Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
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Viking Blood? 7 Scottish Clans of Viking Origin… (DNA & Surnames Included)
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:55 Clan MacLeod (& MacAskill)
4:49 Clan Gunn
7:08 Clan Donald or MacDonald
9:06 Clan MacIver
10:20 Clan MacDougall
12:11 Clan MacAlister
13:07 MacAulays of Lewis
What Scottish clans are descended from the Vikings? What do these clan surnames mean, who was the first person to bear these names, and what do we know about their DNA?
Now today I’ve taken to Dunvegan Castle on the Isle of Skye, and there are few better places to begin a story about Scottish clans with Viking or Norse roots. Now Dunvegan has been the ancestral seat of the chiefs of Clan MacLeod for around 800 years.
And it is often described as the oldest continuously inhabited castle in Scotland. The site began as a medieval stronghold in the 13th century, built on a rocky outcrop beside Loch Dunvegan, and over the centuries it was expanded, rebuilt, and remodelled into the castle we see today.
Now the first clan on the list is Clan MacLeod. The name means “son of Leod,” and Leod is usually linked to the Old Norse name Ljótr. In Scottish and Irish surnames in general, Mac or Mc just means son of. Now clan tradition says Leod was a younger son of Olaf the Black, a thirteenth-century King of the Isles, though historians treat some of that genealogy with caution.
Now one of the most famous objects kept here is the Fairy Flag of Dunvegan. According to legend, it was a magical banner given to the MacLeods by a fairy woman, and it could be unfurled in moments of desperate danger to save the clan. Now the MacLeods are very much a clan that was born in a world where Gaelic Scotland and the Norse merged. And the Kingdom of the Isles exemplifies this, a Norse–Gaelic kingdom comprising the Isle of Man, the Hebrides and the islands of the Clyde, from the 9th to the 13th centuries. Clan MacLeod generally has two main branches, which according to tradition were founded by Leòid's sons, Tormod and Torquil. They are the MacLeods of Dunvegan, Harris and Glenelg, and the MacLeods of Lewis, Assynt and Raasay.
But when did the surname start being used?
Sources:
Y-DNA haplogroups of Scottish clans | Eupedia Forum
Angus Mor MacDonald 4th Chief of Clan Donald (1240–1296)
Scottish Clans and Families | University of Strathclyde
Margaryan, A., Lawson, D.J., Sikora, M. et al. Population genomics of the Viking world. Nature 585, 390–396 (2020). doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2688-8
George Gunn, Coroner of Caithness (c.1380 - 1464) - Genealogy
Clan MacLeod:
FamilyTreeDNA Discover - Y-DNA Haplogroup R-BY3210
FamilyTreeDNA Discover - Y-DNA Haplogroup R-FTT137
FamilyTreeDNA Discover - Y-DNA Haplogroup R-FTT138
The Clan MacLeod DNA paper - Journal of Genetic Genealogy Issue 131 Winter 2025 - the-dna-of-clan-macleod-mark-macleod-jogg-issue-131-winter-2025.pdf
Clan Gunn:
FamilyTreeDNA - Gunn
Clan Gunn
Clan MacDonald:
FamilyTreeDNA Discover - Y-DNA Haplogroup R-YP326
FamilyTreeDNA Discover - Y-DNA Haplogroup R-FGC11896
Clan MacIver:
FamilyTreeDNA - The McIver Surname DNA Project
McIver - Overview - FamilyTreeDNA
Clan MacDougall:
MacDougall Family | University of Strathclyde
FamilyTreeDNA Discover - Y-DNA Haplogroup R-YP326
FamilyTreeDNA Discover - Y-DNA Haplogroup R-YP5543
Clan MacAlister:
FamilyTreeDNA Discover - Y-DNA Haplogroup R-FGC11896
Clan MacAulays of Lewis:
MacAulay Y-DNA Testing – Clan MacAulay
FamilyTreeDNA Discover - Y-DNA Haplogroup R-FGC29773
FamilyTreeDNA - Macaulays of Scotland
Creative Commons Imagery:
© Sémhur / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0 (or Free Art License) File:Kingdom of Mann and the Isles-en.svg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Generic - Creative Commons
SKIBLY101 File:DF13 EUROPE.png - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons
Scottish surnames – Scottish clans – Scottish ancestry – Scottish clan ancestry – Scottish heritage – Scottish DNA Results
#ancestry #clans #dna
Watch Next: The Origin & Meaning of 13 Scottish Clan Surnames… youtube.com/watch?v=jUBrAwxvPHM
Join This Channel to Get Exclusive Member-Only Videos: youtube.com/channel/UCCS3M_uNHH2iOJkpGhkO2SA/join
Subscribe to Celtic History Decoded - youtube.com/channel/UCCS3M_uNHH2iOJkpGhkO2SA?sub_confirmation=1
Viking Blood? 7 Scottish Clans of Viking Origin… (DNA & Surnames Included)
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:55 Clan MacLeod (& MacAskill)
4:49 Clan Gunn
7:08 Clan Donald or MacDonald
9:06 Clan MacIver
10:20 Clan MacDougall
12:11 Clan MacAlister
13:07 MacAulays of Lewis
What Scottish clans are descended from the Vikings? What do these clan surnames mean, who was the first person to bear these names, and what do we know about their DNA?
