Records of the clan and name of Fergusson, Ferguson and Fergus

2 CLAN FERGUSSON
ere any other had sitten down on that fatal marble but
Charles alone.' His descendants formed the Cinel Gabran,
which, with the Cinel Angus and the Cinel Loarn, the
descendants of his two brothers, are described as ' the three
powerfuls of Dalriada' — i.e. the three pure Scotic tribes.
The district of the Cinel Gabran was Cowal and Kintyre.
Before many years had passed the Scots had extended
themselves beyond Drumalban, but in 560 they were driven
back by Bruide, the Pictish king, into the confines of Dalriada.
From Dalriada, or Argyllshire, the Scottish race spread out-
wards, partly into Ayrshire and Galloway, and partly into
the regions hitherto solely occupied by the Northern Picts —
now triumphing, and now suffering reverses in their racial
contests with the Pictish kings, but always adding another
to the various elements which, in these centuries, were
combining to form the future Scottish nation. Ultimately,
in 850 A.D., Kenneth M'Alpin, who blended with his
paternal Scottish blood a Pictish royal strain from his
mother's house, favoured by the weakening of the Pictish
power through the incursions of the Northmen, completed
the ruin of the Pictish dynasty, asserted the supremacy
of the Scots as the ruling race, and established the national
monarchy of ancient Alban.
The tradition which makes the Fergusson clan one of the
purest Scotic races, receives some confirmation from the fact
that Fergusson families are found in districts which from an
early period are associated with the Scottish royal race, or
with specially Scottish traditions. The name was, and is,
numerous in Argyllshire, which, as Dalriada, was the earliest
seat of the Scots in Scotland, and especially in the districts
occupied by the Cinel Gabran ; also in Balquhidder, and in
Athole, in the neighbourhood of Dunkeld, which succeeded
lona as the chief centre of the early Scottish Church, and
which was in the vicinity of the chief seat of the Scottish
monarchy at Scone. It is probable that from Argyllshire
Scots of the race crossed to Ayrshire and penetrated to
Dumfriesshire, where the ancient houses of Kilkerran and
Craigdarroch have long 'brooked their possessions.' It is
remarkable that Kilkerran in Ayrshire reproduces the old
Gaelic name of Campbeltown — i.e. the Church of St. Kiaran