Matheson Collection > Macleods of Dunvegan from the time of Leod to the end of the seventeenth century

LEOD. FIRST CHIEF 29
fused with the MacNicols (MacNechtons) and that the
latter, and not the former, were the holders of a large
part of the Lewes.
With regard to Glenelg the Dunvegan tradition says
that Leod's grandfather, the Earl of Ross, gave him this
estate. This must be a mistake. In the first place, if
I am right, the Earl was not Leod's grandfather ; in the
second place, Glenelg was not in the Earldom of Ross.
There is a charter in the Register House at Edinburgh,
dated 1282, which describes Glenelg as having ' formerly
belonged to the King of Man,' and no doubt Leod got it,
as well as part of the Lewes, from his father.
Thus Leod owned part of the Lewes, Harris, and the
whole or part of North Uist, Glenelg, and all Skye except
Strath. The Bannatyne MS. says that " Strath, Raasay,
and Rona had been for several generations Church land.
The MacKinnons possessed themselves of most of it
through their connections with the abbots of lona and
the bishops of the Isles, several of whom had been
MacKinnons or MacFingons. They were a purely Celtic
race, tracing their descent back to Alpin, King of
Scotland."
Though we do not know how Leod obtained possession
of it, he also owned Gairloch. The MacKenzies did not
get a footing there till late in the fifteenth century, and
the MacLeods of Raasay still owned some of it early in the
seventeenth century. One tradition says that Leod was
Lord of all the west coast from Tongue to Ardnamurchan.
" Leod, therefore, though inferior in wealth and power
to his ancestors, and not possessed of the Royal dignity,
was at this period the most powerful Chief in the Islands."
The question as to who were the superiors under whom
Leod and his successors held their lands is of some in-
terest. Up to the cession of the Isles by Haakon, King
of Norway, the King of Man was undoubtedly their
immediate overlord. But the King of Man was himself