Leod

The Leods, or MacLeods, were a Norse-Gaelic clan of the Inner Hebrides; Clann Mhic Leòid means sons of Leòd. Tradition makes Leòd a younger son of Olaf the Black, king of Mann, holding Harris and part of Skye and marrying the heiress of Dunvegan's Norse steward. His sons Tormod and Torquil founded branches on Harris and Lewis; Dunvegan Castle became their seat.

MacLeods appeared in a royal charter about 1343, fought at Harlaw in 1411, and lost chief William Dubh at Bloody Bay in 1481. Their feud with Sleat MacDonalds ended in defeat at Coire Na Creiche in 1601; the Mackenzies seized Lewis from the Torcall branch in the early seventeenth century.

Five hundred MacLeods fought as royalists at Worcester in 1651. The clan joined the Jacobite cause in 1715, but in 1745 Dunvegan's chief backed the government while the MacLeods of Raasay fought at Culloden.