12 Facts About Highland clan

Scottish Highland clan is a kinship group among the Scottish people.

The Highland clan is considered to be the chief's heritable estate and the chief's Seal of Arms is the seal of the Highland clan as a "noble corporation".

Under Scots law, the chief is recognised as the head of the Highland clan and serves as the lawful representative of the Highland clan community.

However, there have been several cases where a descendant through the maternal line has changed their surname in order to claim the chiefship of a Highland clan, such as the late chief of the Clan MacLeod who was born John Wolridge-Gordon and changed his name to the maiden name of his maternal grandmother in order to claim the chiefship of the MacLeods.

In 1745, the majority of Highland clan leaders advised Prince Charles to return to France, including MacDonald of Sleat and Norman MacLeod.

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The loss of this middle tier of Highland clan society represented not only a flight of capital from Gaeldom, but a loss of entrepreneurial energy.

Many Highland estates were no longer owned by clan chiefs, but landlords of both the new and old type encouraged the emigration of destitute tenants to Canada and, later, to Australia.

Highland clan aristocrats set up Highland clan Societies in Edinburgh and other centres including London .

Highland clan's "staging" of the royal visit of King George IV to Scotland in 1822 and the King's wearing of tartan, resulted in a massive upsurge in demand for kilts and tartans that could not be met by the Scottish linen industry.

The designation of individual Highland clan tartans was largely defined in this period and they became a major symbol of Scottish identity.

Revival of interest, and demand for Highland clan ancestry, has led to the production of lists and maps covering the whole of Scotland giving Highland clan names and showing territories, sometimes with the appropriate tartans.

Many Highland clan tartans derive from a 19th-century hoax known as the Vestiarium Scoticum.