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It was a joy to speak with committee members of Clan MacLennan Scotland Association, which is part of Clan MacLennan Worldwide, during our Clan MacLennan Clan of the Month celebrations in August 2026! Read their interviews where they share about their MacLennan heritage, stories and upcoming Gathering in 2028.
Clan MacLennan Scotland Association
Clan MacLennan Worldwide consists of Clan MacLennan Associations in Scotland, Australia, Canada and the US and aims to connect MacLennans across the world through events and gatherings, an extensive genealogy database and website, social media, newsletters and so much more. During our Clan MacLennan Clan of the Month celebrations we enjoyed speaking with the Chairman, Clan Secretary and Clan Treasurer of Clan MacLennan Scotland Association. Grab your favorite drink, settle in and read on!
Interview with Neil McLennan | Chairman
Thank you for speaking with us during our Clan MacLennan Clan of the Month celebrations, Neil.
Have you celebrated your MacLennan heritage from a young age?
My family were quite into it. My grandfather had the usual Genealogy association print outs of the history and was proud of that heritage; and my father was big into logging old photographs and family stories. I of course took an interest as I was interested in all things Scottish History and started my professional life as a history teacher. However, I was not aware of a Clan MacLennan association at all until much later.
What does being a member of Clan MacLennan mean to you?
Being a member of our Clan means being connected. We have a unique history, in that we lost our Clan Chief at the Battle of Auldearn in 1645. The Clan was leaderless until Ronald George MacLennan declared his intention to claim the position in 1969. His work, and what he built is truly special. The Lord Lyon, King of Arms of Scotland, approved of the claim and the Matriculation of Arms and instalment of a Chief progressed. And so, whilst we have a long and proud history, we are also a relatively modern clan and one with a very inclusive approach, led by Clan Chief Ruairidh.
How did you first get involved with the Society?
This is an interesting one. I got an email from a Bruce MacLennan in Australia telling me there was a Clan MacLennan Gathering and asking if I would keynote speak on the Genealogy day. I was doing a lot of lecturing and speaking at the time across the country and globally. I did not even know there was a society nor a gathering at that time! I actually wondered if the email was legit! However, on checking, I accepted the invitation and was delighted to arrive in Inverness and find many many Clansfolk from across Scotland, the UK and the world gathered together. The whole thing totally blew me away. From there, the spark was lit and many connections made. I have been involved ever since in this fantastic, connected community who keep in touch, support each other and keep history and tradition alive.
We have a great Clan structure, and I am honored to support Chief Ruairidh as Chairman. We have active Clan Associations here in Scotland, Australia, Canada and the United States. In addition, there are Chief's Commissions to support or supplement these associations.
In Australia, Carol Davis does great work as Clan Commissioner for both Australia and New Zealand and Association President for Australia. We are also well supported by Bruce who has become a great friend and ally - he is our Genealogist extraordinaire and also our webmaster of what must be one of the most comprehensive Clan websites in existence. We are indebted to him for what he has built in the Clan database - it is an epic resource. In Canada we have Melanie who is an excellent Clan Commissioner, supported by an active Association. Led by Patrick, we have a growing and lovely group in the United States, who have been great additions to the spirit of Clan Gatherings and whom we all enjoy keeping in touch with and hearing their adventures Stateside. We also have an enthusiastic and inimitable ambassador figure in Ally MacLennan who is great at connecting people when we get together.
Collectively we have a really good body of people who keep the Clan spirit alive and thriving.
Do you have a favorite story or fun fact to share about the history of the Clan?
There have been so many great stories. I think the camaraderie and spirit of the Gathering sums up our Clan - from impromptu "Waltzing Matilda" choir one year to an amazing scratch Shinty match which took place at our last gathering after the Clan Parliament. These special and fun events will remain forever etched in the memories of those involved in the Clan.
An amusing aspect of our Clan Gatherings is when ambassador Ally goes around folks checking in and introducing himself. His opening gambit of "Mr MacLennan, I presume?" always raises a smile.
Which of the Clan Tartan Variations do you wear? Do you have a favorite?
I started with an Ancient kilt, and have a Weathered kilt, which with the help of kilt extenders(!), is still used.. However my Modern MacLennan tartan trews is my favorite in the wardrobe just now. The trews look really quite smart and my regular 'go to' these days.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your role as Chairman?
