Meaning of Name:

First, Foremost, or Leader. Possibly Tempest, Storm or the Wolf

Gaelic of Name:

Na Siach, or Mhic

Sheaghd

Family Slogan:

Fide et Fortitudine.

(By Faith and by

Fortitude. We force nae friend, we fear nae foe)

Crest Badge:

A Dexter Arm, the hand holding the dagger, pale, proper

Plant Badge:

Red Whortleberry

or Boxwood (By old tradition, also a sprig of fir)

Pipe Music:

The Rothiemurchus

Rant, The Shaws

March

Areas of

Influence:

Rothiemurchus,

Strathnairn, Upper

Glengairn, Deeside,

Nr. Crathie, Glenshee

and Glenisla, Harris and Jura

Ceud Mhille Failté!

One Hundred Thousand Welcomes  to the tribal website outlining the history, culture, heritage and lands of the worldwide Scottish Highland family of

THE CLAN SHAW – ‘CLOINN NA SI’EACH’

A Brief Foreword

As the Celtic clan ethos was and is inclusive, we warmly embrace all Shaws and their descendants from throughout the globe regardless of national origin, race, colour or creed.  Wherever you may come from in this beautiful world of ours - we are all connected by blood, history and land.  We are all one family.I hope my homespun little site encourages you to renew, strengthen and celebrate your knowledge of your own family heritage, history, culture and the lands your ancestors sprang from.   Suas Na Si’each!   ~WSEL.

THE CLAN SHAW : CHLOINN NA SI’EACH

The Children of the Pine Woods - Represented by Iain Shaw of Tordarroch, 23nd Chief of the Worldwide Highland Clan, Family and Name of Shaw, 18th Chieftain of the Clan Ay.  

A BRIEF OVERVIEW

From Our Common Background within the Clan Mackintosh and the great Clan Chattan Confederation of tribes, the never-ending Clan Shaw family story begins at the ancient hill-fort at The Doune in Rothiemurchus Forest in the late fourteenth century. The early Mackintosh Shaws, or "Ciars" (nickname for swarthy or brown) soon sprouted a vigorous northern branch or sept in Strathnairn in 1468 called Clan Ay. A generation later, the main chiefly stem family established other vigorous and powerful septs in Rothiemurchus at Dell and Dalnavert and established a branch in the Western Isles on Skye, called the Clan Mhic Iver. This sept quickly spread to Harris and Jura. During this time of consolidation, a branch was also started over the Cairngorms in Deeside, settling eventually at Invercauld. This eastern branch of the family quickly became a powerful and independent clan in their own right, the Clan Fhionnlaigh, later called Clan Farquharson.

Because Of Tribal And National Geopolitics, by the close of the sixteenth century, the main Mackintosh Shaw chiefly family at the Doune of Rothiemurchus had lost its position of eminence and hegemony. Eventually, the second and now senior branch of the Clan Shaw up north at Tordarroch began to act as Heads of the Shaws within the Clan Chattan Confederacy. By 1629, our Clan Farquharson cousins were joined by a scion of the Shaw of Dell Chieftains. This Shaw established a new branch of the clan at Crathienaird in Deeside under the territorial hegemony of the Chief of Clan Farquharson. This semi-independent sept, called Clan Seumas also spread north of Crathienaird to Glengairn and south to lovely Glenshee and Glenisla, settling at Easter Lair, Crandard, Blacklunans, Finegand, Little Forter, Achavan, Auchenree, The Balloch, Cray, Auchenleish, Drumfork, Broughdearg, and many other farms up and down the two glens.

From These And Many Other septs, branches and families, the Clan Shaw has spread throughout Scotland Eire and England, scattering during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries 'to all the Airts' throughout the world. This is your story!