Now today I’ve taken to Dunvegan Castle on the Isle of Skye, and there are few better places to begin a story about Scottish clans with Viking or Norse roots. Now Dunvegan has been the ancestral seat of the chiefs of Clan MacLeod for around 800 years.
And it is often described as the oldest continuously inhabited castle in Scotland. The site began as a medieval stronghold in the 13th century, built on a rocky outcrop beside Loch Dunvegan, and over the centuries it was expanded, rebuilt, and remodelled into the castle we see today.
Now the first clan on the list is Clan MacLeod. The name means “son of Leod,” and Leod is usually linked to the Old Norse name Ljótr. In Scottish and Irish surnames in general, Mac or Mc just means son of. Now clan tradition says Leod was a younger son of Olaf the Black, a thirteenth-century King of the Isles, though historians treat some of that genealogy with caution.
Now one of the most famous objects kept here is the Fairy Flag of Dunvegan. According to legend, it was a magical banner given to the MacLeods by a fairy woman, and it could be unfurled in moments of desperate danger to save the clan. Now the MacLeods are very much a clan that was born in a world where Gaelic Scotland and the Norse merged. And the Kingdom of the Isles exemplifies this, a Norse–Gaelic kingdom comprising the Isle of Man, the Hebrides and the islands of the Clyde, from the 9th to the 13th centuries. Clan MacLeod generally has two main branches, which according to tradition were founded by Leòid's sons, Tormod and Torquil. They are the MacLeods of Dunvegan, Harris and Glenelg, and the MacLeods of Lewis, Assynt and Raasay.
But when did the surname start being used?
Sources:
Y-DNA haplogroups of Scottish clans | Eupedia Forum
Angus Mor MacDonald 4th Chief of Clan Donald (1240–1296)
Scottish Clans and Families | University of Strathclyde
Margaryan, A., Lawson, D.J., Sikora, M. et al. Population genomics of the Viking world. Nature 585, 390–396 (2020). doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2688-8
George Gunn, Coroner of Caithness (c.1380 - 1464) - Genealogy
Clan MacLeod:
FamilyTreeDNA Discover - Y-DNA Haplogroup R-BY3210
FamilyTreeDNA Discover - Y-DNA Haplogroup R-FTT137
FamilyTreeDNA Discover - Y-DNA Haplogroup R-FTT138
The Clan MacLeod DNA paper - Journal of Genetic Genealogy Issue 131 Winter 2025 - the-dna-of-clan-macleod-mark-macleod-jogg-issue-131-winter-2025.pdf
Clan Gunn:
FamilyTreeDNA - Gunn
Clan Gunn
Clan MacDonald:
FamilyTreeDNA Discover - Y-DNA Haplogroup R-YP326
FamilyTreeDNA Discover - Y-DNA Haplogroup R-FGC11896
Clan MacIver:
FamilyTreeDNA - The McIver Surname DNA Project
McIver - Overview - FamilyTreeDNA
Clan MacDougall:
MacDougall Family | University of Strathclyde
FamilyTreeDNA Discover - Y-DNA Haplogroup R-YP326
FamilyTreeDNA Discover - Y-DNA Haplogroup R-YP5543
Clan MacAlister:
FamilyTreeDNA Discover - Y-DNA Haplogroup R-FGC11896
Clan MacAulays of Lewis:
MacAulay Y-DNA Testing – Clan MacAulay
FamilyTreeDNA Discover - Y-DNA Haplogroup R-FGC29773
FamilyTreeDNA - Macaulays of Scotland
Creative Commons Imagery:
© Sémhur / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0 (or Free Art License) File:Kingdom of Mann and the Isles-en.svg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Generic - Creative Commons
SKIBLY101 File:DF13 EUROPE.png - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons
Scottish surnames – Scottish clans – Scottish ancestry – Scottish clan ancestry – Scottish heritage – Scottish DNA Results
#ancestry #clans #dna
