Your family began in a place. We will help you find it.
Tell us your surname and whatever you know. Within 48 hours we will send you a free Clan Heritage Report — your clan's story, the lands it came from, and the places in Scotland tied to your family.
Free, no obligation, researched by people who live here. We are a private tour company in Scotland, not a genealogy subscription.
A surname, a story, and a wall you cannot get past
Most people arrive at this with the same three things. A name that came down through the family. A half-remembered story about a great-great-grandfather who left for America and never came back. And a DNA result that says something like thirty-four per cent Scottish, then stops.
You know your people came from somewhere real — a glen, a fishing town, a farm on the edge of a moor — and yet you could not point to it on a map. The records are scattered across parish registers, emigration lists, clan societies and gravestones that have been weathering in the rain for two hundred years.
That is the part we can help with. We are Scottish, we live here, and we know where to look and who to ask. Give us your name and what you have, and we will turn it into places you can stand in.
We take what you know and turn it into a document
You send us a surname and whatever fragments you have. We put them against what we know of the clans, the parishes and the ground itself, and we write it up properly — for your name, not from a template.
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Your clan and your name
The history of the clan or family your surname belongs to, the lands it held, and how the name itself came to be.
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The places tied to your family
The glen, the castle, the kirkyard, the battlefield. The specific ground connected to your name, and why each place matters.
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Where the records point
Where surviving records suggest your ancestors may have lived, worshipped and been buried, with a clear note on what is established and what is likely.
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A sample journey
An outline of what a private journey to those places could look like — route, pace, and the sort of days it would involve. An idea, not an invoice.
Delivered by email within 48 hours. Free, with no obligation and no pressure afterwards.
The MacRae name
Kintail and Wester Ross · emigration to the Carolinas, 1770s–1850s
Where the name comes from
A Gaelic name from the lands around Loch Duich, long tied to Clan MacKenzie, whose castle at Eilean Donan the MacRaes held as constables. Known in the old accounts as MacKenzie's shirt of mail.
Places tied to your family
- Kintail and the head of Loch Duich
- Clachan Duich burial ground
- Eilean Donan, rebuilt on the old footings
- Greenock, where many west coast families sailed
Your family's ground, marked
What the records suggest
Old Parish Registers for Kintail survive in part from the 1740s. Where a baptism or a marriage matches the dates in your family story, we say so plainly. Where it cannot be matched, we say that too.
An illustration of the format, shortened for the page. Yours is written around your own surname and the details you send us.
The clan map of Scotland
Every name belonged to a stretch of ground. The map is labelled with the clan most closely tied to each area — choose one to see every family who held that ground, then pick your name and we will carry it into the form.
Each region is named for its principal clan. Most areas were shared by several families — select a region to see them all.
Territories are indicative — clans moved, fought, married and scattered, and most names appear in more than one part of the country. The boundaries here are ours, drawn to make the ground legible rather than to settle any old argument. Shetland is not shown on this map; if your people came from there, tell us anyway.
Or search the list
We do not have that one listed, which does not mean much — the list is only a starting point. Tell us the name anyway and we will look into it.
And many more — if your name is not listed, tell us anyway.
Request your Clan Heritage Report
Four short questions, about two minutes. The more you tell us, the further we can get before we write a word.
How it works
Tell us your name
Your surname and whatever you know, however little that is.
We research
Your clan, its lands, and what the surviving records suggest about your family.
Your report arrives
Free, by email, within 48 hours, written for your name.
If it moves you, we build the journey
We design the trip around your family and guide you through it ourselves.
What a clan journey actually looks like
We do not have a heritage route that everyone follows. We build the days around your family, then set them among the places every Scot would want you to see.
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Standing where they stood
We search for ancestral burial places and, where records allow, take you to them. Sometimes that is a kirkyard with a legible stone. Sometimes it is a field where a township once stood.
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Sleeping where they lived
Where it is possible, we arrange for you to stay in or near the places your family once held — a castle, a lodge, a house on the same loch.
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Doors opened for you
Private access where we can secure it, local historians who know the parish, clan society introductions and archive visits arranged before you land.
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The places every Scot should see
Culloden Battlefield, Stirling Castle and the Wallace Monument, Bannockburn, the closes of Edinburgh's Old Town, the Highlands and the isles.
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Driven and guided privately
Your own driver-guide for the whole trip. No coaches, no strangers, no fixed departure times. You set the pace and we handle everything else.
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Time to stop
The best days on these trips are the unhurried ones. A long lunch, a dram with someone who knew the family name, an afternoon in a parish you had never heard of a fortnight ago.
Journeys we have already created
A few of the families we have taken home, and where their names led us.
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MacGregor
Balquhidder and Loch Lomond
Rob Roy's grave at Balquhidder, then out to Inchcailloch, the burial isle on Loch Lomond where generations of MacGregors were laid to rest.
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Davidson
Tulloch Castle, Dingwall
A stay at Tulloch Castle, the family's own seat, with a private tour of its museum arranged for the family.
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MacDonald
Glencoe and the west coast
Several nights in the glen itself, and a boat out to the island castles of the Lords of the Isles.
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MacKenzie
Ross-shire
A personal video message, arranged quietly on our side and given to the family during the trip. It is still the thing they talk about.
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Lindsay
Edzell, Angus
Attendance arranged at the clan gathering at Edzell, with a larger group journey for the family now being planned.
