Malcolm MacLeod (clan chief)

[1][4][5] The Bannatyne manuscript is the main authority for information on the early chiefs of Clan MacLeod.

[6] The document describes Malcolm as the greatest hero of all MacLeods and states that he married a daughter of Sir Neil Campbell of Lochow, ancestor of the Dukes of Argyll.

MacLeod speculated that this earl was "the seventh" and considered it not impossible that Malcolm could have married both women.

The manuscript tells a tale of how Malcolm returned from a tryst with the Campbell wife of the chief of the Frasers who possessed part of the lands of Glenelg.

That night Malcolm encountered a bull which lived in the woods of Glenelg and which had terrorised the local inhabitants.

It states that he died in the castle of Stornoway while visiting his kinsman, MacLeod of Lewis; and that he was laid to rest on the isle of Iona, beside his father.

His descendants lived there until the time of Sir Rory Mor; the writer of the manuscript also notes that at the top of writing, Tormod's descendants lived on Pabbay and called themselves "Clan Vic Gillecallam cas Reamhar Vic Leod".

The manuscript states that Malcolm fathered six illegitimate sons with his Campbell lover (who had left her Fraser husband).

The writer of the manuscript states that according to his source, the oldest senachies of the MacCallums traced their descent from these illegitimate sons of Malcolm.