THE CLANS OF THE LONG ISLAND. 61 



before the Macleods, but there is reason to believe that 

 the Macnaughtons have been confused with the Mac- 

 nicols (MacNachtans and MacNechtals) and that the 

 Macnaughtons never had a footing in Lewis. Tradition 

 supports the view that the old castle of Stornoway was 

 built by the Macnicols before the days of the Macleods. 



Torquil, third chief in descent from Leod, had a charter 



from David II. of four davochs of land in Assynt, together 



with the fortress therein, and according to tradition, he 



came into possession of this property by marrying the 



heiress of the Macnicols. All this seems to point to the 



fact that the Macnicols or Nicolsons were in the Long 



Island and in Assynt at a remote period, and had 



important possessions there before the Clan Macleod had 



an existence. It is highly probable that they were 



descended from a Norse settler named Nicolasson, who 



was one of the most influential of the boendr. The 



Sleat seanachie tells us that Olave the Red, who lived in 



the twelfth century, killed the chief of the Macnicols in 



North Uist. A manuscript of 1467 traces the descent of 



the Nicolsons from one Gregill, son of Gillemuire, and 



states that the traditional progenitor of the clan is a certain 



Krycul, who is supposed to have lived in the thirteenth 



century ; but the Nicolsons of the Outer Hebrides are, as 



we have seen, probably of much more ancient lineage than 



this tradition represents them to be.* 



It is likely that the Morisons, as suggested by the 

 Bragar genealogist, are also descended from Norse for- 

 bears. It is far from improbable, indeed, that they were a 

 sept of the Macleods. John Morison states the belief 

 that the progenitor of the Macleods, and the father of the 

 progenitor of the Morisons, were both sons of the " King 

 of Noravay," or in other words, the Norse King of Man 

 and the North Isles. The Gaelic name of the Morisons 

 Clan MacGillemhoire or Gillemuire when taken in con- 

 junction with the preceding remarks about Saint Mourie 



* The Sleat seanachie refers to " the ancient Danes of the Isles, namely 

 the Macduffies and Macnagills." 



G 



