first printed in Standfast 2018

A recent query about Easter Elchies prompted me to a little investigation which, as is almost normal, has thrown up some interesting curiosities. Easter Elchies lies about half way between the villages of Craigellachie and Aberlour but across the Spey (ie on the West bank) - about 17 miles north east of Castle Grant.

Until the Chief issued his pronouncement on the matter nearly ten years ago, it had been normal for Clan Grant Societies to claim the surnames Allan and Macallan as septs. Since then it is now up to any family with either surname to demonstrate their ancestral vassalage (as has been done notably successfully in the case of the Allans of Rhynagairn). The natural assumption would be that Macallan means "son of Allan" - but it turns out that nothing could be further from the case.

Today the name Macallan is recognised principally as a particularly fine range of single malt whiskies made in the distillery at Easter Elchies. But old maps show the ruins of an old "Church of Macallan" on the property some 200 yards south of the "big house". The website "whiskyshop.com" says of the name:

The name Macallan is thought to have derived from the two Gaelic words, ‘Magh’, and ‘Ellan’, meaning ‘fertile ground’ and ‘of St Fillan’ respectively.

This is broadly correct, though according to Dwelly "magh" really means little more than field or flat land (and can embrace also, therefore, a battlefield). Fillan is the anglicised version of Irish name Fáelán which is understood to mean "little wolf". [The initial "f" is lenited (lost) in the genitive.] We should note in passing a similar misunderstanding with the name Mackenzie - which is explained fully in my book "Scottish Clans: Legend, Logic & Evidence".

This, however, is where it gets problematic, for identifying "Saint Fillan" has been fraught with difficulty. The nature of that difficulty is quite well summed up on a website devoted to places named after saints: saintsplaces.gla.ac.uk. Sadly there are (at the time of writing, March 2018) internal contradictions even on this site. As is too often the case, it seems that it is the Aberdeen Breviary in which the various Fillans have been mixed up. The problem is that the confusion is so old that traditions based on the confusion are now embedded locally. There are several people called "Saint Fillan", but only two were active in Scotland.

The "other" St Fillan

Picking our way through this particular mire we can dismiss from our consideration Fillan son of the King of Cashel in Munster called Oengus mac Nad Froich (d.489) and who was, therefore, a brother of St Kessog and whose dates, therefore, are likely to be of the order 460-530ish. In my new book "Arthur: Legend, Logic & Evidence" I show that St Kessog was one of Arthur's principal lieutenants - being immortalised in Arthurian legend as Sir Lancelot. Kessog was also a very keen evangelist (having been baptised, perhaps even brought to Strathclyde, by St Patrick himself). This Fillan was described as a stammerer, a leper and "the dumb", so we may be confident that he was not a warrior. Some of the places he is associated with include Strathearn (where Kessog also preached) which he will have spent time in mostly after the conclusion of the Arthurian campaign and in Argyll - where he would have been free to evangelise after Arthur's peace treaty with the Scots in 498 - well ahead of Columba. [NB we should note that the place name St Fillans at the mouth of Loch Earn is not contemporaneous - it was first applied relatively recently.]

"Our" St Fillan (of Cluain Moescna)

Rather "our" St Fillan was the 8th century one. We have two apparently firm dates for him: his arrival on these shores in 717 and the death of his mother, St Caintigern (variously Kentigerna), in 734. His feast day is January 9th which we should assume, therefore, to be the date of his death (one site giving the year 777 for this which is feasible). This Fillan is remembered in Strathfillan in Perthshire (the River Fillan flows by Crianlarich into Glen Dochart), Kilallan farm (ruins of a church dedicated to him remain in the grounds) on the high road between Houston and Kilmacolm in Renfrewshire about 2 miles south of the River Clyde adn at Kilillan in Kintail (the similarity of the forms Macallan and Kilallan (variously Kilellan) are apparent immediately).

Fillan's family background

His Grandfather and mother

One of Fillan's grandfathers was Cellach (say Kelly) son of Gerthide, king of Diaballaigin which is an area of Wicklow in Ireland, South of Dublin. He died, apparently peacefully, in 715, but he was still leading his troops in 709. For the numbers to work he must have been 80ish when he died. The balance of opinion is that St Caintigern was his daughter by his fourth wife (also Caintigern). So if we estimate Cellach's fourth marriage around the age of 40, then St Caintigern might have been born around 675 (making her 60ish at death).

His Uncle, St Comgan

Cellach (d. 715) was succeeded by his son Comgan (say Cowan), who was defeated in battle by neighbours and the family was exiled. St Comgan is particularly remembered in Lochalsh where he founded a monastery (the site appears to have been at Kirkton between Auchtertyre and Reraig on the North shore) and at Kilchoan on Ardnamurchan, arguably also on Islay - so it seems that contrary to the received wisdom he got about a bit. There is a dubious connection of Comgan to a farm (Dalhowan) just south of Crosshill SE of Maybole in Ayrshire.

