Home > Clan MacNeil

The clan chief lives in Kisimul Castle: although the castle was at one time sold to raise money to pay off debts, and allowed to fall into disrepair, it was later re-purchased by the American-born Robert Lister MacNeil in 1937 and restored.

The clan motto is Vincere Vel More which means Conquer or Die. The clan takes pride that Kisimul was never captured by an enemy.

There are many branches of the clan, including MacNeil, O'Neil, and Neill. The "Mac" is optional; it means "Son of"; similarly, "O'" means "Grandson of".

• Legend has it that every evening, the 35th Chief, Rory the Turbulent, would send a herald and trumpeter to the battlements of Kisimul to proclaim to each point of the compass: "Hear, oh ye people, and listen oh ye nations! The Great MacNeil of Barra having finished his meal, the princes of the world may dine!"

• One rival clan chief, on hearing the MacNeils boasting about our long ancestry, commented, "I suppose you MacNeils must have been on the Ark." The reply was simple: "Nae, we had our own boat."

• Apocryphally, the River Nile in Egypt is so named because a Clan member had a very large estate there a few hundred years ago: hence "Nile" is a corruption of the name "Neil".

The Tartan of Clan MacNeil