Clan MacNicol Tours of Scotland

Clan MacNicol Tours of Scotland. The MacNicols, although they have been for some time, what in older phraseology would be called, a broken clan, are of ancient gaelic origin, and were formerly a tribe of considerable importance.

Their first known possessions were in Coigach, a district of Ross. On one occasion, they were so fortunate as to intercept a band of marauders, who were driving along a large herd of cattle, which had been carried off from Sutherland, and having recovered the booty, in requital for such a service, the Thane of that county, it is said, gave them the adjacent lands of Assynt, on which they afterwards got a crown charter.

The individual then at the head of this clan is called MacRycul, or Grigul; but is observed that the letters r and n are commutable; and it is not a little singular, that the highlanders are accustomed to pronounce invariably the latter as it were the former: thus, cnoc is sounded croc, etc.

About the beginning of the 14th century, the family of the chief terminated in a female, who married Torcuil MacLeod of the Lewes, who obtained a crown charter of the district of Assynt, and other lands in the west of Ross, apparently those which had become vested in his wife.

The clan, on this event, came by the patriarchal rule, or law of clanship, under the leading of the nearest male heir; and the MacNicails subsequently removed to the Isle of Skye, where their chief residence was a at Scoirebreac, a beautiful situation, on the margin of the loch, close to Port Rhi.

There is a small chapel on the south side of the chief building, which is still known as aiteadhlaic Mhic Nicail, Nicholson?s Aisle; and here lies an effigy of a warrior, dressed in the ling quilted coat, or habergion; and the clogaid or conical helmet, represented in the figure of the Lord of the Isles, No. XI. It is to be regretted, that, with few expectations, in the scriptions on those stones, numerous in the islands, are now illegible.

Septs of Clan: Callum, Lewis, MacAskill, MacAulay, MacCallum, MacCAskill, MacCorkindale, MacCorquodale, MacLewis, MacNicol, Malcolmson, Nicholl, Nicol, Nicoll, Nicholson, Nicolson, Tolmie.