murlagan refused to support Cameron of Lochiel against the Mackintoshes. Lochiel borrowed money from Campbell of Argyll to purchase the title to the lands which the Mac Millans occupied from Mackintosh. When the Gentle Lochiel called upon Iain the 9th of Murlagan to fight for Prince Charles in 1745, he refused. But tradition says it was Murlagan' s two sons who carried the wounded Lochiel from Culloden field, and Prince Charles made his last stand at their home by Loch Arkaig.
It was none other that Donald, grandson of the Gentle Lochiel, who cleared the Mac Millans as well as his own clansmen with such ruthlessness from their ancestral homes. It was regarded as a peculiar act of perfidy that this was done by a resident chief, rather than by Lowland factors or foreign speculators. The story is told in Bygone Lochaber (1971) by the Gaelic scholar the Rev. Somerled Mac Millan.