What is a Sept?

This is one of the most common questions people ask. Essentially, a clan is a collection of families, living in a more or less defined area, and are descended from or loyal to a specific Chief. The most powerful family (which is also usually the wealthiest) carries the name of the clan in our case, the MacLeods. Other families that belong to the clan are referred to as "septs".

Siol is a Gaelic word meaning "progeny" or "seed" that is used in the context of a family or clan with members who bear the same surname and inhabited the same territory as a member of distinguishing one group from another. Sometimes each of these individual septs may further subdivide into more septs, which may sometimes lead to the development of novel surnames, or the rise of the family such that it may considered a clan in and of its own rights. Such septs were common in Scotland, where the clan system was well developed.