Clan MacArthur, DNA Clues, and the Lost Charters of Loch Awe
Older Than the Hills
Clan MacArthur, DNA Clues, and the Lost Charters of Loch Awe
By Tiffany McCarter Evans, Clan Historian 7/25/2025
1. A Proverb That Pre‑Dates the Devil
“There is none older, save the hills, the Devil, and MacArthur.”
Because the Devil reached Argyll only with St Columba in 563 AD, the saying places the MacArthurs squarely in the pre‑Christian dawn. Clan memory, poetry, and the Red Book of Argyll all point to a sixth‑century Strathclyde war‑chief named Arthur—whether mounted hero or fully fledged “King” matters less than the fact that his descendants carved out territory long before the kingdom of Scotland existed.
2. Two MacArthur Branches—Two Y‑DNA Signatures
| Branch | Medieval Seat | Probable Y‑DNA | Modern Surname Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tirivadich / Loch Awe | Hayfield (Hatfield) & Inishail | E‑M35 → E‑BY5775 | McCarter, Colquhoun (Camstradden) |
| Strachur / Glen Lean | Strachur Estate | R1b‑L21 cluster | Campbell, Bruce, Stewart, Grant, MacGregor, MacFarlane, Lennox |
Fresh DNA data point to an intriguing split: the Tirivadich “Black Knights” of Loch Awe carry the E‑BY5775 marker, while their Strachur cousins—and later Campbell conquerors—belong to the R1b‑L21 mega‑clade. Same name, two chromosomes, and five centuries of simmering Argyll tension. Was that hidden genetic fault line the spark behind their cousin feud?
3. The King’s Rope: Iain MacArthur Hanged, 1428
Newly freed from English captivity, James I of Scotland summoned the western magnates to Inverness in 1428. The meeting was a trap. Chief Iain (John) MacArthur of Tirivadich—able to raise a thousand swords—was seized and hanged without trial; every Loch Awe holding passed to the Crown. The execution decapitated (figuratively, this time) the power of the E‑BY5775 branch, scattering cadet families across Argyll.
4. A Brief Resurgence, a Fatal Ambush
By the mid‑1500s the Tirivadich line had clawed back lands around Loch Awe. Then came 1567. Chief Sir Duncan MacArthur and his heir fled Innis Chonnel Castle by birlinn, charters and the clan seal lashed under their plaids. Campbell oarsmen overtook them mid‑loch; the galley capsized, drowning men and documents alike. The legal skeleton of the clan—titles, grants, genealogy—slipped into the silt of Loch Awe and has never re‑surfaced.
Archaeological note: Cold, deep, and mildly alkaline, Loch Awe preserves wood and metal. Side‑scan sonar could yet locate a 16th‑century birlinn—and perhaps the lead‑cased seal that vanished with it.
5. DNA, the Fair Maid of Luss, and Moses McCarter
The paper trail stopped in 1567, but the Y‑chromosome kept writing. Moses McCarter, a well‑documented colonial descendant, carries E‑BY5775, the same paternal signature that defines the Colquhouns of Camstradden—children of the Fair Maid of Luss and Sir Robert Colquhoun (c. 1390). The most economical explanation:
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A Camstradden male (E‑BY5775) entered Loch Awe country between 1390 and 1600—by marriage, fosterage, or church appointment, even an NPE, maybe an affair, that we just do not know....YET!
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His son or grandson adopted the MacArthur name amid the post‑1428 power vacuum.
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That branch rode out the 1567 Loch Awe calamity, shifted its name to McCarter, and ultimately sailed for America. Before emigrating, they seem to have regrouped in Stirlingshire—staking out farms between Kincardine‑by‑Doune and Gargunnock—likely the younger children of Sir Duncan MacArthur who escaped the Campbell ambush and rebuilt their lives in the shadow of Doune Castle.
Moses almost certainly traces back to the toppled E‑M35 Tirivadich chiefs—not to the R1b‑L21 Strachur line—and, in doing so, he carries the same E‑BY5775 signal once borne by Umfridmus de Kilpatrick (born c. 1190 in Dumbartonshire). How that distinct Kilpatrick chromosome migrated west to Loch Awe, survived the clan’s 1567 catastrophe, and later resurfaced near Doune is the tangled mystery we’re now determined to untangle.
6. Campbell Ascendancy, MacArthur Diaspora
After 1567 the Campbells tightened their grip on Argyll. MacArthurs fought on both sides of later upheavals—Ben Dorain (1497), the Covenanting Wars, and Culloden (1746)—before scattering to Ulster, Nova Scotia, the Carolinas, and Otago. By 1776 the last Loch Awe estate was sold; by 1850 the Strachur chief line had failed in the male line.
7. The Once‑and‑Future Clan
A 1990s initiative by American MacArthurs employed genealogist Hugh Peskett to hunt for a chief. He traced living descendants of Charles MacArthur of Tirivadich—brother to the drowned Duncan—and in 2002 the Lord Lyon recognized James Edward Moir MacArthur as chief. Edinburgh witnessed the inauguration on 13 April 2003: one of Scotland’s oldest clans officially became its youngest. Today, his son, John Alexander MacArthur of that Ilk, bears the arms: a demi‑wizard brandishing a sword Proper—half history lesson, half Arthurian wink.
8. Why the Story Still Matters
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Genealogists should test any MacArthur/McCarter line for E‑BY5775 before defaulting to the Campbell‑connected R1b cluster.
