Hey guys, im new to the forum, but I've been researching my genealogy and have reached the time period of the clearances and you guys are pretty knowledgable about the subject.

My ancestors were Maclaines of Lochbuie (McLain sept). The family story is that they left Edinburgh for Tullamore Ireland in 1786. (they were protestants in Ireland and eventually came to New York in the 1860s).
I know the MacLeans of Duart were dispossessed after the Jacobite uprising and many fled, but the Lochbuie Maclaines did not participate in the rebellion and their lands were spared.

I know it will probably never be known fully but is it feasible to believe the highland clearances forced them off their land in the 1770s to Edinburgh and eventually out of Scotland completely? I'm trying to find anything about the Isle of Mull and the clan's lands in this time period but cant seem to.

I've been reading that almost all of the Ulster-Scots were lowlanders and border scots so I'm wondering where my ancestors would've fit in to the scheme of things.

Thank you