In a district mostly in Ross-shire, anciently known by the name of Ness, there was originally located a small and broken clan, known as the Macnicol’s. The only districts, according to Skene, which at all answers to the description of Ness, are those of Assynt, Edderachylis, and Duirness.
The Macnicol’s were descended from one Mackrycul (the letter r in the Gaelic being invariably pronounced like n), who, tradition says, as a reward for having rescued from some Scandinavians a great quantity of cattle carried off from Sutherland, received from one of the ancient thanes of that province, the district of Assynt, then a forest belonging to them. This Mackrycul held that part of the coast of Coigeach, which is called Ullapool. In the MS of 1450, the descent of the clan Nicail is traced in a direct line from a certain Gregall, plainly the Krycul here mentioned, who is supposed to have lived in the twelfth century. He is said to have been the ancestor, besides the Macnicol’s, of the Nicol’s and the Nicholson’s. When Gregall lived, Sutherland was occupied by Gaelic tribes, and the Macnicol’s may therefore be considered of Gaelic origin.
About the beginning of the 14th century, the family of the chief ended in an heiress, who married Torquil Macleod, a younger son of Macleod of Lewis. Macleod obtained a crown charter of the district of Assynt and other lands in Western Ross, which had been the property of the Macnicol’s. That sept subsequently removed to the Isle of Skye, and the residence of their head or chief was at Scorrybreac, on the margin of the loch near Portree.
Even after their removal to Skye the Macnicol’s seem to have retained their independence, for tradition relates that on one occasion when the head of this clan, called MacNicol Mor, was engaged in a warm discussion with Macleod of Rasay, carried on in the English language, the servant of the latter coming into the room, imagined they were quarrelling, and drawing his sword mortally wounded Macnicol. To prevent a feud between the two septs, a council of chieftains and elders was held to determine in what manner the Macnicol’s could be appeased, when, upon some old precedent, it was agreed that the meanest person in the clan Nicol should behead the laird of Rasay. The individual of least note among them was one Lomach, a maker of pannier baskets, and he accordingly cut off the head of the laird of Rasay.
In Argyleshire there were many Macnicol’s, but the clan may be said to have long been extinct.
The last known rendering of Castle MacNicol in Lewis
Another account of the Clan:
Of the ancient races of the West and North which have been dignified with the title of the Great Clans, only one may be said to have fallen entirely to pieces in the course of time. The fact speaks volumes for the vitality of these warrior tribes, and the healthiness of the seemingly hard conditions amid which they lived and struggled. The conclusions of Skene in his Highlanders of Scotland have not always been approved by later writers, but it is worth noting that he identifies Clan Nicol with the Kairinoi of the early geographer Ptolemy. Skene identifies the Ness district of the Norwegian sagas with the region in the north-west of Scotland now known as Edyrachillis, Duirinish, and Assynt, and he declares that "the most ancient Gaelic clan which can be traced as inhabiting these districts is the clan Nicail or Macnicol’s." In the article on “Assynt "in the Statistical Account of Scotland, the Rev. William Mackenzie records that "Tradition and even documents declare that it was a forest of the ancient Thanes of Sutherland. One of these Prince Thanes gave it in vassalage to one Macrycul, who in ancient times held the coast of Coygeach, that part of it at the place presently called Ullapool. The noble Thane made Assynt over in the above manner, as Mackrycul had recovered a great quantity of cattle carried off from the county of Sutherland by foreign invaders. "Mackenzie adds in a note, Mackrycul is reputed by the people here to be the potent man of who are descended the Macnicol’s, Nichol’s, and Nicolson’s." According to the Gaelic genealogical manuscript of 1450, on which Skene founds so much of his writing regarding the clans, this account is probably correct, for in that manuscript the descent of the Clan Nicail is traced in a direct line from a certain Gregall, who is obviously the Krycul of the tradition. Further, as the letters r and n are interchangeable in Gaelic, it can easily be seen how Macrycul became MacNicail or MacNicol, of which the English translation is of course Nicolson. The recovery of the great herd of Sutherland cattle from Norwegian invaders is believed to have been accomplished by Macrycul or MacNicol of Coygeach some time in the twelfth century. To accomplish such a feat he must have been at the head of a considerable army or clan, so the probability is that the race of Krycul or Gregall had been chiefs at Ullapool for a long period before that. This would take their ancestry back to the days of Malcolm Canmore at least.
