A free e-Article by Thor Ewing
© Thor Ewing 2008, All rights reserved
Several of the West Highland clans trace their descent from Anradhan (also spelled Anradan or Anrothan), who is said to have inherited the lands of Cowal and Knapdale a thousand years ago through his marriage to a Scottish princess. According to medieval genealogies, the clans of Lamont, MacSorley, MacSween (including Sweeney and McQueen), MacEwen, and MacLachlan are all descended from this eleventh-century prince. Other clans which claim descent from Anradhan include the MacLeays and Livingstones, the MacGillevrays and the MacNeills. Others yet are related through the female line at a significant point in their history.
The Scottish genealogies name Anradhan’s son as ‘Dedaalain known as ‘Buirrce’’ (called Aedh Alainn in Irish manuscripts). This Dedaalain had two sons, Duinsleibe (or Dunsleve) from whom spring the Lamonts, MacSorleys, MacSweens and MacEwens, and Gillacrist ancestor of the MacLachlans.
These clans settled the lands on either side of Loch Fyne in Argyll. The MacSweens had clan seats at Castle Sween in Knapdale and Skipness Castle in Kintyre, while the MacLachlans, MacEwens and Lamonts had Castle Lachlan, Castle MacEwen and Inveryne (later Castle Toward) on Cowal.
So much for Anradhan’s descendants - what of his ancestors?
The genealogy of MacLachlan chiefs says that Anradhan was descended from the line of the legendary Irish king, Niall of the Nine Hostages (Niall Naoí Ghíallach, or Noígíallach). This seems to be confirmed by genealogies of the MacSweens (recorded in the fourteenth-century Irish Books of Ballymote and Lecan), which name Anradhan as the son of King Aedh Athlamanh, whose father was King Flaithbertach O’Neill, a descendent of King Niall Black Knee (Glundubh) founder of the O’Neill dynasty of Ulster. Irish royal genealogies universally name Niall Glundubh as a descendant of Niall Noígíallach.
Later Irish sources such as the sixteenth-century Book of Clan Sweeney (Leabhar Chlainne Suibhne) tell the same story, adding that on his father’s death Anradhan attempted to usurp the throne. According to this story, Anradhan left Ireland when his elder brother Domnall an t-Ogdham (‘the young Ox’) took power, but he went on to conquer half the realm of a Scottish king before marrying the king’s daughter. This is the version of the Anradhan lineage which is most widely known today.
Unfortunately, as Paul Walsh notes in his edition of Leabhar Chlainne Suibhne, if we consult the earliest Irish sources, it seems that King Aedh Athlamanh was not succeeded by his descendants at all. It is difficult to see how a son of Aedh Athlamanh could have inherited the kingdom without any contemporary record of his reign. This problem calls into question the very existence of Anradhan and his brother Domnall within the O’Neill line.
Can we trust the genealogies?
Much has been made of the fact that the genealogies of the MacSweens and other Scottish clans do not appear in Irish sources before the Scots arrived as ‘gallowglass’ soldiers in Ireland in the fourteenth century. Not long after this, the Books of Ballymote and Lecan provide the earliest evidence for the descent of the MacSweens (or MacSweeneys as they come to be known) through Anradhan from King Niall. Some writers believe that the lack of earlier references to their royal descent suggests that the Scottish genealogies are pure invention.
But really it is hardly surprising that Irish writers took no interest in the genealogies of the Scottish clans before they appeared as neighbours. And it does not follow that the genealogies did not exist before the Irish wrote them down. The tradition of oral genealogy was strong among the medieval Gaels, so it is very likely that the genealogies of the chiefs were well known in thirteenth-century Scotland. The illustration at the top of this page shows just such an oral genealogist authenticating the claim of Alexander III as King of Scots in 1249; Alexander’s royal line stretched back eight hundred years.
The Clan MacSween appears in the historical records as early as 1105, when a daughter of Skipness married Colin Mael Maith MacDuine. In the thirteenth century they had dynastic links with the royal families of Connaught and Tyrconell. These were no small fry, and must already have possessed a prestigious oral pedigree. It seems more likely then, that any problems in the Anradhan pedigree are the result of corruption rather than fiction, and the genealogies are likely to be broadly correct even if they include a few red herrings along the way.
A new source
Recently, John McLoughlin has drawn attention to a newly discovered genealogy which is preserved in a mid-fourteenth century manuscript in the National Library of Ireland known as MS G2. This is probably older than the genealogies of the Books of Ballymote and Lecan, and it traces the ancestry of the O’Neill dynasty. This source names Domnall an t-Ogdham (‘the young Ox’) not as the son of Aedh Athlamanh but as his great grandfather. This Domnall is better known as Domnall O’Neill of Armagh, and his son Muircheartach was Flaithbertach’s father.
According to MS G2, Domnall of Armagh had another son called Aedh Mor (‘the Great’), and it is from this Aedh (who seems to have fallen in battle at Craobh Tulcha in 1004) that the later O’Neill dynasty descends.
Now, like most medieval genealogical sources, MS G2 is not a perfect source, and at this point it erroneously introduces King Flaithbertach and his son Aedh into the family tree. Their lineage is well-known from other sources, and their names have been mistakenly interpolated in the G2 genealogy, which is too long as a result. However, the general line of the G2 genealogy is supported by other sources, notably a thirteenth-century poem by Giolla Bhrighde mac Con Midhe, which names Domnall and his son Aedh as ancestors of the O’Neills. A fifteenth-century poem by Tuathal O hUiginn also suggests that Aedh of Craobh Tulcha was an ancestor of the O’Neills.
If we simply skip over the names which don’t belong, it would appear that Aedh Mor had a son called Domnall who is the ancestor of the later O’Neills. Could it be that it was this Domnall who was Anradhan’s elder brother?
