On the western shore of Loch Lomond, where the mountains rise sharply from the water and the islands scatter across the loch's northern reaches, Clan MacFarlane held their ground for centuries. This was not the gentler Lowland shore to the east but the steep, forested Highland side — a landscape that shaped its inhabitants in particular ways and gave the MacFarlanes a character that their motto captures precisely: This I'll Defend. Also written MacPharlain and in various anglicised forms, the clan traced descent from the ancient Earls of Lennox and held a specific stretch of lochside territory between Loch Lomond and Loch Long from the medieval period onward, a position that was both strategically valuable and perpetually contested. Their story is one of Highland tenacity, royal connection, and a landscape that made them who they were.
Where Does the Name MacFarlane Come From?
The name MacFarlane derives from the Gaelic Mac Pharlain, meaning "son of Parlan." Parlan is the Gaelic form of Bartholomew, a name of Hebrew origin that entered the Gaelic world through the Church. The specific Parlan from whom the clan takes its name was Parlan, a grandson of Alwyn, second Earl of Lennox — a figure of the thirteenth century from whom the MacFarlane chiefs traced their descent in a lineage that connected them directly to one of Scotland's most ancient and distinguished earldoms. The Mac prefix — son of — was originally applied to the immediate descendants of this Parlan before becoming, as with all Scottish clan surnames, a fixed hereditary name carried by the wider kindred.
The connection to the Earldom of Lennox was not merely genealogical: it defined the MacFarlanes' sense of their own standing and their claim to the lands around Loch Lomond. As a cadet branch of the Lennox earls, they held their territory with a legitimacy grounded in that noble lineage, and their history across the medieval and early modern periods was shaped by the fortunes of the Lennox earldom as much as by their own independent actions.
Where Did Clan MacFarlane Hold Their Lands?
The MacFarlane heartland was the district of Arrochar — the head of Loch Long — and the western shore of Loch Lomond from Tarbet northward toward Inveruglas. This was a strategically significant position: the narrow isthmus between Loch Lomond and Loch Long, at Tarbet, was one of the most important portage points in the western Highlands, a place where boats and their contents could be carried overland between the two lochs and where control of the crossing gave the clan a significant advantage in both commerce and warfare. The Vikings had used this route in the ninth century, and the MacFarlanes understood its value no less clearly a few centuries later.
Inveruglas Isle, a small island in Loch Lomond near the mouth of the River Inveruglas, was the site of a MacFarlane stronghold — one of several island or lochside fortifications that the clan maintained across their territory. Island fortresses were a practical solution to the defensive challenges of the Highland west, where water offered a more reliable barrier than stone in many situations, and the MacFarlanes used the geography of their loch with the knowledge that comes from generations of living beside it. Those proud of their MacFarlane roots can explore Clan MacFarlane gifts including tartan coaster sets, garden flags, and clan crest pieces at Celtic Ancestry Gifts.
What Is the MacFarlane Clan Motto?
The MacFarlane motto is This I'll Defend — one of the relatively small number of Scottish clan mottoes expressed in Scots or English rather than Latin or Gaelic, and all the more direct for it. It is a statement without qualification or nuance: a declaration that what is held will be held, and that the clan's commitment to its territory, its people, and its honour is unconditional. For a clan whose position on the western shore of Loch Lomond placed them between the ambitions of more powerful neighbours — the Campbells to the west, the evolving authority of the Scottish crown, and the competing claims of other Lennox kindreds — the motto was not an abstract sentiment but a practical statement of intent that had to be made good repeatedly across the centuries.
A Clan MacFarlane tartan crest ceramic ornament, a keepsake inspired by the clan's Loch Lomond heritage and the line of the ancient Earls of Lennox. Browse MacFarlane gifts here.
Who Were the Notable Figures of Clan MacFarlane?
