Memberships can be either: 1 Year, 5 Years or a Lifetime membership.
You will be notified when your membership is due for renewal.
Robertsons. Reids, Duncans and many other surnames make up the oldest and largest clan in Scotland. Find out if your family name is part of Clan Donnachaidh
In broad terms a "sept" might best be described as a branch of a family. In the context of Scottish clans, septs were families that followed another family's chief, or part of the extended family, and held a different surname.
So not only Robertsons, Duncans and Reids make up Clan Donnachaidh. Clan Donnachaidh has always been one of the major clans of Highland Perthshire and is widely recognised as the only clan to use its original Gaelic name which means "Children of Duncan". However, hereditary surnames were not used until the 1500s when the fifth Chief Alexander, son of Robert, began using the surname Robertson and his clansmen followed. But there were many other surname variations. For example, some clansmen used the surname Reid, after an ancestor with red hair, whilst further away from the clan heartland more people used the first Chief's name, Duncan. Smaller "septs" such as those family names listed above, over time, also aligned themselves to, and/or have become, part of the Clan Donnachaidh.
The above notwithstanding, regardless of your surname, historic links or personal genealogy, membership of the Clan Donnachaidh Society is open to all persons who share an interest in the history and heritage of Clan Donnachaidh.Why not join us? A warm welcome awaits!
The highland traditions of providing a welcome and warm hospitality mean the Clan Society is open to anyone who is a Donnachaidh as well as those who have an interest in the area, the clan and its history. We exist to promote the history and heritage of the clan and its values of friendship, family and kinship. Members come from many countries, especially those to which so many Scots emigrated in the nineteenth century, but increasingly from around Europe as well as many from the UK.
The society is a charity and the elected Clan Council has members from around the world. It is currently chaired by Jonn Duncan, who is based in Alabama in the United.
States. The International Vice Chair, Suzi McNutt, works closely with all the various branches around the world, especially in the USA.
The local branches are the main way people stay in touch with their clan family in their own home country, and each one has its own programme of events and attendance at games.
More and more people want to feel they belong to the worldwide family of clansfolk and make their membership of their clan ‘official’. By joining the society you are linking up with our kin, our shared history and heritage and like minded people in many countries around the world. This is especially important for those whose ancestors left highland Perthshire in the Scottish diaspora following the persecution of the clan system and way of life after the failed 1745 Jacobite rising and the economic decline that followed over the next 100 years.
The main event in our home country is the Clan Gathering, held in Perthshire in August or September each year, and the Clan Annual is the main publication sent to all members. Clan Donnachaidh branches and members overseas are proudly represented and recognised at most of the major Highland Games and other Scottish events overseas.
The Clan Society website contains membership application details, a wealth of information on clan history and sites, and news of clan affairs around the world (www.donnachaidh.com). There are many clan related Facebook pages, some managed by area or local branches, but the newest, official clan society one is Official Clan Donnachaidh page
The clan society is a membership organisation with a mission to promote the history and heritage of the Clan Donnachaidh, its values of friendship, family and kinship.
Historically a clan is a group of people with a shared identity and descent from a common ancestor. Having a shared identity could be living in the same area or by agreeing to be part of the clan family. Clans also have an officially recognised structure with legal privileges and obligations.
Clan Donnachaidh has always been one of the major clans of highland Perthshire, and is widely recognised as one of the oldest clans in all of Scotland as well as being the only clan to use its original Gaelic name. Not only Robertsons, but Reids, Duncans and many other surnames make up Clan Donnachaidh. Robertson is the most common clan name in Scotland and the fifth most common surname overall. Combined with Duncan, Reid and other accepted names, this easily makes Clan Donnachaidh the largest Scottish clan. Our documented history goes back past the Battle of Bannockburn and the first chief, Donnchadh Reamhar, in the 14th century right back to the Celtic Earls of Atholl, themselves descendants of King Duncan (of Shakespeare’s Macbeth fame,) and the chief’s family descends from the Kindred of St Columba who brought Christianity to the Highlands of Scotland from Ireland in 563.
You don’t become a member of a clan, you are a member. By tradition and history, membership is by birth, by marriage or because you lived in the Chief’s territory you were a member by right. As a clan member it’s entirely appropriate to wear a Robertson or Duncan tartan, display the clan badge if you wish and feel linked to your clan and its members around the world.
