Clans

Clan MacLaren

Honored Clan for the 2022 Games

The Clan MacLaren is one of the most ancient Scottish Clans, with a history dating back a thousand years. Members across the world can trace their origins back to the traditional lands which reach from the Braes of Balquhidder to Loch Earn, in the heart of Scotland.

Clan Chiefs were cadets of the Celtic dynastic house of the Earls of Strathearn. In the early 1200s, Abbot Labhran (Laurence) of Achtow lent the Clan MacLaren its name. The Clan was influential until the 16th following a campaign of pressure from the Campbells, the Clan MacGregor carried out a raid of eighteen homes which ended in the deaths of Clan families and the Chief.

This left the MacGregors in a position to take possession, and without a Chief or lands, the Clan MacLaren was unable to produce a legal title to their ancestral homelands. The Clan MacLaren was now formally ‘chiefless and landless’. From the Battle of Bannockburn onwards, the Clan fought for the Scottish crown and supported the Jacobites until the devastating Battle of Culloden. The Clan’s fortunes remained mixed until the 20th when its status was firmly re-established.

In 1957, the Clan’s label ‘chiefless and landless’ was removed when Donald MacLaren of MacLaren and Achleskine successfully matriculated his Arms at the Lyon Court, and purchased land in Balquhidder. Creag an Tuirc or ‘The Boar’s Rock’, the traditional MacLaren rallying point, was part of that land and remains an important landmark today. A few years later, the Society was established to support the Clan’s interests and help bring together members from across the world.

Following his death in 1966, Donald MacLaren was succeeded by his son, Donald MacLaren. As a member of the Diplomatic Service, the present Clan Chief has served in Berlin, Moscow, Havana and Caracas, and from 2004-2007 was the British Ambassador to the Republic of Georgia. Now retired from the Diplomatic Service the Chief lives in Balquhidder with his wife, Maida, and their children, Donald Og, Florian, Louis, Iona and Marina.

The Clan MacLaren Society of North America (CMSNA) was chartered in Georgia in 1981.

 

Attending Clans

Clan Anderson Society

Clan Buchanan Society International

Clan Davidson Society, NA

Clan Donald

Clan Donnachaidh of the Carolinas

Clan Douglas Society of North America

Clan Henderson Society

Clan MacFarlane Society

Clan MacLaren of North America

Clan MacLean

Clan Munro

Clan Nesbitt / Nisbet Society of North America

Clan Strachan Society

Clan Stewart Society in America

Clan Sutherland Society of North America

Kennedy Society of North America

Murray Clan of North America