The MacFarlanes produced several chiefs of considerable local consequence across the medieval and early modern periods. Andrew MacFarlane, chief in the fifteenth century, is among the figures who appear in the records of the period as a significant actor in the politics of the Lennox district. The clan's martial reputation was established through repeated involvement in the conflicts that periodically swept the western Highlands, and they are recorded as fighting on various sides in the complex struggles of the later medieval period — sometimes in support of the Scottish crown, sometimes in pursuit of their own territorial interests, and occasionally in both at once.
The MacFarlanes were among the clans whose reputation for nocturnal raiding became something of a local legend — to the extent that the full moon was said in the district to be called "MacFarlane's Lantern," a reference to the moonlit nights that were said to favour the clan's cattle-lifting expeditions into neighbouring territories. Whether this reputation was entirely deserved or partly the construction of their enemies' complaints is difficult to judge from the historical distance, but it speaks to a clan that was feared as well as respected in its own time.
How Did Clan MacFarlane Relate to Their Loch Lomond Neighbours?
Loch Lomond in the medieval and early modern period was shared among several clans whose histories intersect at the points where their territories met. The Colquhouns of Luss held the eastern shore of the loch and the lands of Dunbartonshire to the south, and the relationship between the MacFarlanes and the Colquhouns was one of the most consequential on the loch — a mixture of rivalry, alliance, and occasional outright conflict that left its mark on the records of both families. The history of Clan Colquhoun provides the essential companion perspective to any account of MacFarlane history, illuminating the lochside world from the other shore. The broader context of the Lennox district — the ancient earldom from which the MacFarlanes derived their claim to their lands — is captured in the history of Clan Lennox, which traces the earldom's fortunes across the same centuries that shaped the MacFarlane story. If you would like to explore gifts featuring the MacFarlane name, use the search bar above to find your clan.
What Happened to Clan MacFarlane in Later History?
The seventeenth century brought severe disruption to the MacFarlane lands and chiefly line. The civil wars of the 1640s and 1650s drew the clan into the conflict, and their position in the western Highlands made them vulnerable to the same forces of military occupation and economic disruption that reshaped much of Scottish Highland society during this period. The MacFarlane chiefly line eventually became extinct in the male line in the eighteenth century, and the clan's lands passed from their direct possession. The MacFarlane chief's line is considered dormant rather than extinct in the heraldic sense, with the chiefship unresolved, but the territorial presence of the family in the Arrochar district that had defined them for so long came to an end.
What persisted was the name, carried by the wider kindred of families who had been part of the MacFarlane community across generations. MacFarlane descendants spread through the Scottish Lowlands and, during the waves of emigration that followed the Clearances and the economic transformation of the Highlands, to North America and Australia. The name is found in the records of Nova Scotia, Ontario, and the American eastern states, as well as in Australia and New Zealand, part of the broader Scottish diaspora that has maintained connections to its Highland origins across many generations of settlement elsewhere.
What Is the MacFarlane Legacy Today?
The landscape that shaped Clan MacFarlane — the western shore of Loch Lomond, the hills above Arrochar, the isthmus at Tarbet — is today part of Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, one of Scotland's most visited natural areas. Visitors who make the journey up the western shore of the loch travel through what was once MacFarlane territory, and the dramatic scenery — Ben Vorlich rising steeply from the water, the islands of the upper loch scattered across the widening surface — gives some sense of the world that shaped this particular Highland clan.
The motto This I'll Defend endures as a summation of the MacFarlane character: direct, committed, and rooted in the specific geography of a lochside territory that the clan held with a tenacity that their motto declared and their history demonstrated. For the many bearers of the name today, scattered across Scotland and the world, it remains a meaningful connection to that Highland shore.
If you are proud of your MacFarlane heritage, you can explore gifts and home décor featuring the MacFarlane name by using the search bar above. We carry thousands of Scottish and Irish surnames across a wide range of products, helping families celebrate their heritage every day. Use the search bar above to find your name. Browse the full range of Clan MacFarlane gifts at Celtic Ancestry Gifts.
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