His father

Fillan's father is named as Feriach and is described as the "Regulus" of "Monchestre". His name is not recorded elsewhere, but is generally supposed to be "Feredach". "Regulus" is not defined, but has been generally supposed to mean "sub-king" of some sort. No-one before seems to have attempted to identify "Monchestre" - but I will be! The key lies in the general recognition that Fillan spent time at a Monastery in Wexford. Pondering this I was left with the conclusion that the time spent there must have been as a child - starting, perhaps at the age of 7 or 8 (as remains normal for UK prep schools to this day).

Casting around for relevant monasteries I lighted upon Taghmon - founded by St Fintan 'Munnu' (d 635). Readers will spot that 'Tagh mon' = 'house of Munnu'. The Taghmon historical Society explains the "Munnu" this way: The name Fionn was preceded by the term of endearment 'mo', followed by "og", meaning "young". Mo-Fhionn-Og became Munno, the name by which he is popularly known. I offer no separate opinion here - as it is of no actual consequence, but interestingly this abbey was fortified.

So I say that at the time this was known (in Latin) as "Mon caster" (Monchestre with caster in the genitive) meaning "Munnu's fortified house". This in turn suggests that Feriach was its "regulus". What I don't know is how strictly celibacy applied in such places at this time and hence whether the "regulus" was a clerical or lay position. Presumably as he was not the Abbot (and there were abbots in Ireland at that time) he was not the last word on religious matters - but he may have had charge of the day to day running and, given that the place was fortified, he may well have been in charge of the arrangements for defence.

One source has Feriach as a son of Cellach, but while this is almost certainly a mistake, it probably does point to Feriach having been of princely status - and probably from the local area. We can only presume that he had died before 717 - I would suppose considerably before 715.

Fillan's Life

So we may begin to set out a biography for Fillan.

He was born some time after 690 at the monastery of St Fintan Munnu - today's Taghmon - which he entered at a young age to receive an education and to train as a monk. [While I worked this out for myself, I am pleased to see that others had got there some time ago, so this is not particularly controversial.]

When Fillan's father died the family left Monchestre. His mother and her other children went back to stay with Cellach, her father, while Fillan himself moved to the now lost monastery of Cluain Moescna (understood to have been in Westmeath - probably in the South East of it). Unfortunately when Cellach died (715) and the crown went to his son Comgan, things did not go well: the family was forced to flee. Fillan joined the rest of the family who set sail in 717, whether from Wicklow, Bray or Dublin, arriving on the British mainland at Girvan (rather than Loch Duich as widely claimed).

From there they made their way north overland; Comgan stayed behind at Dalhowan while the rest of the family went on to settle at Kilallan near Houston. Comgan did not stay long in Ayrshire, and went evangelising round the Western Isles, establishing places in Islay, Argyll and even as far north as Skye and Lochalsh. It is clear that Fillan held his uncle in high esteem so when Comgan died (c730?) St Fillan took his body to Iona or burial and felt the need to carry his work on. He moved his mother into retirement on Loch Lomond and with other family moved to Strath Fillan which became a convenient base for his subsequent work. Here we may presume that he spent the rest of his life as his relics belong to this area.

Visiting his uncle's establishment at Loch Alsh, he ventured inland establishing a church at Kilillan in Kintail (at the head of the Loch Long which comes off Loch Alsh).
On a different expedition he travelled east along Loch Tay, establishing a site in Blair Atholl before moving on into Strathspey and Magh Fhaellan - Macallan. [Neil Macgregor, my expert on Gaelic placenames, advises that Strathspey is fairly peculiar in the Highlands for having a relatively large number of Gaelic placenames of very early origin. This suggests that some Gaelic speakers were infiltrating into the area by marriage and/or agreement long before the union of Picts and Scots under Alpin and his son Kenneth. Fillan may well have been particularly welcome here for that reason.] It may well have been, therefore, that Fillan was particularly focussed on ministering to these Gaelic speakers. We may estimate a date for this around 750 when he was around 60 years of age.

Fillan would appear not to have married, but with him in Strath Fillan was his brother Fearchar nicknamed Abhradhruadh - which means "with a ginger fringe". Although there may be a problem with semantics, Fearchar's descendants have come down to us as the Abbots of Glen Dochart. Around 1115 Gregory the son of Gregory son of Olav Hemmingsson married the heiress of this family and thus was founded the Clan Macnab.

NB: The current view (first established by Simon Taylor some 20 years ago) is that St Fillan had no connection to Pittenweem. That association was forged many centuries later by a local laird. [Thanks to Prof. Anthony Lodge for sorting this one out for me.]

Conclusion

We may, therefore, lay claim to the placename Macallan as a Grant one, but it is not clear that this place name gave rise to anyone using Macallan as a surname, (if it did this is likely to be pre-reformation and before it was Grant territory). Thus it is likely that any Macallans are indeed descendants of one or more people called Allan. The normal stipulations regarding sept status are unaffected.