I've been pondering about the origins of Scottish clan septs, as they are understood today. When I was very young, I mean when I was around 5 or 6, I was told that as my surname was Sanderson I was part of a sept of MacDonnell of Glengarry. At least that's what the kilt maker in Inverness that was selling a kilt to my father said.

In those pre-internet days we looked at books for info, but there was a poster on the wall at school showing the map of the "Clans of Scotland", and on there my family name was listed as a sept of MacDonnell of Glengarry, sure enough.

When I was 10, however, I changed schools and began to learn and speak Gaelic as part of the cirriculum. There I was known as Adhamh MacAlasdair.
(Sanderson is short for Alexander's son. Alasdair is the Gaelic equivalent of Alasdair, ergo....). I have since been addressed in other Gaelic groups as MacAlisdair. This got me wondering why Sanderson was not considered a MacAlisdair/MacAlister name instead of MacDonnell.

Then, I researched my family tree throughout the 90's and found the Sanderson branch from Carnwath and their ancestors had been using the name Sanderson for hundreds of years, back to the 1500's at least.
No MacDonnells, no MacAlisdairs.

So, where does the "sept" biz come from?

In the 1930's book Clans, Septs & Regiments of the Scottish Highlands Thomas Innes says “septs must be regarded as a rather wonderful effort of imagination” and “The very word ‘sept’ is delusive and no serious attention can now be attached to Skene’s theories about ‘septs”.

From this comment I guessed he must mean Dr. W. F. Skene's book, The Highlanders of Scotland or his later work, Celtic Scotland. I had a look at the first of these, and boy, is it ever full of nonsense.

So, is the notion of clan "septs" yet another Victorian invention? I've noticed the fairly recent surge in attributing and registering Irish "clans" and "clan septs" that seem to be going hand in hand with seliing the fairly recent "Irish tartans" many of which were designed and are manufactured in Scotland.

I can't help but wonder if a similar thing happened to tartan hungry Scots in the Victorian era.