The Campbells of Strachur, also known as the MacArthur Campbells of Strachur, may be the oldest branch of the Clan Campbell

Clan Campbell

Clan Campbell is a Highland Scottish clan. Historically one of the largest, most powerful and most successful of the Highland clans, their lands were in Argyll and the chief of the clan became the Earl and later Duke of Argyll.-Origins:...

. The family traces it's descent from Sir Arthur Campbell, who is said to have been a son of Duncan Dubh, who in turn may have been an elder brother of Gilleasbaig

Gilleasbaig of Menstrie

Gille Escoib or Gilleasbaig of Menstrie is the earliest member of the Campbell family to be attested in contemporary sources, appearing in royal charters dating to the 1260s. His existence is confirmed by later Campbell pedigrees. According to these genealogies, he was the son of a man named...

, who was in turn the father of the patrilineal-ancestor of the chiefs of Clan Campbell

Duke of Argyll

Duke of Argyll is a title, created in the Peerage of Scotland in 1701 and in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1892. The Earls, Marquesses, and Dukes of Argyll were for several centuries among the most powerful, if not the most powerful, noble family in Scotland...

. The heads of the Strachur family were known in Gaelic as Mac Artairr, "son of Arthur", in reference to their alleged ancestry. The head of the family bears the Gaelic title MacArtair Strachuirr.

Chiefs of Clan Campbell

The historian William Forbes Skene

William Forbes Skene

William Forbes Skene , Scottish historian and antiquary, was the second son of Sir Walter Scott's friend, James Skene , of Rubislaw, near Aberdeen....

, who maintains the Strachur family of the Campbell as chiefs

Scottish clan chief

The Scottish Gaelic word clann means children. In early times, and possibly even today, clan members believed themselves to descend from a common ancestor, the founder of the Scottish clan. From its perceived founder a clan takes its name. The clan chief is the representative of this founder, and...

 of the clan Campbell, writes:

"... the Macarthur Campbells, of Strachur, the acknowledged descendants of the older house, they have at all times disputed the chiefship with the Argyll family. Judging from analogy, we are compelled to admit that the Campbells of Strachur must formerly have been chiefs of the clan, and that the usual causes in such cases have operated to reduce the Strachur family, and to place that of Argyll in that situation, and this is confirmed by the early history of the clan."

See also

• Clan Arthur, the MacArthers of Terivadich are commonly confused with the Campbells of Strachur
• John Campbell (of Strachur)

External links

• http://www.electricscotland.com/webclans/atoc/campbel-a.html
• http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/strachur/strachur/
• http://www.ccsna.org/