Lord Sempill will be attending the 2013 Stone Mountain Game

Every year during the third week of October, you’d be forgiven for thinking a little piece of Atlanta was in fact a little piece of Scotland. Over one weekend, the picturesque grounds of Atlanta’s Stone Mountain Park meadow resound with the sounds of bagpipes, fiddles and harps, as it plays host to one of the biggest Highland Games events in the world.

With only two weeks to go until the beginning of the 41st annual Stone Mountain Highland Games, half a world away in Scotland, Jamie, Lord Sempill is preparing to make the trek to his third international Highland Games event for 2013. “I’m coming back to America for a second time. Rain stopped play at Grandfather Mountain Games in July, so I’m coming back for a dry game – and I don’t mean no alcohol.” For American clans attending Stone Mountain, they’ll have the chance to meet with Jamie and who will be happy to share one of Scotland’s finest offerings, a dram of single malt whisky.

Lord Sempill comes from one of Scotland’s oldest families and has been actively involved in the international clan network for fifteen years. As the driving force behind Edinburgh’s 2009 Clan Gathering, Lord Sempill attracted 42,000 people from around the world to the event, which was described as the largest recorded international clan gathering. The Gathering also included a clan convention which became the largest meeting on record of Scotland’s clan chiefs. He’s certainly got his finger on the pulse in the world of the clans – as an active member of the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs, an honorary member of the Council of Scottish Clans and Associations, Inc., and a board director at the American Scottish Foundation.

Over the years Lord Sempill has seen the relationship grow and prosper between the international clan network and Scotland, with his latest venture yet another step in building those ties. He’s currently working in collaboration with Macdonald & Rees, a new Scotland-based ancestral tourism company who specialise in providing the ultimate ancestral journey – bespoke visits to Scotland based on an individuals clan genealogy. Lord Sempill says that for many descendents around the world, tracing your roots can be a daunting prospect. “For many with Scottish ancestry, it’s a lifelong dream to travel to Scotland and discover family history and ancestral connections. Macdonald and Rees provide descendents with expert historians and genealogists on the ground, that ensure an incredibly meaningful and insightful visit home. Whether an individual or a family group, we can reconnect you to the world of your ancestors.” Jamie recently led a group of Clan Rose descendents to their ancestral homeland just east of Inverness, where they met with Clan chief Chief and 26th Baron of Kilravock, David Rose.

This year thousands of Scottish descendents will don their family tartans and make the trip to Stone Mountain, where two days of Highland Games competitions will take place including the ever-popular heavyweight events, piping, drumming and Highland dance competitions. There will also be a parade of the tartans and Clan Challenge athletic events, open to any attendees. The guest of honour, Margaret Elliot of Redheugh Chief of Clan Elliot will also be making the trip from Scotland. As well as Lord Sempill, other distinguished guests include Andrew Morrison – Viscount Dunrossil, Lord Montgomerie – Younger of Montgomerie and David Rose Chief of Clan Rose.

Lord Sempill and Mike McAlpin at Grandfather Mountain Highland Games, 2013

Attendees will also have the chance to find out more about their genealogy in the clan information area, with 65 clans and family associations confirmed in attendance. You’ll most likely find Lord Sempill at the Scottish Heritage USA tent, however he will be making visits to clan association tents. “The torrential rain stopped play at Grandfather Mountain, so I didn’t get to speak to a lot of the clans who were there. I’m especially interested in meeting those who want to make the trip to trace their roots and discover Scotland.”

For more information on the Stone Mountain games, view our event listing over at TartanFootprint.com where you can also download the schedule of events and get in touch with Lord Sempill directly.

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Lord Reay 1937-2013

Clan Mackay. A distinguished parliamentarian, Mackay served in the House of Lords, held office for a short time in the Thatcher government and later sat for six years in the European Parliament. Mackay died in London on May 10 2013 aged 75 following a short illness. One of two Scottish elected hereditary peers who survived Blair’s Parliamentary reforms of 1999, Mackay’s death has triggered a rare by-election to appoint his successor in the House of Lords.

Born on July 19 1937 in Edinburgh, Mackay was the only son of Aeneas Alexander Mackay, 13th Lord Reay, and his wife Charlotte (née Younger). Mackay was educated at Eton College and Christ Church in Oxford where his sharp dress sense was first noted. He was living in Holland when his father died in 1963, inheriting the titles of Lord, Chief, Baronet of Farm (a Nova Scotia title originally bestowed on an ancestor by James VI) and the Barony of Ophemert and Zennewijnen (created in 1822 by King William I of Netherlands). With this latter title came the picturesque 16th-century manor house, Ophemert Castle in the Netherlands.

