Hugo

The Hugos were the Mackays, a Highland clan; Clann Mhic Aoidh means sons of Aoidh (Hugh). With roots in Moray, they held Strathnaver. Tradition traced them to Malcolm MacHeth, Earl of Ross, who died about 1168; Iye Mackay, born about 1210, was their first named chief.

They fought for Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn in 1314. Chief Iye Mackay's murder at Dingwall Castle in 1370 opened a feud with the Sutherlands; Iye Roy Mackay fell at Flodden in 1513. In 1626 Donald Mackay led three thousand clansmen to the Thirty Years' War and became the first Lord Reay.

General Hugh Mackay was beaten at Killiecrankie in 1689 and killed at Steenkerque in 1692. The clan fought the Jacobites in 1715 and 1746, capturing the Earl of Cromartie after Littleferry. Reay was sold to the Countess of Sutherland in 1829; the Highland clearances emptied much of Strathnaver.