A Modern Scottish View of Clans (and Gathering)

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

But there could be no better example than Harold MacMillan who, despite his great talents, privileged education, connection to noble families (the Devonshires) through marriage still could never become chief of his clan.

You are absolutely correct, but not for the reasons you've stated. The courts decided in 1953 that the chiefly line was vested in General Sir Gordon MacMillan. So the matter is settled in law. And this is the case with virtually all of the Scottish chiefs: they are chiefs because of a decision made by a court of law. People who who are unhappy with that decision have the right to appeal, and some have. In fact cases of chiefship have gone all the way to the House of Lords. But at the end of the day the Law has determined who is entitled to be called a chief, not some clerk at the central registry of births.

(By the way, in the archives at the MacMillan Clan Center there is a letter from Harold MacMillan acknowledging the chief, wishing him well, and stating how proud he is to be a member of the clan.)

I think it presumptuous to assume that the average clansman (or even Super Mac) would want to be a clan chief. I know I wouldn't. I see chiefship as a tiring, largely thankless task that quite often gets in the way of the chief having a life of his own. True, a chief gets to be friends with people from all walks of life and every corner of the globe-- and here one may have missed the central core of chiefship-- that clan folk come from every possible section of society, and all are regarded as "family and friends" by their chief, and generally treated as such.

There is no "below the salt" at a clan gathering.