Original Site of Our Clan

Numerous members of the Society have asked me where our clan lands were located over the years, and this has also been a curiosity to me. As ours is such a small clan and closely associated with Clan Campbell for at least six or seven hundred years, I have found little written on our origins, independent of the Campbells. Of course, this is partially the fault of our Presbyterian forefathers who burned every Catholic scrap of paper they could find, never considering the records of earlier years that they were destroying.

Robert Bain in his book THE CLANS AND TARTANS OF SCOTLAND said, ;the clan Calum is said to have been originally designated as of Ariskeodnish. I have been looking for a written reference
to Ariskeòdnish intermittently for a period of twenty years and recently came across a reference in a used book purchase of mine. MYTH TRADITION AND STORY FROM WESTERN ARGYLL by K. W. Grant (Copyright Oban, 1925) indicates in a chapter on Some Notable Families of Lorn that the McCallums and the McIsaacs (now usually McKessoc or McKissock) lived in Kilmartin Glen. Apparently we were closely related to them at a very early date. This glen was part of the Poltalloch Estate owned by our chief until the 1930's. We are further told that the glen was at an early date known as the Strathmore of Ari-skeòdnish (from a Gaelic-Norse name; Airigh, a shieling; skeod, a corner; innis, a grassy islet or sheltered valley). There are references to the McCallums of Inniskeòdnish in the 14th and 15th century Campbell papers. We'll consider those in a subsequent newsletter.

B. McCallum, Jr. FSA(Scot)