Clan Macpherson

Motto: Touch not the cat but a glove Plant Badge: White Heather Lands:  Badenoch, near Cluny Castle. The current chief lives in Newton Castle in Blairgowrie. They have also owned Ballindalloch Castle since the mid- 16th Century.   The name Macpherson comes from the Gaelic "Macaphersein" which means "son of the parson." The parson was Muriach from Kingussie in Badenoch. The three grandsons of Muriach became the patriarchs of Clans Cluny, Pitmain, and Invershie. During the start of the Jacobite uprisings in the 18th Century, the Macphersons supported the British, until Clan Cameron arrested Ewan of Cluny, the Macpherson clan chief. This prompted the Macphersons to change their loyalties to the Jacobite cause and Ewan of Cluny raised an army of four hundred men to help Charles Edward Stuart. The Macphersons played an active role in the beginning of the rebellion, fighting at the Battle of Clifton Moor in 1745. They did not, however, participate in the final battle at Culloden Moor in 1746.   There are seventeen tartans associated with Clan Macpherson, but the most common are the Red, Hunting, Ancient and Dress tartans. The tartan on this postcard is an example of the Macpherson Ancient tartan. People with the surname Archibald, Clark, Clarkson and Gowan, are just a few of the families who are eligible to wear the Macpherson tartan.