The Chief and his lady Victoria at the Gathering in 2009

Lady Elizabeth Fairbairn, Hugh’s sister and president of the Clan Mackay Society, said her brother spoke with authority on a number of subjects related to the north of Scotland – especially the Highland Clearances. Mackay attended the Clan Gathering in Edinburgh 2009, walking the Royal Mile parade in Mackay tartan, and later spoke enthusiastically at the Mackay tent of the work being done at the Clan Mackay Room at the Strathnaer Museum in Sutherland. He also spoke of his love for Edinburgh, saying: “I have always had a soft spot for Edinburgh, the place of my birth and still managing to hold its place as, in my opinion, the most beautiful city in the United Kingdom. I feel honoured to be amongst you. Clansmen, Clanswomen. I ask you to raise your glasses to Clan Mackay.”

Mackay entered the House of Lords as a cross-bencher and played a prominent role in the abolition of capital punishment in 1965, joining the Liberals soon afterwards. However, disapproving of the party’s standing as a genuinely ‘national’ party he returned to the cross-benchers before joining the Conservatives in 1971. Upon the UK’s entry to the Common Market in 1973, Mackay was one of eight peers nominated to serve in the European Parliament. After the Parliament’s first public election in 1979, he was nominated to the Council of Europe which he served in until 1986. During this time his increasingly hawkish attitude on defence issues attracted the attention of Margaret Thatcher who appointed him as a Lord-in-Waiting or junior whip. Thatcher’s successor John Major appointed Mackay as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), however he decided to leave Parliament less than a year later. He joined the Select Committee on the European Communities, also chairing its food and agriculture subcommittee, until 1999. Mackay stayed a member of the House of Lords until 2013.

During his political career Mackay’s support of environmental issues was mixed – On behalf of the Department of the Environment he had to oppose pressure for the phasing out of CFC gases, however one of his first announcements at the DTI was a package of grants for recycling. As recently as May 2012 Mackay sponsored legislation to define minimum distances between wind turbines and residential premises, however during a debate on renewable energy he dismissed wind power as a pointless gesture towards an economically crippling green ideology. Mackay was also strongly against further EU integration, gay marriage and caused controversy when he suggested that Britain recognised the Dalai Lama as a spiritual (rather than a political) leader only.

Mackay married Annabel Therese Fraser in 1964, youngest daughter of the 17th Lord of Lovat, and had two sons and daughters. They divorced in 1978, and in 1980 Mackay married Victoria Warrender, daughter of the 1st Lord of Bruntsfield, having two daughters. His elder son, Aeneas Simon Mackay – Master of Reay, born in 1965, succeeds the titles including the chieftainship of Clan Mackay. The funeral is likely to be on the 23rd of May in Lancashire with a Memorial Service in London to be held at a later date.

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Clan Macnab – Let Fear Be Far From All

One of the most fascinating things about Scotland is the way that a country steeped in history and tradition is colliding with the new. This is especially true of Scotland’s clans – distinguished by heraldry tracing back over a thousand years – and how this is manifesting itself in modern life. Last week I had the pleasure of meeting my first chief – Macnab of Macnab, 24th chief of Clan Macnab, and perhaps Scotland’s newest chief. Expecting to meet a dirk-wielding highlander straight from a history book, I instead found myself in an office in Edinburgh’s New Town, chatting to the Director of Country House Sales at Savills Estate Agents.

“It’s quite interesting how people react to my title. People who know about the clans, in particular people from the Highlands, have been saying ‘Congratulations, I’m sure you’ll do a good job’. Which is very bolstering. But to other people, especially in the South, they don’t have a clue what it means. To them it’s just a strange name.”

Jamie Macnab was announced chief of Clan Macnab in January this year upon the passing of his father, James Charles Macnab. Born in 1963 in Edinburgh, a pipe band greeted the infant Jamie and his parents upon return from the maternity hospital to the village of Killin, deep in Macnab territory. A newspaper article at the time referred to him as the ‘Younger, Younger of Macnab’ as his father, then heir, was known as ‘Younger Macnab’. However it was never something that differentiated him from other children in the village. “I was just Jamie, I don’t think anyone ever thought about that. I wasn’t particularly a leader, I had my pals and got on with them in the normal way. But I’ve known all my life that one day I would be clan chief, so I’ve had a lot of time to get used to the idea.”

“We all lead pretty ordinary lives. There’s a range of people who are clan chiefs, from the Duke of Buccleuch, to one of the chiefs who sells goods by hand up and down The Royal Mile, and another is French. So there’s no typical chief.”

