How reliable are clan maps?

[castel]

I've seen the maps online listing clans and their locations - how accurate are they? I have recently been told that these were produced during a period (1800's) when clan association was overly popular and so anyone and everyone was claiming affiliation to one or another clan - however that the maps are not reliable especially since they show clans existing in the borders and lowlands. Can anyone shed some light on this?

[Polwarth]

The issue of 'clans' in the Borders area is complicated. Clan merely means 'family' - and the Borderers were called Families - nowadays they call themselves clans, in the highland manner.

As to the reliability of the maps - that's difficult, too! I think that the bigger clans and their territories are usually correct - but all the septs? I'm not so sure!

[Lianachan]

Depends on which maps you're talking about. There are some very accurate ones prepared by the British army in the 1700's, for example.

[Scottish_Republican]

Disagree. The use of "clan" for parts of the Borders goes back hundreds of years.

Also in the south west, i.e. Galloway, some of the people would have been Gaelic speaking into recent times, and there is evidence of terms like "kenkynol" (i.e. Ceann-cinneil) meaning clan chief etc.

As for the maps, they are mostly hocum. The clans moved around, and folk were cleared off, they intermarried etc. They haven't really meant much since their chiefs were shipped off to English public schools.