About the time of the battle of Bannockburn the line of the MacNicol chiefs ended in an heiress who married Torquil, a younger son of MacLeod of the Lewis, and the pair obtained a Crown charter of the lands of Assynt and others which had been the MacNicol property. From this marriage descended fourteen successive MacLeod lairds of Assynt. It was one of these MacLeods of Assynt who in 1650 earned the execration of the Highlanders by handing over the Great Marques of Montrose to the Covenanting Government at whose head was his implacable enemy, the crafty Marques of Argyll. MacLeod was then in money difficulties, which perhaps explained his willingness to earn the Government reward. Ten years later his chief creditor, the Earl of Seaforth, foreclosed his wadsets and took possession of the Assynt estates. Still later Assynt was purchased by the Sutherland family. The more northern part of the old MacNicol country remained in other hands till MacLeod of Edyrachillis and Morison of Duirinish took occasion to engage in a feud, whereupon their neighbors the MacKays, then at the height of their power, stepped in and wrested these estates from both families, and from that time Edyrachillis and Duirinish became parts of the Lord Reay’s country.
Meanwhile, on the death of the last MacNicol of Coygeach, Assynt, Edyrachillis, and Duirinish, the chiefship of the clan had by patriarchal law, passed to the nearest male of the race, and the seat of this line was afterwards removed to Scoirebreac, a beautiful spot on the coast of Skye near Portree. Here they appear to have shown their piety, prevision, or ostentation by benefactions to the religious house, of which the ruins may yet be seen on an island at the head of Loch Snizort. A small chapel on the south side of the main buildings is still known as Macnicol’s Aisle, and within it is to be seen the effigy of a warrior in conical helmet and long quilted coat or habergeon, who must have been a man of much power in his time.
Of one of these chiefs of Scoirebreac a tradition is recorded which furnishes a curious illustration of the ancient ideas of clan honour and the rules of blood vengeance. The chief concerned, known as MacNicol Mor, from his great size, was one day engaged in a warm discussion with MacLeod of Raasay, his neighbor across the sound. At the height of the debate MacLeod’s servant came into the room. The two were talking in English, so the man did not know the meaning of what was said, but under the impression that a serious quarrel was on foot, he drew his sword and dealt MacNicol a blow from which he died. To decide how the deed should be avenged and a feud between the two families avoided, a meeting of chiefs and elders was at once called. These men of wisdom decided that as the MacNicol chief had been slain, the hand of a menial MacLeod, the Laird of Raasay should be beheaded by the meanest of Macnicol’s clansmen. The humblest of the latter was found to be one Lomach, a maker of horse panniers, and by him Raasay was duly put to death. The execution took place near Snizort. At the fatal moment the victim was in the act of speaking, and so deftly did Lomach take off his head that as it rolled down the hill the onlookers distinctly heard the sounds "ip ip" from its lips. From this circumstance the little mount was afterwards known as Cnoc an h-ip. It is satisfactory to know that the sacrifice of the Laird of Raasay prevented all further shedding of blood between the Macleod’s and the Macnicol’s.
Stories of the MacNicols of Scoirebreac come down to the beginning of the nineteenth century. About that time, according to the author of the letterpress in M’Ian’s Clans of the Scottish Highlands, at a banquet of the clansmen given to celebrate some joyful occasion, there was a call for the bards to come to the upper end of the room. Convinced of the hopelessness of the summons MacNicol of Scoirebreac exclaimed, "The bards are extinct! " He was promptly taken to task by one of the company, Alastair bui’ Mac Ivor, who retorted, "No, they are not extinct, but those who delighted to patronize them are gone."
While the seat of the MacNicol chiefs was in Skye there were many of the name scattered throughout the county of Argyll, and of these there were several individuals whose characteristics or exploits have been perpetuated in tradition. One of them, reputed to be a seer, obtained the name of Gualan Crostadh from his rule never to look behind him. For the same reason he was also known as "an Teallsanach" or the Philosopher. As might be expected of such a personage, a crop of stories was long extant regarding him. Another of the clan, Gillespie MacNicol, attained fame by a rescue he affected at somewhat serious cost to himself. After the last Jacobite raising a widow’s son had fallen into the hands of the "red soldiers," as Government troops were called, and they were carrying him off, when the redoubtable Gillespie came to the rescue. Attacking the soldiers, be slew one or two, put the others to flight, and set the captive free. Unluckily, as he did so, he received a sword stroke in the face which carried off his nose.
Strangely enough, notwithstanding the evident importance of the Macnicol’s in their early days, the clan seems never to have had a tartan. After the beginning of the fourteenth century, when the heiress of the early line of chiefs married a MacLeod, they seem to have merged in the following of that clan, and probably they adopted the MacLeod tartan.
Among members of the clan who have attained more than local repute was the Rev. Donald MacNicol, whose best known work was his defense of the Highlands against the accusations made by Dr. Samuel Johnson in his Journey to the Hebrides. Of the same period also were the Rev. Francis Nicoll, D.D., Principal of St. Leonard’s and St. Salvatore’s Colleges, St. Andrews, and Robert Nicoll, the poet who became editor of the Leeds Times in 1836. Still later were the Nichols, father and son, professors, one of astronomy and the other of English literature at Glasgow University. There was also Alexander Nicolson, the Gaelic scholar who died Sheriff-Substitute of Greenock in 1893. He is chiefly remembered by his revision of the Gaelic Bible and his collection of Gaelic proverbs. One of the ablest journalists of recent times, too, was Sir William Robertson Nicol, founder of The British Weekly and "discoverer” of Sir J. M. Barrie and other well-known writers.
