DUART FIERY CROSS

Taranaki Daily News, 27 July 1935, Page 9 (Supplement)

DUART FIERY CROSS

REMARKABLE ‘GATHERING. CENTENARIAN’S BIRTHDAY. Fire glows red on Duart Point, a headland of the Island of Mull, to-night, and fire answers it on the mainland by the ivy-smothered ruin of Dunollie Castle (wrote a special Scottish corresopndent of the Sunday Express, London, on May 18) s ' ik the old days the Macleans came from all the isles to answer the summons of the fiery cross of Duart; to-day they come from the ends of the earth to celebrate the 100th birthday of their_ chief (Sir Fitzroy Maclean), who sat- in his invalid chair in his castle in the Isle of Two ships and a yacht flying gay bunting took them across the wind-swept waters. I met several MacDougalls and a Grant and a Cameron, all in their tartans, and each one took me aside and said, “Ye ken we’re a much better clan than the Macleans." . . Blood has overcome class distinctions. Doctors, lawyers, architects, professors are on the same level as bakers, butchers, and serving maids. They were all Macleans to-day packed together in the ships. ... . An X-ray specialist from Glasgow chatted to a slim, brown-eyed girl. He said, “You know how the Macleans of Ardgour got their land. A younger son of Duart who had no heritage went to thh Lord of the Isles for advice. The lord said, “Why not jump the lowest fence?’ So the young Macleari went to Ardgour and slew Mac Master and took, his land.” . The white yacht of Lieutenant-Com-mander H. H. Maclean, chief of the Ardgour branch, took the members of the family across. The other ships left Oban, ploughed the Firth of Lome, ran past Duart Point with its grey castle and into the bay. A ferryman took 400 Macleans ashore. The -18-year-old heir to the baronetcy and the chiefship of the clans, up from school in the south, led the men of Duart in the front of the procession.. They swung along to the lilt of the pipes and knocked thrice on the castle gates. The doors were opened by the old chief's son, Captain Charles Maclean. He called in the Gaelic for a thousand welcomes. The Macleans presented their scrool written by the bard of the clan,' who is an ex-moderator of the Church of Scotland. It said: “Scattered through the wide world we turn to you with proud affection, remembering the blood and name which are our mutual heritage.”

Upstairs sat the old chief, frail but proud as the shouts of his followers came up to him. He saw only two of them, Professor Magnus Maclean and the Hon. Mrs. of Ardgour, who presented him' with two books containing the signatiues of 4000. Maclearis scattered through the world. \ .