The Clan Donald Magazine inherits a notable tradition for this new publication restores something which has been missing from the activities of the Clan Donald Societies in Scotland for many years.
In 1898, when there were branches of the Clan Donald Society in London, Greenock, Aberdeen, Inverness, Oban, Portree and Stornoway, the Editor of the Clan Donald Journal was able to write “We are the only Clan Society that can boast of a journal, but it is right that we should lead in these matters.”
The reappearance of a publication devoted to the interests of our Clan is an indication of the flourishing state of the Clan Donald Societies.
Today in Scotland our activities are now concentrated in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen where there is the support of a loyal and enthusiastic membership. Overseas there is a resurgence of clan spirit. In the United States the Clan Donald Society goes from strength to strength; in Australia and New Zealand our kinsmen are coming together, and elsewhere in the Commonwealth individuals are joining with us to further a common aim – the fostering of clan sentiment, the helping of young and old, the honouring of distinguished clansmen and the collecting and preserving of the history and traditions of the Clan. In these conditions the Clan Donald Magazine can, with your support, play an important part in bringing more closely together all who claim descent from Clan Donald and its septs.
In this first issue we have rightly devoted considerable space to the people and the things of the past because we are the heirs of a great heritage which it is our duty and our privilege to preserve and hand on, but it is not intended to forget the glens and straths of our forebears as they are in the twentieth century, nor the Highlands and Islands of the present day in the affairs of which members of Clan Donald continue to play an important and an honoured role.
We acknowledge the encouragement received from the Hereditary Chiefs, thank all who devoted time and effort, including many whose contributions we were unable to include in these pages and ask our readers to support the advertisers who made possible this publication.
For this new magazine we can wish nothing better than that it will fulfill the hope expressed for it by the late Sir Somerled Macdonald of Sleat, that, “in an age when distances are shrinking it will strengthen the link between members of the Clan scattered throughout the world and those at home.”