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Historians can now re‑evaluate James I’s purge and the 1567 ambush through the lens of genetic divergence.
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Maritime archaeologists have a clearly defined wreck location to investigate—an oak time‑capsule that could rewrite clan history.
The proverb endures: older than hills, older (almost) than the Devil. Thanks to a fragment of Y‑DNA and a few stubborn legends, the Black Knights of Loch Awe are again stepping out of the mist—charters still missing, story very much unfinished.
When the Y‑Chromosome Breaks the Script
How an E‑BY5775 MacArthur Chief Slipped into a Sea of R1b‑L21 Cousins
Posted by the Clans of Scotland DNA Society
The Puzzle
Most Highland genealogists can chant it in their sleep:
MacArthurs and Campbells—same patriarch, R1b‑L21 to the bone.
So why does the best‑documented colonial descendant of the Tirivadich chiefs—Moses McCarter—carry a completely different Y‑signature, E‑M35 → E‑BY5775, the same one that marks the Colquhouns of Camstradden? Something in the medieval record clearly went sideways. Below are the four most defensible ways that sideways twist could have happened, graded from “common Highland hiccup” to “bring your popcorn.”
1. The Female‑Heiress Switch (Most Likely)
A Tirivadich chief dies son‑less. His daughter marries an E‑BY5775 Colquhoun.
Gaelic custom: the grandson keeps her surname to inherit her estate, but carries his father’s Y‑chromosome.
Let’s face it—we’ve seen this movie before. Remember the Fair Maid of Luss, whose dowry turned the Colquhouns into Lennox power‑brokers? Or Lady Anne Colquhoun‑Grant, who flipped Clan Grant’s Y‑line in 1702 without breaking a nail? Yep, it’s always the girls quietly rewriting the clan rolls while the lads are busy measuring broadswords.
2. Fosterage or Ward‑Ship (Also Highly Plausible)
Bairns of the elite were often raised in another chief’s household—fosterage built alliances. Replace one wet‑nurse with a romantic liaison, hush it up, and an “oops” Y‑line can carry on unchallenged, especially when half the clan charters sank in Loch Awe in 1567.
3. Two Founders, One Surname (Medium Plausibility)
Picture the 11th‑century shoreline of Loch Awe: a local warrior named after the legendary Arthur takes land at Tirivadich; miles away, a Glen Lean branch descends from Dugald of Lochow. Medieval writers, desperate for tidy origin stories, bolt the two together. DNA now shows us the welding seam—but the scribes never saw it.
4. Scythian/Balkan Wildcard (Fun but Needs Proof)
The Declaration of Arbroath insists the Scots once roamed “Greater Scythia.” Modern geneticists know E‑M35 sub‑clades entered Britain with Balkan auxiliaries in the late Roman army. Re‑jig the timeline—add a Dalriadic princess or a crusader—and your “Black Knight of Loch Awe” could be a literal steppe import. Romantic? Absolutely. Proven? Not yet.
Where the Evidence Points
Right now, the female‑heiress or fosterage scenarios fit both the genetics and the 1390‑1600 historical window when Camstradden Colquhoun men and Tirivadich MacArthurs rubbed elbows. But we refuse to nail the coffin shut:
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Deep SNP testing of more Colquhoun, MacArthur, and McCarter kits could tighten the mutation clock to a fifty‑year window.
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Side‑scan sonar on Loch Awe might still find that 1567 birlinn—oak timbers, iron fittings, maybe even the lost clan seal.
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Ancient‑DNA sampling from Inishail’s ruined chapel could tell us exactly which Y‑line the medieval chiefs carried.
What You Can Do
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Test or upgrade if your surname is Arthur, McArthur, McCarter, or Colquhoun—especially if family lore points to Loch Awe or Loch Lomond.
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Share this post (c’mon, don’t make the Fair Maid do all the heavy lifting again).
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Volunteer your skills—divers, drone pilots, archivists, Latin translators—Loch Awe still guards plenty of secrets, and we’ll take all the help we can get.
The hills endure, the Devil keeps busy, and the MacArthur story is still being written—gene by gene, rivet by rivet, wave by Scottish wave.
Key Sources
| Source (title + origin) | What it supports | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | “The Reign of James I in the Highlands” – ElectricScotland.com Electric Scotland | Inverness Parliament of 1428 and execution (by hanging) of Highland chiefs, incl. Iain MacArthur |
| 2 | Clan Arthur – Wikipedia Wikipedia | Clan origins, seats at Loch Awe & Inishail; modern chiefship (2002 on) |
| 3 | Clan Campbell – Wikipedia Wikipedia | 1567 drowning of Sir Duncan MacArthur & son in Loch Awe during Campbell feud |
| 4 | MacArthur Clan History – ScotClans blog ScotClans | Additional details on the 1567 ambush and clan dispersion |
| 5 | Inishail Island: Graves & Ruined Chapel – historical field video (YouTube) YouTube | Visual confirmation of MacArthur burial isle opposite Tirivadich |
| 6 | History of Inverness Castle – site interpretive panel / article Inverness Castle Experience | James I’s 1428 crackdown context |
| 7 | Declaration of Arbroath – background article Wikipedia | MacArthur seal among the 1320 signatories |
| 8 | Colquhoun‑McCarter DNA Project (FamilyTreeDNA) – project pages FamilyTreeDNAFamilyTreeDNA | Haplogroup E‑BY5775 linking Camstradden Colquhouns and McCarters |