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And many others
Across the country
We have hosted families named MacLean, Murray, Campbell, Graham, Scott, Armstrong and Donaldson, among many more.
They left from somewhere too
A heritage journey is not only about where a family lived. It is about the day they stopped living there.
Most Scots who crossed the Atlantic walked out of a glen or a fishing town, travelled to a port, and never saw the country again. Greenock and the Clyde carried the west. Leith took the Lothians and the Borders. Aberdeen served the north-east, Stornoway and Oban the islands, Thurso the far north.
If your report can place your family in a parish, it can usually suggest the port they would have used and roughly when. Standing on that quay is often the part people were not expecting to be moved by.
The principal emigrant ports. Which one your family used depends on where they were and what year they went.
“They went down to the water, and that was the last of Scotland they saw.”
Where the records point to a port, we build it into the route — usually at the end of the trip rather than the start, because by then the names mean something.
Where we can, we take you to the quay
Some of it still stands. The Custom House at Greenock, the harbour walls at Leith, the pier at Oban. We build these into the route when the records point that way, usually at the end of the trip rather than the start, because by then the names mean something.
Reunions, gatherings and larger clan groups
A couple, a family of six, or thirty relatives who have never all been in the same country at once. We handle all of it.
Clan gatherings are a speciality, and they take planning. We arrange multi-vehicle convoys with a guide in each car so nobody is stuck at the back of a coach, private dining in places that do not usually do it, and exclusive-use houses and castles where your group has the run of the building. We coordinate arrivals from different cities on different days and keep one person across the whole thing, so you are not managing it from six time zones away.
Large groups need the longest lead time. Exclusive-use properties in peak season are routinely taken more than a year out, so if you have a gathering in mind, the earliest conversation is the useful one.
Who you are dealing with
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★★★★★
We traveled to some ancestral sites and through the amazing countryside
[Reviewer name], TripAdvisor -
★★★★★
He made our trip so enjoyable by sharing his Scottish heritage and knowledge
[Reviewer name], TripAdvisor -
★★★★★
keen to share his beautiful country with us
[Reviewer name], TripAdvisor
Excerpts from reviews left on TripAdvisor. Read them in full.
A note from Steven
I am Steven Lindsay, and the man beside me is my father George. We started this together and we still run it together — I plan the journeys, he spends most of his week out on the road guiding them. Guests tend to come home talking about George rather than about the itinerary, which is exactly how it should be.
I grew up in Glasgow and I have spent my working life taking people around this country, but the heritage trips are the ones I think about afterwards. There is a moment when someone stands at a grave or in a glen and the whole thing stops being a holiday. I have watched it happen more times than I can count and it still gets me.
If you send us your name, I will see it. Ask me anything you like before you decide, including whether this is worth your money.
Steven Lindsay, Founder · +44 7703 441846 · steven@scottishclanheritage.com
- A family business — father and son, based in Scotland
- Private journeys only — never a coach, never a group of strangers
- Scottish guides who know the ground, not a booking desk
- Every enquiry answered personally, usually within one working day
Questions people ask
Is the report really free?
Yes, and there is no catch in it. We research it by hand and send it by email within 48 hours. Plenty of people read theirs, thank us, and never travel with us. That is fine. The families who do travel almost always come to us this way.
What if all I have is a surname?
That is where most people start. A surname tells us the clan or family, the lands it held and the parishes to look in, which is a great deal more than nothing. Anything you can add — a date, a port, a county, a story — helps us narrow it, but it is not required.
What if my ancestors were not clan gentry?
Almost nobody's were. The vast majority of Scots who left were crofters, weavers, fishermen, labourers and servants, and theirs is the more interesting story. The clan gives you the ground and the context. The leaving is the part that made you.
How much does a trip cost?
We should be straight with you, because it saves everybody time. Our private journeys start at around £6,000 per person and most sit meaningfully above that, depending on length, standard of accommodation and how much private access is involved.
That buys a fully private trip: your own driver-guide, four and five-star hotels or castle stays, and everything researched, booked and looked after. If that is not the right range for you, we would rather say so now than after three emails.
How far ahead should we book?
Sooner than most people expect. For May to September we are usually working twelve to eighteen months out, because the best country houses, castle stays and driver-guides go early and do not come back. Smaller parties in the shoulder seasons have more flexibility. A group of more than ten in high summer needs the longest run-up of all.
Do you handle flights?
We do not book transatlantic flights, and we will tell you honestly that you will usually do better booking those yourself. Everything from the moment you land is ours: airport meet, driver-guide, accommodation, entries, dining, internal travel and the whole itinerary.
Can you cope with a group of thirty?
Yes, and we enjoy it. Larger groups run with multiple vehicles and a guide in each, exclusive-use properties where we can get them, and private dining arranged in advance. The only real constraint is time — a group that size wants to be talking to us well over a year ahead.
Are you a genealogy or DNA service?
No. We do not sell DNA tests and we are not a records subscription. We are a private tour company that researches the ground your family came from so that we can take you there properly. Where a record exists and we can find it, we will use it. Where it does not, we will say so rather than invent something.
Start with your name
Two minutes now, and within 48 hours you will know where your people came from and what it would take to stand there.
We take on a limited number of heritage journeys each year so that each one gets the research it needs. Peak-season dates and the best properties are routinely gone more than a year ahead, so the early conversation is the useful one, even if you are only exploring.