According to this manuscript, the clan's chief was Paul Mactire, a man who appears in contemporary records in the 1360s.
According to Alexander Grant, he is likely to have filled the vacuum in southern Ross, left by the reduction of Norse power in the later part of the 11th century.
[5] According to William Forbes Skene, this manuscript shows that Paul descended from a brother of Fearchar, Earl of Ross.
Matheson considered that Páll Bálkason's father was an ancestor of the MacPhails, MacKillops, and the MacLeods.
Grant suggested that the lands of Gillanders MacIsaac may have been on the Black Isle, or lower Strathconon, or around Dingwall.