As I said before, we have so many good people around the Clan that bring both experience over many years and then newly interested parties, it is just great to see it come alive. I am honoured to support the Clan Chief in the role. His father's work in raising the clan some 300 years after we lost our Chief in battle, is truly inspirational. It was said that Chief Ronald would rouse the Gathering and Parliament attendees that they would easily follow him down Inverness High Street with swords and claymores into any battle that was required.
We'll gather in 2028 for the 50th anniversary of the first reformed Clan Gathering. My role will be to support Clan Chief Ruairidh in ensuring proceedings run to order, and whilst there will be much gusto and enthusiasm, ensuring swords are left behind at the Clan Parliament! As well as the formalities of the Clan Parliament, there will be the usual array of interesting, social and engaging events for attendees to take part in - from ceilidhs, to the ever-popular Genealogy events, to whisky tasting and castle visits. Eilean Donan Castle is a firm favorite for us - nestled in real MacLennan country, and a Castle which we held long before it was associated with the MacRaes and MacKenzies. The next Clan Gathering will have something for everyone.
Please tell us how clan members can get involved with Clan MacLennan Worldwide?
The best way to get involved is via our outstanding website. We are indebted to Bruce for his work on it. Through that site and the email address for Bruce as Clan Webmaster and Genealogist, an outstanding journey will begin. All you need to do is reach out, and connect.
We also have some really active Facebook pages. The Scottish Facebook page is run brilliantly by Rebecca, another great member of our Clan culture who does sterling work in bringing together this Clan rooted in history, but open, inclusive and forward looking.
Interview with Rebecca Torrance | Clan Secretary
Thanks so much for joining us in celebrating Clan MacLennan today, Rebecca!
Have you always celebrated your clan MacLennan heritage from a young age?
I have. I'm a generation similar to Kirsteen and Chief Ruairidh, where it's all I've ever known.
My mum and grandfather have always been part of the clan. I've been going along to committee meetings since I was wee, to Dores Village Hall for ceilidhs and to Dores Village where Clan Chief Ruairidh‘s mum and dad lived before they sadly passed away. I've never not known Clan MacLennan to be a part of my life which is lovely in its own sort of unique way and my children are now having the same experience. I wouldn’t have it any differently.
How does it feel to be part of Clan MacLennan?
I think when you try and explain to Scottish friends and even British friends and family that you’re going to host the clan gathering, and they say what on earth are you talking about? I suppose you naively assume that everybody Scottish knows all about clans and a connection that they may or may not have to one, and a tartan that they're connected to, whether it's directly or indirectly.
I appreciate it's pretty unusual set of circumstances to be in. I have a great love and affection toward the clan because I suppose I feel like that I'm carrying on something that my grandfather Jimmy started and was involved in. He was very close with the late Clan Chief Ronald back in the late 60s and that's where their friendship started from. There's a good deal of affection and almost a sense of responsibility to carry that on, given that both my grandfather and my mum have been involved with the clan and on the committee as well. I also make a subtle, or not so subtle, nod to my daughter, hoping that she has the same affection towards it all and wants to continue it on when it's her return.
I have to ask, what's your favorite out of all the three MacLennan tartans?
My favorite is the Weathered. My first own piece of tartan clothing was made for the last gathering in 2024. Everything else has been a hand-me-down, which is lovely and it just goes to show the testament of a few dresses and a lovely piece of tartan clothing that you can have it for generations.
There are dresses of my mum’s that my daughter Lexi is wearing, and there are little dresses of mine that goodness knows who they belonged to before me, but I had as a child, and then my daughter Lexi did. Everything was either ancient or modern.
When I got something made for myself, I opted to have it in the weathered. You're spoiled for choice as a MacLennan because you have three very attractive ones to choose from. But it’s weathered all the way for me. It’s in keeping with the landscape of where the clan is from, with ties to Kintail. It just looks like the Highlands with its palette, and it's beautiful.
You’re Clan Secretary for the Scottish branch. How did you get started?
When my mum was clan newsletter editor, my first semi-official post was being in charge of Kids’ Corner of the newsletter.
Which brings me to my most embarrassing Clan MacLennan story, which still gives me an absolute beetroot red face when telling anybody. We started Pen Friend Corner on the clan newsletter, and I had got my first PC for Christmas that year. I was all taken with my new Australian pen friend that had written to me and was using my desktop computer to pen my response. Instead of writing “I'm an only child from Scotland” my autocorrect on Microsoft Word decided to change it to “I'm a lonely child from Scotland”! When my pen friend wrote back and said I'm sorry to hear that you're lonely, I was so overcome with embarrassment that I never wrote her back ever again.
