CHAPTER II 

 FAMILY HISTORY 



Some of my readers interested in genealogy may be glad 

 to know something of our Gairloch ancestor, Eachainn 

 Ruadh (Red Hector) . Since his day we have been known 

 as Clan Eachainn Ghearloch (sons of Hector of Gairloch) . 

 Hector was the second son of Alexander the sixth of 

 Kintail; so that we were not by any means what would 

 be called " upstarts " even in a.d. 1400. Hector Roy's 

 mother was a daughter of the famous Ruairidh MacAlain 

 of Moidart and Clanranald, whose wife was a grand- 

 daughter of the first Lord of the Isles by his wife Lady 

 Margaret Stewart, daughter of King Robert II. Hector 

 Roy also had royal blood in him on his father's side as 

 well as on that of his mother; for his grandfather, 

 Murdo the fifth of Kintail, married Finguala, daughter 

 of Malcolm Macleod, third of Harris and Dun vegan, whose 

 wife was Martha, daughter of Donald Stewart, Earl of 

 Mar, nephew of King Robert the Bruce. The Gairlochs 

 also have Norwegian blood in their veins, as Tormod 

 Macleod, second of Harris and Dun vegan, and father 

 of Malcolm, was a grandson of Olave the Black, the 

 last of the Norwegian Kings who o^\Tied the Isle of 

 Man, and who died about 1237. 



Gairloch belonged to the Macleods in the earlier part 

 of 1400. When Hector Roy was a young man it was 



17 2 



