Buchanan
Ancient Dress Crest
Gaelic Name: Cononach
Motto: Clarior Hinc Honos (Hence the brighter honour)
Badge: Bilberry
Lands: Loch Lomond area
Origin of Name: from Both-Charain (Canon’s Seat)
The Buchanan name has been grounded in the lands surrounding the shores of Loch Lomond since 1225, when a grant by the Earls of Lennox to Sir Absalon of Buchanan, referred to in contemporaneous sources as ‘clericus meus’ i.e. he was a clergyman. The derivation of the name in Gaelic lends validity to such a claim: ‘Buth chanain’ is Gaelic for the ‘House of the Canon’, an indication that the first Buchanan’s may have been a family that was dedicated to the service of the ancient Celtic church, or may have had a precharter, hereditary clerical tenure. Furthermore, the clan can trace its origins back to Anselan O Kyan, son of a King of Ulster who landed in Argyll circa 1016. For his services against the Danes he received the lands of Buchanan, lying to the east of Loch Lomond.