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Siol Alpin is
a name given to many clans that are often of no direct connection. They are all supposed
to have royal connections, being descended from Kenneth MacAlpine, the ancestor to the
Kings of Scotland, and include such clans as the MacGregors, Grants, MacKinnons,
MacQuarries, MacNabs, MacDuffies or MacFies and MacAulays. Although MacAlpine is today
still a common Scottish surname there is little trace of any clan of the name. It is said
that the former chiefs had their seat at Dunstaffnage Castle in Argyll, an early capital
of Kenneth MacAlpine. It was Kenneth MacAlpin who founded the Scottish Kingdom in 843. He
won over power from the Pictish Kings, which he may have gained through his mother's
Pictish connection although more likely it was through the Viking assults that had already
weakened the Picts position allowing the Scots to drive towards the centre of Scotland. He
died in 860 and his descendants ruled for many generations.
Dunstaffnage Castle
Photo by Scottish Panoramic
Information provided by Touluaa MacAlpine tells us that an
Edith MacAlpine was born in 1725 and married an Archibald MacGregor born in 1730 and
fought in Scotland with Bonnie Prince Charlie. When the Prince was captured he and
his wife fled to North Carolina where an Ann MacGregor was born in 1756.
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