So my poor pen friend in Australia is sitting there thinking of this poor lonely child in Scotland whom she wrote to once and never heard from again. I don't know if my Pen Friend Corner was off to a resounding success in the newsletter, but that was my very first official role and I must have been about 11 or 12. Peak embarrassment age.
I've had various hats on the committee over the years, too. More recently when we first started our clan gatherings again, in 2014, I was involved in social media. I started up our Facebook page that we have going still today and got us into the new world of Instagram. Bruce has the website, but we wanted to create something on social media to try and boost engagement. And the Facebook page has been growing in strength since then.
Now I’m Clan Secretary since just before our 2020 gathering. It's great fun. And I'd like to remain in post until our next gathering has been and gone and I’ve seen that through to fruition. Then if somebody else wants a shot, they're more than welcome to. I'm really enjoying it, it's been busy and it always is, especially in the lead up to the gatherings, but it's lovely seeing everything come together.
Is there anything you would like to tell me about your next Gathering?
It's a really special one for the Clan MacLennan Scotland Association, because it marks 50 years since Ruairidh's father, Ronald, was reinstated as a modern day chief. We went on 300 years or more without a clan chief until Ronald was recognized by the Lord Lyon Court and had the chiefship reinstated upon himself in 1978. It's a big milestone to look at, to see what we've achieved in that time and that the clan is still having gatherings and annual events to keep everybody together.
It's testament to the enthusiasm and the passion he had for the clan that his hard work has continued 50 years later. I find it astonishing that people are willing to come from as far as America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand. Spending hard earned money and coming such a long way to celebrate their clan with us here. That’s really special so we're really keen to put a gathering programme together that will make that journey for our clan worthwhile, and wanting to recognize the 50-year mark.
Without giving too much away, we want to keep things under our hat a little bit longer, but we're hoping that if you haven't been to the last couple, or even just the last one, that you'll try and do your best to make it to this one because I think it will be one to remember.
There are plans for lots of fun trips, like visiting castles, distilleries, you name it. We're going to try and cram as much as we can in so that we'll have something for everyone of any age within the program.
Keep your eyes peeled on both our social media and the dedicated Gathering pages on the website for updates, because as soon as we have something finalized, the bookings will be open for various events within the program and it'll be first come, first serve. These events get snapped up so quickly that we have to put a capacity on them. The official gathering program itself generally lasts five days, usually from the Wednesday to the Sunday.
How can people get involved with the society if they're interested?
If they're interested in getting involved with the Clan MacLennan Scotland Association, then we've got our social media pages, and we have a dedicated Scotland page on the worldwide website.
It depends where in the world you are and how much you're looking to get involved. We will probably have a call to arms in the near future for some volunteers to help us over the gathering in 2028. One thing we've learned from experience is that we could probably do with a few extra pairs of hands during certain events within our gathering. If you're looking to pitch in and help, then contact the Scotland page.
On a wider scale, if you're looking to get in touch with your nearest clan association, we have associations all over the world. We've got groups in Canada and the States. We have the Australia and New Zealand Committee.
Your best port of call on a worldwide scale is to refer to our website where you'll be able to get in touch with your nearest society. We're always welcoming anybody who's willing to get involved.
Interview with Kirsteen Eckersley | Clan Treasurer & Clan Chief's Sister
Thank you for your time to speak with us about Clan MacLennan today, Kirsteen.
Have you always celebrated your Clan MacLennan heritage?
From being a small child. My father was the clan chief and it was very much part of our life. He dedicated his whole life to research and to hosting people from all over the world. I remember people from Canada, Australia and America coming to stay in our house even for extended periods. We would return home from school, and we'd be hosting people, international clan people, and we would be involved in helping our mum, making cups of tea and serving shortbread.
And then my sister and I would be expected to do a highland dance or sing a Gaelic song. I think that influenced our whole life because all three of us - Ruairidh, Lorna and I - are really comfortable with entertaining and hosting people, and engaging with people from different cultures and backgrounds.
That's such a great way to broaden your horizons at a young age.