Like other Scottish clans, the Macnabs are scattered globally. “There’s not a Macnab in the Killin telephone directory at the moment, we’ve all been very dispersed. But the people who live in Killin do recognise that this is where the Macnabs are from.” The Macnabs were present at The Gathering, the 2009 clan convention and largest recorded meeting of Scottish chiefs. “The Gathering was described as life-changing by a lot of clansmen from Scotland and abroad, and it was for me because there aren’t that many Macnabs in Scotland. My father and I manned the Macnab tent from 9 o’clock in the morning till 10 o’clock at night, and I met the most fantastic collection of people, it was truly inspirational… The fact that they were all so pleased to come to Scotland and pleased to connect with us, it was all very humbling.”

“One clansman said something to me that had a real resonance, and suddenly made it all make sense. Macnabs are not necessarily coming to a clan event to meet me – although that is part of it because I’m the representative of the clan. But it’s more to work out where they fit in. Finding out where you come from leads to quite a strong path of emotion in people, and it would be fantastic if we could help people with their genealogy to knit the family heritage together. All the chiefs lineage is pretty well documented. For me, on my fathers side, I don’t even have to think about who my great, great grandfather is because it’s all in a booklet. But most people don’t have that, so it would be nice to give them a framework to work within.”

He draws attention to how important the clans are to modern-day Scotland. “There are five million people living in Scotland, but worldwide there are thirty million that claim Scottish descent. So for a small country like Scotland with a limited economy, heritage is hugely important to tourism. The chiefs and clans play a part in that to make Scotland relevant in the modern world, because linking with your past is a very powerful thing.” Using the web and social media to connect Macnabs is a high priority on Jamie’s list for the future of Clan Macnab. His father had no concept of the internet, so Jamie wants the Macnab presence to be as visible and approachable online as it has been in person. “Over the last five years there has been a lot of correspondence between Macnabs around the world, and I want to build on this communication. It’s my challenge to try and work out how to pull them all together”.

Jamie is hoping to reestablish the Macnab Clan Society in Scotland, and hopes to meet with the American Clan Macnab Societies. “A lot of Americans are more Scottish than the Scots. It’s probably because they’re geographically removed. If you’re in Scotland you’ve probably got quite a secure thought of your place and where you’ve come from. But when you’re removed from it, it then becomes more important… So I’ll have to get out to the States.”

I asked Jamie if any clan rivalries from the old days still survived, and he proudly showed me his signet ring depicting the severed head of a Neish. Legend goes that the Macnabs and Neishes had a great battle near Loch Earn. The defeated Neishes took refuge on an island in the Loch, managing to ransack all of the Macnab Christmas provisions as they were being transported along the Loch to Killin. Clansman Smooth John Macnab was a huge, terrifying highlander, and one of four brothers. Their father said “If my lads were lads, I’d have my Christmas dinner.” The brothers picked up a boat and carried it over a mountain and back down and onto Loch Earn and rode it over onto the island where Smooth John hammered on the door of the dwelling on the island. Drunk on Macnab wine, the Neishes shouted out “Who’s there?” to which Smooth John replied “Who would you least like it to be?” They replied “Smooth John Mcnab”, to which he said “Smooth John it is”. With one smash of the hilt of his sword he broke through and beheaded everyone inside. There was no food or wine left, but the brothers took a sack of heads back over the hill. When they arrived back in Killin their father asked them if they had any Christmas dinner, to which Smooth John replied “No, but I’ve got some balls for the children to play with” and emptied out all of the heads onto the floor.

A hero of the Macnabs, Smooth John’s antics are centuries removed from modern clan life. “I haven’t had much of that in my lifetime. I’ve played a bit of rugby but that’s about it… When I was at college there was a guy called Ed Neish who knew the story of our two families. He’d had an accident and he had metal plating in his neck, so I was always joking with him that if I’d ever had a need to behead him I would have needed an angle grinder”.

I also wondered how clan life coincides with Jamie’s family life. He explained that they’re a very ordinary, Edinburgh-based professional family. He told me his wife said that it was very worthwhile being married to a clan chief the day that Chanel came knocking looking for chiefs to attend their recent show at Linlithgow Palace. And how does James, Jamie’s son feel about his eventual chieftanship? “His only experience was The Gathering in 2009 when he was 9 years old. He had a sudden realisation – ‘I have to stand up the front so there must be something in this’. I asked him about it again this morning and he just said ‘boring question’. So there’s no real concept at the moment I don’t think. I think it’s something that will gradually soak in on him over a period of time. It’s quite a mysterious thing for him.”

As I left Jamie’s office and walked along Princes Street in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle, I thought about how many clan chiefs had walked in the same shadow over the years. My first meeting with a chief gave me a tangible sense of Scotland’s past, and as clans adjust to life in modern times, it seems the way forward is helping people connect to their past in a very 21st century way.

Clan Macnab at the Clan Parade. The Gathering, Edinburgh 2009.

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