Clan Chiefs and Lairds of Bonshaw and Drum

I was encouraged to draft this article when I was in conversation with an American friend with whom I spent some time, and hours, explaining that in Scotland there is a great deal of difference between someone who owns land and calls themselves a Laird and that of a formally recognised Clan Chief.

There is a common misunderstanding of exactly what is meant by the Scottish title of Clan Chief and what is meant by the Scots term of Laird.

For quite a few people this has been confused to mean one and the same, as after all this is Scotland and aren’t these words more or less meaning the same thing.

Sadly but no.

These words mean very different things and this article will set out exactly how different these words are, and in Scotland it is important to get it right.

What I will also set out is how both Chiefly lines of Bonshaw and of Drum, having disposed of their respective ancestral seats in 1955 and 1975 respectively, still retain their titles as Chief Of The Name And Arms and as Clan Chiefs as formally recognised by the Court of the Lord Lyon.