Q&A The big questions answered

Which Scottish clans were the most powerful?

- 

Dating back to the medieval era, to a time when the Norsemen were driven out of the Highlands and Islands by the Scottish kings, the clan system shaped the political landscape of Scotland for centuries. The modern history of Scotland - including its relationship with England and Ireland - is inextricably linked with the ferocious and fiendishly complicated feuds and fights between these groups as they battled for control of fiefdoms.

Historically there were hundreds of clans spread across Scotland and Ireland, all with their own distinct tartans, crests and mottos, but the system also included 'septs' - families that shared land with a clan and swore allegiance to the chief.

The Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs, an organisation established in 1951 that claims to be the primary authority on clans, recognises 135 distinct existent clans, while the Lord Lyon King of Arms, a position that has existed since at least 1377, officially oversees Scottish heraldry.

"Today, a third of families in Scotland are connected to a clan"

Clanship still exists in many forms, not least in the surnames of many millions of people of Scottish descent around the world. The word stems from the Gaelic clann, meaning 'children', and even today, around a third of families living in Scotland are connected to a clan.

KEY CLANS

The powerful Clan Campbell controlled much of western Scotland around Argyll and Loch Awe (but also Perth and Kinross, and Nairn) and played a pivotal part in the major events in modern Scottish history, including the Wars of Scottish Independence, during which they fought on the side of Robert the Bruce at the Battle of Bannockburn (1314) and elsewhere.