The MS 1467 Version

      Origins for the clan have also been sought speculatively among the Dalriadic Scots who colonised the Western Highlands and Islands and among the native tribes of the ancient Province of Moray of which Badenoch was a part. Sir Aeneas' eponymous "Gillicatton-moir" in the 9th century may indeed be an echo of a genealogical tradition current around 1400 and represented by MS 1467.

      This document contains a "Genealogy of the Clann an Toisigh, that is, the Clan Gillacatan" which records "Gillachattan from whom descended the Clan Gillacatan" as a fifth generation descendant of Fearchar fada, King of Dalriada (died 697 A.D.). Fearchar fada's descent through seven generations from Loarn mór, allegedly a brother and companion of Fergus MacErc, the first king of Scots Dalriada, is authenticated by genealogies originally compiled in the mid-7th and early 8th centuries, and would indicate that the Clann Gillacatan sprang from the Cenel Muredaig, an early branch of the Cenel Loairn. Significantly, dedications to St. Chattan were numerous in the territory associated with the Cenel Loairn in northern Argyleshire.

      Unfortunately, neither Gillichatan nor any of his alleged ancestors appear in the Scottish or Irish annals, except Fearchar fada, and the same is true of the twenty-five named individuals who appear in two lines of descent from him over thirteen generations to individuals living in 1400. And as neither line connects with the 17th century traditions of the Mackintoshes or Macphersons it is difficult to know what credence to place on the earlier tradition.