I have a question that is directed mostly at the Scottish members of the forum...including but not limited to members of any organization that deals in Scots lineage or heritage.

My ancient family name is MacSween. According to all the legends the MacSweens lost their lands in Argyle shortly after Bannockburn and most of them migrated to Ireland where they became MacSweeney and/or eventually just Sweeney.

But I see MacSweens who are prominent in the news who are obviously Scots. There is even a brand of haggis that is MacSween. And the STA has a reproduction of a painting of Sir Kenneth MacSween on its webpage. The man who posed for that painting was obviously a clan chieftain or someone very prominent and it was, going by the provenance if not the clothing depicted, at least five centuries after Bannockburn.

Now, I have been told that the MacQueens are supposedly MacSweens with an anglisized version of the name and there are MacQueens in Skye, if nowhere else.

But with all the MacSweens (original spelling) who still dwell in Scotland (obviously many of the MacSweens escaped under the notice of Robert the Bruce and the Campbells) and the ancient lineage (the oldest stone castle in Scotland is Castle Sween on Loch Sween), why is there no MacSween clan, no dedicated MacSween tartan and so forth?

Or is the MacQueen tartan and clan the recognized descendants?