[7][8] In 1910 Niall Campbell, 10th Duke of Argyll maintained that the surname MacLea evolved from the name Maconlea, which was originally Mac Dhunnshleibhe.

[14] The Duke of Argyll wrote that it was possible that the eponymic progenitor of all the Mac(Duns)leves, (MacLeas, highland Livingstones, etc.

Dunshleibe is also thought to have been the common ancestor of clans in western Argyll including the Lamonts, the MacEwens of Otter, the Maclachlans, the MacNeils of Barra, and the MacSweens.

[14] An alternative and the modernly accepted theory, however, is that the MacLea are descended of Ruaidhri Mac Duinnsleibhe, the 54th Christian and last king of Ulidia.

[15] The Coarbs of Saint Moluag are proposed to be closely related to the rigdamnai or Royal Family of Ulster and their use of the name Mac Duinnshleibhe to be a proud reminder and declaration of that fact.

In Irish Pedigrees: The Stem of the Dunlevy Family, Princes of Ulidia, O'Hart says: Tuirmach Teamrach, the 81st Monarch of Ireland, had a son named Fiach Fearmara, who was ancestor of the Kings of Argyle and Dalriada, in Scotland: this Fiach was also the ancestor of MacDunshleibe and O'Dunsleibhe, anglicised Dunlevy, Dunlief, Dunlop, Levingstone and Livingstone.

According to Dr O'Donovan descendants of this family (Cu-Uladh the son the last MacDunshleibe King of Ulidia), soon after the English invasion of Ireland, passed into Scotland, where they changed their name.Saint Moluag was a Scottish missionary, and a contemporary of Saint Columba, who evangelised the Picts of Scotland in the sixth century.

The nineteenth-century historian William F. Skene claimed the Isle of Lismore was the sacred island of the Western Picts and the burial place of their kings whose capital was at Beregonium, across the water at Benderloch.

As his successor, the Coarb is the Baron of the Bachuil and is granted a unique chapeau of Gules doubled Vair to place in his coat of arms.

[18] William Jervis Alastair Livingstone of Bachuil died in February 2008 and was succeeded by his son The Much Hon.