Clan gathers to select first chieftain since 1786

By CAHAL MILMO

LONDON - Not since their warriors bloodied English noses at the Battle of Bannockburn nearly 700 years ago, and suffered defeat at Flodden in 1513, has the Clan MacAulay had such cause to dust down their claymores and once more join battle.

A group of 11 elders and 35 members of the MacAulay tribe gathered to elect their 13th chieftain, the first since Aulay MacAulay died drunken, destitute and without heirs in 1786.

The sole candidate was 80-year-old Iain MacAulay, a former prisoner of war of the Japanese in Sumatra, and champion of the clan's reunification and rebirth as a "modern, democratic body" for the past 30 years. MacAulay was elected 11-0 among elders and 34-1 among clan members despite having no blood link to the dissolute Aulay.

But no feudal succession would be complete without a power struggle.

Step forward, confusingly, another Iain MacAulay, one-time challenger to his clan's crown and now a campaigner for a five-year moratorium on the choosing of a new chieftain.

MacAulay, 59, a business consultant from Chester, had claimed he was the true descendant to the last leader but, after being given a year to prove his claim, was unable to find acceptable evidence. He said that since MacAulay senior also could not prove a direct lineage, there should be an extension to the 215-year interregnum in case a blood descendant came forward.

But the once-fearsome and feudal clan, gathered in Dingwall, near Inverness, decided instead to enter the 21st century with a leader elected on merit.

The Derbhfine (pronounced der-feen) was attended by around 60 clansmen and women from as far afield as New Zealand and the United States.

The villain of the piece, Aulay MacAulay - whose fondness for a dram caused him to fritter away the clan seat, Ardencaple Castle - died in poverty without a wife or children.

MacAulay sen plans to manage his disparate tribe from his former council bungalow in Drumbeg, Sutherland.

Mixing the flamboyantly archaic with the solidly contemporary (MacAulay sen hopes to set up a bursary scheme to help educate young clan members), the proceedings were presided over by a representative of the Lord Lyon King of Arms, head of the Edinburgh heraldic legal court.

The vote will be passed to the Lord Lyon, Edinburgh solicitor Robin Blair, to confirm within six months.

If the election is confirmed MacAulay will relish the task of reuniting three separate branches of the clan, and living up to its motto of Dulce Periculum, or Danger is Sweet.

- INDEPENDENT