Scottish Clans

A good mix between all scholarly research and storytelling. Fun to listen to.

I started with the first episode and just finished 37. My interest is to learn more about Scotland’s history and culture as that is the dominant region of my dna. I learned from this podcast that there is a list of current Scottish clans and found three of my family surnames listed. I understand that doesn’t necessarily mean I am descended from them but I still like to learn about the region. My father was a Cunningham, my mother a Guthrie, and my paternal grandmother was a Weems.

This podcast has been really interesting and fun to go through, with its mixture of cool stories and more academic content; so thankful that I found this podcast. My interest is purely from a fascination of the Scottish clans—I have very little idea of what my ancestry looks like overall. But, regardless of that particular annoyance, I have been fascinated with the history of Scotland for quite some time, and was struggling to find anything about the clans in particular, until I found this podcast back in June. Since then, I’ve listened to the vast majority of the episodes, and have thoroughly enjoyed it; I have learned so much about the Scottish clans, and have really liked how you want to facilitate discussion and dialogue about the clans, rather than just be the end all, be all about the Scottish clans. And as for the tangents, I actually don’t mind them; I understand that it’s always a good thing to work on focus and all that, but I still learn something from the tangents, and I personally think that they show just how enthusiastic you are about the Scottish clans. And at the end of the day, I totally understand why you want to talk about it with like-minded people; I have always needed someone to geek out with about my interests. I do have a couple of requests for episodes: perhaps a few more on the different battlefield tactics that the clans used in general, and maybe even like a series where you compare and contrast the Scottish clans with other clans around the world. And I also have a question: did the Clans Comyn and Balliol last into the centuries following the dissolution of the Lordship of the Isles and the subsequent glory days of the clans, like the MacDougalls did, or did they just eventually kinda slowly die off; I guess that in other words, did their running afoul of the Bruce eventually do them in or not? Overall, great podcast, keep up the good work, Clint!

Is there a way that I might contact you? I found your article on The Fight for Lorne most interesting. I have looked at the resource you cited, Alba, but was wondering what additional resources you had regarding the details of the events surrounding John’s assassination that you have related in your podcast.