By Carrie Sanderson April 29, 2021

Clan MacLean Stories

Every month we choose a clan to celebrate, we highlight their history, castles, famous faces and an interview or two with interesting people from the clan or society. As part of our celebration we always ask clan members to share their stories with us too as we love hearing more about the lives of the modern day clan. This month we are delighted to share the story of Clan MacLean.

Iain MacLean

Iain entered our Tartan Family Picture Competition back in March with this fantastic picture of him and his family! As proud members of Clan MacLean, we thought it was was only right that we included them in our stories blog.

Iain Mac Lean Entry From left to right in the photo Captain (Retired) Iain MacLean, The Royal Canadian Regiment wearing MacLean of Duart Dress weathered tartan, Margaret MacLean wearing MacLean of Duart Dress modern, Tara Sweeney wearing MacLean of Duart Hunting weathered tartan and Lieutenant Colonel Kevin MacLean , the Governor Generals Foot Guards.

22 February 2020, just prior to world wide shutdowns due to COVID-19 we donned our best tartans and attended the Paardeberg Ball in our nations capital. The ball celebrates the first overseas battle honour won by Canada’s senior regiment of the line, The Royal Canadian Regiment, while serving in South Africa during the Boer War. The Battle is also known as the Dawn of Majuba in which British forces were defeated by an overwhelming Boer force almost fourteen years to the day.

Shaun MacLean

Shaun recently contacted us to tell us all about his well-travelled family, although they do have Scottish origins they have lived in many more countries than just Scotland, all around the world!

From my grandfather's generation, 3 of the 4 siblings left Edinburgh after the war and immigrated to South Africa where my father (and later I) was born. When I was a teenager, my parents immigrated from South Africa to Australia where I lived for about 8 years before moving the UK. My brother did similar, but has since moved to the USA and my sister has recently arrived in the UK having been working in the UAE. On my wife's side, although English, also have links to Scotland as both my wife and her brother studied at St Andrews and my brother-in-law's family now live in Scotland, meaning we regularly visit there - so our ties remain close to Scotland, despite the 1,000s of miles travelled.

01 bride 042

So, when it was time for my wedding (I proposed to my future wife in the shadow of Duart Castle on the Isle of Mull the year before) it was a huge logistical effort to assemble everyone, with friends & family flying in from Australia, South Africa, the US as well as the usual UK round up.

03 service 193c Flower girl wearing MacLean of Duart Modern Bow

We used the tartan subtly as a theme throughout the wedding, with MacLean ties, cufflinks and handkerchiefs for the wedding party men, large tartan bows for the flower girls and tartan trews for the page boy (all from ScotlandShop) and we also purchased a large amount of MacLean dress tartan fabric from ScotlandShop and my future mother-in-law made 10 table runners to decorate the tables (we later gave these as gifts to the McLeans at the wedding), I've attached pictures of them on the tables. A few more pictures of the preparations attached showing where we used our MacLean wax seal on wedding invitations & the order of service with a dress tartan ribbon.

06 meal 068 Wedding Table featuring MacLean of Duart Modern

Having a Scottish heritage and keeping those links alive at celebrations really adds a seam of richness to our lives.

Lachlan MacLean

Lachlan and Donald Mac Lean Lachlan and Donald showing off their MacLean pride!


Lachlan sent us these fantastic pictures all the way from Australia! The picture on the left is Lachlan on his wedding day in 2017, wearing his MacLean of Duart Modern tie he ordered from ScotlandShop. On the right is a picture of Lachlans 82-year-old father, Donald MacLean, wearing a t-shirt he made himself featuring the MacLean Clan Crest! This is what Donald had to say about his MacLean heritage:

Our family of McLeans has been in Australia for 150 years, and has not lost its love for all thing Scottish. During that time we have chosen to blend ourselves with some of the other Highland Clans out here, the MacGillivrays, MacDonalds, MacPhersons, Gordons and Camerons.

Laura MacLean

Laura Mac Lean9 The Pink House on Loch Glass


We discovered Laura on Instagram after she had been posting about her love of fashion. Laura is a proud member of Clan MacLean and so we of course had to feature her during our MacLean Clan celebrations, here's what she had to say:

I do feel incredibly proud to be Scottish and part of the MacLean Clan. I have a large family and we have always been pretty close which I am extremely grateful for. When I was younger, my family used to have a big New Year's gathering, we would eat lots of food and set off fireworks in the garden - I will cherish those memories forever. My favourite tartan would probably have to be ‘Scotland Forever’ because I always remember my brother’s wearing it at my cousin’s wedding and thinking it looked so classy and smart on them. In my spare time I love to paint in watercolours – and I usually tend to paint scenic Scottish landscapes because I think, honestly, there is nothing quite as stunning. I’m also quite musical (I play the guitar and piano) which I think was most likely influenced by the Feis Rois scene, introduced to me in primary school.

Laura Mac Lean9


Laura has been obsessed with fashion for as long as she can remember, she found her inspiration through tv programmes and films, finding herself in constant awe at the confidence the characters had to wear whatever they wanted, "Growing up as a teenager in a small place in the Highlands of Scotland, the main 'social activity' every weekend was to go shopping in Inverness with your friends." During lockdown, Laura found that she had a lot of spare time on her hands and decided to create an Instagram account where she could share her love of fashion and the new clothes she had been buying "I hadn’t spotted any Highland fashion bloggers before, I thought being a fashion blogger in the Highlands could be a good niche!" You can find Laura on Instagram with the handle @lookswithlaura.

Sandy McLean

Sandy Mc Lean Lachlan Mc Lean Sandy McLean with Sir Charles MacLean (the then Chief of Clan MacLean)

All my memories at Duart Castle have been brilliant, (especially the day I picked up my table made from the original 1912 restoration doors) but my favourite has to be the time I went with my dad, 2 brothers and best pal (who was an Ogilvie). We all had our kilts on that day, anyway Sir Charles (Sir Lachlan's dad) got speaking to my dad, near the end of our visit, Sir Charles and Lady McLean invited us into their private quarters where we had a chat, and talked about our visit to Duart Castle, (thanks to my mum and dad, we became life members of the Clan Maclean Association the year before) then Sir Charles said we should have a toast to the Maclean's, and he looked towards my pal and said Ogilvie, I think it was Crawford 5 star we had and Sir Charles had Sherry. After we had finished our toast, Sir Charles said you looked like you enjoyed that and poured us another (the biggest whiskies I had seen). Also it was the 1st time we met Sir Lachlan, happy memories indeed.

Sandy Mc Lean Lachlan Mc Lean 2 Sandy McLean with Sir Lachlan MacLean (current Chief of Clan MacLean)


Sandy returned to Duart Castle years later, once Sir Lachlan was the chief, it was during the time that the Castle was going through restorations and the MacLean family were having a bit of a clear out...

We went to Duart Castle on the 13th and met Sir Lachlan (our Clan Chief), as we were speaking I mentioned how much I liked the table in the tearoom, Sir Lachlan said to me follow me, I have a table that I could sell to you if you want it. I didn't even need to see it, I had to have it, so I said to Sir Lachlan that I would buy it. What makes this table so special is it was made from the original 1912 Duart Castle restoration doors, my favourite piece of furniture in the house!

Duart Castle Door The table made from the door of Duart Castle on a MacLean Hunting Tartan rug

Now that April has come to an end, that certainly doesn't mean our love for Clan MacLean is over, so be sure to get in touch with us if you fancy chatting all things MacLean!