New chief of MacDonalds has disputed claim

FORT WILLIAM, Scotland, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Scotland's Clan MacDonald of Keppoch got its first chief in more than 150 years this week, a retired Edinburgh audiologist.

But some members of the clan say Ranald Alasdair MacDonald's claim is invalidated by the illegitimate birth of an ancestor in 1832, The Scotsman reports.

"In the years he has been pursuing this claim, he has not attracted the support of the clan," Rory MacDonald of Blarour said. "We have ignored him pretty successfully until now and I think we will be able to go on ignoring him."

While the MacDonalds were famous in centuries past for their fighting spirit, the new chief pursued his claim through the courts for decades. He won an appeal to the Court of Sessions after rejection by the Lord Lyon, King of Arms.

The last chief, Chichester MacDonald, died in 1848, leaving no sons.

The Highland Council arranged the installation ceremony, which included pipers piping the new chief in and the clan bard reciting his ancestry.

"I think it's quite sad that the MacDonalds cannot get together and unite on this," said Olwyn MacDonald, committee convenor for the Highland Council in the Lochaber area.