The genealogies of the Highland clans are based on transcriptions of a medieval manuscript from the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh. This manuscript was discovered in the early nineteenth century by the antiquary William Forbes Skene, who described it as ‘an ancient parchment manuscript, containing genealogies of most of the Highland clans, and which, from internal evidence, appears to have been written about A.D.1450’. He found it to be dated 1467, after which the manuscript takes its usual name, MS.1467 (sometimes ‘MS.1450’ from his initial estimation of its date). Skene transcribed this manuscript, and published his translations and transcriptions in Collectanea de Rebus Albanicis vol.1 in 1839, and again with modifications in his book Celtic Scotland. The manuscript is now held in the National Library of Scotland, where it is catalogued as Adv.MS.72.1.1. It is made up of two unrelated sections, the first part dating to 1467 and the second part to about 1425.
This is the manuscript which links the MacLachlan line with King Niall Noígíallach, but it also traces the Lamont line through the same Anradhan to Niallgusa of Lochaber. If the Lamont genealogy is correct, the Anradhan kindred can trace their line through a ‘King Gilleabeirt of the Southern Isles, son of Muredag, son of . . . son of Domnaill, son of Jamar (the namegiver to the clan), son of Martan Donn, son of Niallgusa’. The name Niallgusa crops up again in the pedigree of the MacDonalds, which goes back to Colla Uais, King of Airgíalla in Ireland. Colla was also a descendant of Niall Noígíallach, but only a distant cousin of Niall Glundubh and the O’Neills. So, although the Lamont line can be traced back ultimately to Niall Noígíallach, this genealogical tradition cannot have been the same as the MacLachlan tradition.
This alternative pedigree for the Anradhan kindred would be consistent with Anradhan’s description in the MacEwen pedigree as ‘Lord of Badenoch’. If it is right, the Anradhan Kindred would probably have moved to Cowal in the late twelfth century, at which time they would still have been united as a single derbhfine, which looked to Anradhan as its founder.
The Lamont genealogy, which traces the line through generations of otherwise unknown antecedents, is on the face of it, more convincing than the MacLachlan and MacSween genealogies which leap straight to the royal line of O’Neill. But if we accept the Lamont version of the pedigree, we have some considerable explaining to do.
One way that an O’Neill genealogy could have been wrongly adopted, would be through the conflation of the Scottish MacLachlan pedigree with that of the Irish MacLoughlins. The Irish clan did indeed originate with the descendants of King Niall Glundubh, whose great great grandson Lochlan was the founder of the Irish Clan MacLochlainn. If the MacLachlans of Scotland had originally traced their descent from Anradhan as Lord of Badenoch, it may be that they adopted a compromise genealogy whereby Anradhan was a descendant of the O’Neills when they encountered the Irish tradition.
If the MacLachlans of Scotland had once traced their descent from Anradhan as Lord of Badenoch rather than as an Irish prince, they might have chosen to adopt a compromise genealogy when they encountered the Irish tradition in the fourteenth century. It would probably have been through the MacSweens that the new pedigree was originally devised, but once the new genealogy was established, the MacLachlans seem to have fitted their own traditions to the new model.
A helping hand
All this presupposes that it is the aberrant Lamont genealogy which is correct, and that Anradhan’s real ancestors were otherwise unknown descendants of Niallgusa and Colla Uais. After all, it’s hardly likely that the Lamont genealogy would have swapped descent from a famous and powerful dynasty for a line of relatively obscure antecedents. So, it comes as something of a shock to discover that the heraldic crest of the Lamonts is the couped hand of the O’Neill dynasty, the Red Hand of Ulster, indicating descent from Niall Glundubh.
Perhaps then, the MacLachlan genealogy was right all along. In some ways, this is the most satisfying solution. MS 1467 shows more detailed knowledge of MacLachlan genealogy than of any other line, and it seems improbable that a mistake here would have gone uncorrected. The MacLachlan genealogy is also consistent with genealogies for the Irish MacSweeneys. Which leaves a long line of Lamont ancestors cut adrift. These names must have been remembered by the Lamonts for some important reason.
Could it be in fact, that the Lamont genealogy has inadvertently preserved the ancestry of Anradhan’s bride rather than of Anradhan himself? If so, then her father was King Gilleabeirt of the Southern Isles. And if the Southern Isles included Arran and Bute along with Islay and Jura, then Cowal and Knapdale would very probably have been in his gift. This reading of the genealogies would fit perfectly with the story of Anradhan’s royal bride preserved in The Book of Clan Sweeney.
At present, there is no way of knowing which (if any) of the Anradhan genealogies is correct. However, as more Anradhan descendants have their DNA analysed, it might one day be possible to use genealogical DNA profiles to learn more of the truth.
Recently, investigation has opened up on a new front. If the Anradhan Kindred are indeed descended from King Niall Noígíallach, whether through Niall Glundubh or through Colla, we should expect to discover this descent in their DNA. The genetic haplotype R-M222 (also known as R1b1c7) is common in south-west Scotland and north-east Ireland, and many geneticists believe it is borne by the descendants of the legendary King Niall of the Nine Hostages.
Tests on Ewing DNA have found it to be overwhelmingly R-M222 (R1b1c7), but unlike DNA from descendants of Colla. So far, this is the only lead, and samples have come mainly from Ewings descended from emigrants to Ulster who might represent the descendants of a single family which emigrated in the seventeenth century. But if these Ewings are descended from the main line of the MacEwens of Otter, this would lend some support to the legendary origin of the Anradhan Kindred.
You can learn more about the important role of DNA testing in clan history on the Scottish Clans DNA page.
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© Thor Ewing 2008, All rights reserved