Oh, absolutely. As well as being a clan chief, my Dad trained at the University of Copenhagen to be a PE teacher. He'd also been an athlete and been in the Olympics. That was a big part of our life as well. We lived in Ullapool when we were younger and he would take us out in kayaks and we'd go behind the wash of the full wind ferry and be terrified. We’d always be complaining that he would take us up mountains and on these big, long expeditions. And then now as a mother myself, I find myself doing the same things with my children.
Speaking of the younger generation, I know from some of the other clans I've talked to, there's a push to engage more of the younger generation. How does that align with Clan MacLennan?
I think naturally the younger generation are getting involved.
The international clan gatherings that we hold every four years - which we were hosting in Inverness, but the last one was in Strathpeffer in 2024, and the next one in 2028 will again be in Strathpeffer - there was quite a large group of teenagers and younger children, and it was wonderful to see them connecting with each other. Someone came and taught them how to play shinty and some of the American children were really keen on ball sports and they loved it. It was heart-warming to watch the Scottish children play shinty with children from Australia and Canada and America.
For the next clan gathering, we're hoping to expand on that. There's talk as the children get older they maybe do exchanges. My middle boy is hoping to go to the US to university on a sporting scholarship and I know that he'll have a network of clan people that he can fall back on there. If, for example, he wants to go for Sunday lunch somewhere, or he may connect with people that he's met in Strathpeffer at the international gathering he can connect with them over there. And they could come over here on an exchange.
I love that you instantly have connections across the world and you can go somewhere, even on your own, and there's someone down the road or nearby that you can call upon if you need to.
Yes, they're like distant cousins, aren't they? I stayed with a few people in New York for a few weeks, and then I went down to South Carolina and stayed with some Clan MacLennan people there at age 18, 19, and it was a wonderful experience. My brother and sister did extended stays in Australia, and they were hopping from clan people to clan people. And again my parents hosted all sorts of people like that, not only younger people, but they would open up their house in a sort of an exchange.
What does being part of the clan mean to you?
Never known anything different. It's in my blood and has always been in my life. The clan are quite a small clan, but we're quite active on social media. It's wonderful to see people say, “I came from...” or “my background is my grandmother was a MacLennan or my great-great-great grandmother was”, and really quickly they're flooded with people saying, “well, that was also my great-great-great grandmother”. So it feels like a large extended family and nobody feels too distant because we are quite a small clan.
Do you have a favorite out of the MacLennan tartans?
I actually wear all three of the tartans. I have a lot of my mum's clothing. She had a lot of clothes made from Campbell's of Beauly, which are still going strong. Some of these items will be 60 years old.
I've been fortunate I've managed to always fit into something. Even when I was a bit heavier after I had the children, she had lovely capes, which were forgiving for larger sizes. Now I'm managing to get back into some of her smaller items. A lot of her things were made using the ancient tartan. And then for the homecoming event, I think that was in 2009, I’d had a beautiful floor length modern silk dress made.
I have a few items in the modern that I like for more formal evening wear. Most of my mum's clothing that I wear for daytime, pinafores, capes, sashes are in the ancient tartan.
I actually don't think I have anything in the weathered, but that's my go-to for the boys’ kilts.
I like all three a lot, actually.
You're the Treasurer of the Society, how did you get involved in the first place?
There wasn't really a very active committee prior to the homecoming event in 2009 and a lot of clan gatherings were just pre-organized by my brother and I. And then there was a real resurrection in the run up to the homecoming event. Rebecca and Fiona got involved again and then it grew and I think I just became treasurer by default, but I actually do a lot more than that.
Over the years we recruited people, and our current chair, Neil, is amazing. He was a director of leadership at Aberdeen University and he's got amazing people skills. He's diplomatic and gets on with everyone and he's taken a lot of the pressure off my brother. He's very good at clan gatherings and other events.
And then Fiona, Rebecca's mum, she's another person that is really important to the clan and helps out.
As it comes closer to the gathering, we have our team of people that we delegate to.
We held our ceilidh in the Dores Village Hall in Loch Ness, and it was by far the most popular event. It was a dusty village hall with faded red velvet curtains, and we walked around at the clan parliament and wondered if anyone would like to come and help set up the hall. We'd look for people that are able-bodied or tall and we'd say, would you like to come and pop up some trestle tables? And that became such an important part. We felt that people really wanted to feel helpful and belong rather than just an attendee at the ceilidh and gathering. They were very much part of it. And then that by far became our most successful event. People loved it.
Discover more about Clan MacLennan Worldwide on their website here. Photo credits Neil McLennan and Clan MacLennan Scotland Association.
