Scottish Clan Book - MacDougall

Tracing a descent from Dougall, a son of the feared twelfth century warrior Somerled, Argyll was the main territory of the MacDougalls.

With the defiant motto of ‘Conquer or die’, the clan – feared at both sea and on land – controlled the entire west coast and frequently had to hold their domains at the point of a sword.

Although they supported the freedom fighter William Wallace during the Wars of Independence, bitter rivalry with the Bruce family meant they did not lend their support to Robert the Bruce and, shortly before the battle of Bannockburn in 1314, John of Lorne, 5th Chief of the Clan, was captured and imprisoned for the remainder of Bruce’s reign.

In the seventeenth century, many MacDougalls settled in Ireland and, during the devastation of the potato famine of 1845-50, found new lives for themselves in America.