Glengyle Research Group

Clan Gregor

The MacGregors of Glengyle - Clann Dubhgall Cheire - are a cadet branch of Clan Gregor, descended from Dougal Ciar, a younger son of the chiefly line. Background on the parent clan, its crest, plant badge and named tartans is collected below.

Crest badge

A clansman's crest badge displays the chief's crest within a buckled strap bearing the clan motto. The Clan Gregor crest is a lion's head erased proper, crowned with an antique crown or; the motto is "S Rioghail Mo Dhream" - "Royal is my Race".

Circular strap-and-buckle badge enclosing a crowned lion's head, with the motto S Rioghail Mo Dhream around the band.
Crest badge by Celtus, 2009, Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0.

The clan's war cry is Àrd-Choille - Gaelic for "the high wood", the rallying call by which the MacGregors traditionally mustered to the fight.

Plant badge

Each Highland clan traditionally carries a plant badge - a sprig worn in the bonnet alongside the crest. Clan Gregor's is the Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), the species that still defines so much of the Trossachs woodland. The pine-sprig motif at the top right of every page on this site is rendered from a Wikimedia drawing of a Scots pine shoot, used here as a single-tone silhouette.

Close-up photograph of a young Scots pine shoot showing fresh light-green needles in pairs along a slender stem.
Photo by Rasbak, December 2004, Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Line drawing of a fragment of a Scots pine branch bearing paired needles and a single mature female cone.
Source SVG for the header motif: Pine branch with cone by Dpaczesniak, 2020, Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Tartans

Several named MacGregor setts are on the public record. The five below cover the four tartans recognised by the Clan Gregor Society plus the MacGregor Dress Green dance tartan. Each is rendered from its registered thread count (held by the Scottish Register of Tartans) and shown at a common scale, roughly the way the cloths compare in the hand. The dress and dance setts are woven to a similar size of around six inches, so among those the difference is in the fineness of the lines rather than the size of the blocks - a high-count sett like the Dance Green from finer threads, a simpler one from bolder. The Red and Black is the exception: it is woven as a smaller, finer check than the others (about half the sett, as in Lochcarron's own samples), so it shows more repeats here.

Woven tartan in red and dark green with single white stripes - the MacGregor Red and Green sett.
MacGregor Red and Green - the modern dress sett associated with the 1822 Edinburgh visit of King George IV. STA 3376 ("MacGregor - 1800 (Clan)", designed by Wilsons of Bannockburn). Rendered from the registered thread count.
Woven tartan of alternating black and red squares - the MacGregor Red and Black, sometimes called Rob Roy.
MacGregor Red and Black, often styled Rob Roy - a simple two-colour check datable to the late 17th century, associated with the Jacobite MacGregors. STA 1504. Rendered from the registered thread count.
Woven tartan with a crimson ground crossed by green blocks and white-flanked stripes - the MacGregor of Cardney sett.
MacGregor of Cardney - a variation of the Red and Green designed around 1930 by Alasdair MacGregor, brother of the 22nd chief, in burgundy-shade vegetable-dye reds. STA 1285. Rendered from the registered thread count.
Woven tartan with a checked pattern of dark blue and rose - the MacGregor of Glengyle sett.
MacGregor of Glengyle - a two-colour blue-and-rose check known from a sample of around 1750 held by Kinloch Anderson of Edinburgh. STA 450. Rendered from the registered thread count.
Woven tartan with a pale ground crossed by dark-green blocks and coral and black accent stripes - the MacGregor Dress Green dance tartan.
MacGregor Dress Green (Dance) - a modern dance variant in pale green and white with coral accents. STA 6533. Rendered from the registered thread count.

Cloth and colourways

The renderings above are the registered setts in their standard colours. In the cloth, the same setts are woven in several colour ranges - Modern (the strong modern dye shades), Ancient (lighter, suggesting older vegetable dyes) and Weathered (muted, as if aged) - and in a green-based Hunting variant. These swatches were photographed on the sample rails at Lochcarron of Scotland in Lochcarron, all in their heavyweight Strome cloth.

Woven MacGregor tartan swatch in bright red and dark green with white lines.
MacGregor Clan Modern (MG/M) - the red and green sett in strong modern shades. Photo by Steven Robertson, Lochcarron of Scotland, June 2025.
Woven MacGregor tartan swatch in lighter orange-red and teal-green.
MacGregor Clan Ancient (MG/A) - the same sett in lighter Ancient colours, the red warmed to orange. Photo by Steven Robertson, Lochcarron of Scotland, June 2025.
Woven MacGregor tartan swatch in earthy rust and olive-green.
MacGregor Clan Weathered (MG/W) - the sett again in muted, earthy Weathered tones. Photo by Steven Robertson, Lochcarron of Scotland, June 2025.
Woven MacGregor hunting tartan swatch in dark red and bottle green.
MacGregor Hunting Modern (MGH/M) - the green-based hunting sett in modern shades. Photo by Steven Robertson, Lochcarron of Scotland, June 2025.
Woven MacGregor hunting tartan swatch in burgundy and muted green.
MacGregor Hunting Ancient (MGH/A) - the hunting sett in softer Ancient colours. Photo by Steven Robertson, Lochcarron of Scotland, June 2025.
Woven MacGregor Red and Black buffalo check in orange and black.
MacGregor Red and Black (Rob Roy) in an Ancient orange colourway. Photo by Steven Robertson, Lochcarron of Scotland, June 2025.

Colourways as setts

Sampling the colours from the swatches above and feeding them back through the tile maker, against the registered thread counts, recreates each Lochcarron colourway as a clean sett - shown here at the same scale as the registry setts further up. These follow the shop samples rather than the Register's standard palette.

MacGregor Red and Green sett rendered in bright red, dark bottle green and white.
MacGregor Clan Modern, in Lochcarron's modern colours.
MacGregor Red and Green sett rendered in burnt orange and teal-green.
MacGregor Clan Ancient, in Lochcarron's ancient colours.
MacGregor Red and Green sett rendered in rust and muted olive-green.
MacGregor Clan Weathered, in Lochcarron's weathered colours.
MacGregor hunting sett rendered in dark red and bottle green.
MacGregor Hunting Modern, in Lochcarron's modern colours.
MacGregor hunting sett rendered in burgundy and muted teal-green.
MacGregor Hunting Ancient, in Lochcarron's ancient colours.
MacGregor Red and Black buffalo check rendered in burnt orange and black.
MacGregor Red and Black (Rob Roy), in Lochcarron's ancient orange.

Places to visit

A short itinerary of MacGregor sites, after a list by Richard McGregor on ElectricScotland.

  1. The churchyard at Dalmally, for the McGregor carved stones.
  2. Rob Roy's grave at Balquhidder.
  3. The stone in Glen Fruin commemorating the 1603 battle between the MacGregors and the Colquhouns.
  4. The Clan Gregor display at the Folklore Museum in Killin.
  5. The Rob Roy Centre at Callander.
  6. Glen Orchy - Stronmelchan, site of the white house where the MacGregors lived before 1603.
  7. Roro, a MacGregor settlement from around 1500, in Glen Lyon.
  8. North of Loch Rannoch, MacGregor settlements from around 1500.