Clan Maclean
Scottish clan
Clan Maclean ( ; Scottish Gaelic: Clann 'IllEathain [kʰl̪ˠãn̪ˠ iˈʎɛhɛɲ]) is a Highlands Scottish clan. They are one of the oldest clans in the Highlands and owned large tracts of land in Argyll as well as the Inner Hebrides. Many early Macleans became famous for their honour, strength and courage in battle. They were involved in clan skirmishes with the Mackinnons, Camerons, MacDonalds and Campbells, as well as all of the Jacobite risings.
History
Origins of the Clan
There are several different origins for the surname Maclean, however, the clan surname is an anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic MacGilleEathain. This was the patronymic form of the personal name meaning 'Servant of Saint John', thus 'Son of the Servant of [St] John'. The clan's rise to power began in 852 with a Papal Bull of Charter and Protection for the Iona Abbey, issued by Pope Leo IV. Marriages with Clan MacDonald in the late 1200s, Clan Bruce in the 1300s, and Clan MacKenzie in the 1400s brought Clan Maclean into the Scottish royal sphere.
Early Clan Chiefs
The founder of the clan was a Scottish warlord named Gillean of the Battle Axe (1210–1263). There are stories of Gillean being descended from the FitzGerald dynasty. He was a judex (judge) and councillor to King David I of Scots.
The public source identifies “Clan Maclean” as scottish clan. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Clan, Maclean and Scottish.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1094976. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1210 and 1263.
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This entry incorporates text from “Clan Maclean” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.