The Clan Shaw Tribal Septs and Territories include :

Rothiemurchus : Dell, Dalnavert, Kinrara na Choille, Guislich, Achnahatnich, Tullochgrue. (Main fortified tribal strongholds at the Doune and Loch an Eilean)

Tordarroch/Clan Ay : Tordarroch/Strathnairn, Ayr, Ard Meanach/The Black Isle, Craigfield and Culblair, Muirton.  Also later settled in Upper Canada. (Main tribal stronghold at Tordarroch)

Shaws of the Western Isles/Clan Iver : The Isle of Skye (at Trumpan and Harlosh), Harris, Jura, and Mull.

Crathienaird/Clan Seumas: Crathienaird and Daldownie, Upper Glengairn, (includes Shaws of Inchrory) Glenshee and Glenisla.

Shaws of Eire: Shaws of Clonmel and Sandpits, Cork and Baronets of Bushy Park.

(Although an off-shoot of the Shaws of Rothiemurchus and a part of the Clan Chattan Confederation, the Clan Farquharson is an independent clan entity in it's own right. It's territory included most of upper Deeside, and was a military force to be reckoned with. The Shaws of Eire traditionally consider themselves of Rothiemurchus stock. It is interesting to note that nearly half of the Clan Shaw supporters of the late Maj. C.J. Shaw of Tordarroch's 1967 petition to be named as High Chief of all Clan Shaw were from Eire.)

My Personal Mission

During the past two thousand years of Gaeldom, it has been the task of the Seannachaidhean (tribal historians/genealogists, ad-hoc heralds, bards, poets and storytellers) to do many things to augment the cohesiveness of the clan and tribe.

My personal mission is to globally facilitate a greater extending of the collective knowledge, understanding and preservation of our rich Celtic and Gaelic clan ethos, customs, traditions, language and (oral and written) history.

It is also part of my lifelong mission to help foster a modern version of the very ancient and evergreen links to our Clan Shaw tribal enclaves and lands of old . . . connecting us through time as it were, with the deep love and sacred symbiotic relationship toward the land and its seasonal rhythms that our ancestors entwined within them.

…I will bring them in from every nation, gather them in from other lands, and lead them home to their own soil.   

- Ezekiel, ch. 34, vs 13

…Every man of the Children of Israel shall pitch his tent, each under his own Standard, with the Ensigns of his father’s House. 

- Numbers, ch. 2, vs 2

Fide et Fortitudine!

Yours aye,

William G.A. Shaw of Easter Lair

h

AN DERB FINE

Present Armigers of the Highland Clan Shaw:

Iain Shaw of Tordarroch - 18th Chieftain of Clan Ay, 23rd Chief of Clan Shaw : Newhall, Ross-shire, Scotland.  

Thomas Donald MacKay Shaw, 3rd Baron Craigmyle – London and Knoydart, Inverness-shire, Scotland.  Tanist is Thomas Columba Shaw, Younger of Craigmyle.

William Shaw of Easter Lair - 12th Representer of the Territorial House of Shaw of Easter Lair. (The Senior armiger of the Shaw of Crathienaird sept) : Wester Crathienaird, Squak Mountain, Issaquah, WA.  USA.  Tanist is Liam David Shaw, Younger of Easter Lair.

IThe late Iain Farqhuar Shaw - Mount Blair, Glenshee, Perthshire, Scotland. A younger line of the Crathieniard sept in Glenshee, Mr. Shaw Inherited Arms and lands as Tanist/heir of his uncles: MacKenzie Smith Shaw of Achenleish and Little Forter, WS (who matriculated Arms in Lyon Court in March 1930) and William Thomas Shaw of Tenandry, WS (who matriculated Arms in Lyon Court in March 1927).  Tanist is William James Shaw.

Robert James Shaw - Tintenbar, New South Wales, Australia.

Nota Bene:

Per the Court of the Lord Lyon, HM King of Arms for Scotland, ALL Arms are the personal heritable property of the above persons and are not to be used by anyone else in any form.  The appropriate form for a clansman or clanswoman is to bear the crest of the Chief of Chieftain within a strap and buckle.

More detail, including photos or copies of Arms to come. -WSEL