It should be noted that the lowland name Nicholson, once represented by the Nicholson’s of Carnock, a family now merged, with the Shaw’s of Greenock, in that of the Stewarts of Black hall and Ardgowan, are not of the MacNicol clan. Their name, like that of the English Nicholls, is derived from the original form Nicholas.
The MacNeacail’s, like the Macleod’s of whom they are closely associated, may be of be of Norse origin. The lands in which they lived were part of the mixed Norse-Gaelic Kingdom of Man until 1266 and the stray records remaining from the early MacNeacail past place the clan among the Gallowglass’s: Viking bands that had intermarried with the native Celtic population and participated in the tribal wars of early Medieval Ireland. According to David Sellar, the progenitor of the clan likely lived during this time in the mid-13th century; however, two genealogies produced in the 15th century take the earlier ancestry of the MacNeacail’s back to the Viking princes of 10th-century Dublin. One tradition claims that one of their first settlements in Scotland was in the district of Coigach, Ullapool and Assynt on the north-western mainland: lands received from the thane of Sutherland for the service of the MacNicol chief against other bands of Viking raiders. Another tradition locates them in the Hebrides: the 17th-century Skye historian Hugh MacDonald claimed that a MacNicol was among the island chieftains killed in a rebellion against the Norwegian king Olaf the Red in c.1150. The name 'Macnicol’s Castle' is given to two ancient ruins, in Coigach and Lewis respectively, appearing to corroborate these early traditions. David Sellar has speculated that the ancient arms of the Macleod’s of Lewis may have been inherited from the Macnicol’s who had an earlier foothold in the Western Isles - the depiction of a burning mountain on a field of gold feasibly relates to the custom that Norse chieftains in the Hebrides would light beacons to guide the vessels of the King of Norway through the islands safe from shipwreck.
The first recorded chief of the clan is John, son of Nicail. He is recorded in the company of other leading Hebridean chiefs such as Macdonald, Macdougald and Macruairi, and was courted by Edward II as a potential ally in the War of Independence, but if the account in John Barbour's poem 'The Bruce' can be credited, played a major role in the Scottish campaigns against the English armies in Ireland in 1316. According to Sellar, it was the generation after John in which the bulk of the clan lands passed into the hands of the Lewis Macleod’s: within the Hebrides, it was often claimed that this had proceeded by unlawful means, with the abduction and forced marriage of the MacNicol heiress by the MacLeod chief, and the sinking of a galley full of avenging MacNicol warriors on the coast off the island. The male line of the MacNeacail,s however continued and lived on the Isle of Skye. During the sixteenth century MacNicol of Portree was identified as one of the sixteen members of the Council of the Isles, which met in Finlaggan in Islay to advise the Lord of the Isles. After the dissolution of the lordship, the clan followed the MacDonald’s of Sleat - Malcolmuill MacNicol and his brother Nicoll took part in the feud between the MacDonald’s and MacLean’s: both were pardoned for acts of 'fire-raising and homicide' on the Island of Mull in 1563. A century later, Sorely MacNicol was listed as one of the 'friends and followers' who had supported Sir James MacDonald in raising his clan for the service of Charles I and the Marquis of Montrose in the Civil War.
The Reverend Donald Nicolson of Scorrybreac, head of the clan at the end of the 17th century, is reputed to have had 23 children, through whom he is a common ancestor of many Skye families. Donald's attachment to the Episcopalian faith, and refusal to swear allegiance to William III after 1689 seems to have resulted in his being driven from his parish as a Non-juror and Jacobite some time after 1696. The MacDonald’s of Sleat avoided action in the 1745 rebellion, hence, the Nicolson’s did not rise as a clan for Charles Edward Stuart, but tradition maintains that a band of Nicolson’s fought at Culloden in Jacobite ranks. As a cousin of the intensely Jacobite Macleod’s of Raasay, the chief, John Nicolson, appears to have assisted in the concealment of Charles Edward in a cow byre on his estates - John's descendants preserved a lock of the prince's hair, and the cup out of which he drank on his night on Scorrybreac lands. Another man of the clan, Donald Nicolson from Raasay also helped with the protection of the Young Pretender on his flight after the defeat, and was recorded by Bishop Forbes in 'The Lyon in Mourning' as suffering torture for his refusal to reveal the whereabouts of the prince after arrest by government troops. Alexander Mackenzie in his history of the Clan Mackenzie claims that Angus Nicolson of Stornoway raised 300 men from the island of Lewis for Jacobite service, only to be ordered back by a furious earl of Seaforth when they landed on the mainland. During the 19th century the clan was badly affected by the Highland Clearances in which many of the clansfolk were forced to emigrate from Scotland. During this time the chief left his seat at Scorrybreac and his family settled in Tasmania.
