All MacAskills (McCaskills too) have descended from ancestors on the beautiful but rugged and cold Isle of Skye in Scotland.

There have been several migrations to Northwestern Scotland, the Carolinas in America, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and several other places. Bill MacAskill of Inverness, Scotland, the man who wrote this short history, descended from the MacAskills who moved to Northwestern Scotland. His history, however, covers the MacAskills of Skye and mentions most of the migrations.

Bill has written the text and I have added the maps, photographs, and sidebars. We hope you enjoy it. Send email to chris@macaskill.com with corrections, additions, or tall tales about your side of the family.

Introduction

The early history leading to the 'Rhundunan' (near Glen Brittle on Skye) connection is important as it provides an explanation for the financial resources which allowed the MacAskills who moved to Assynt in the early 1740s to move in at the exalted social level of 'Tacksman'.

Presumably, at the time, there would have been many other MacAskills in Skye, the Highlands and Islands generally and in America but few, on this side of the Atlantic, would have had access to the funds required to acquire a lease, purchase stock, build farmsteads, buy tools, equip households etc. etc. John MacAskill of 'Rhundunan' must have been the paymaster in the case of the Assynt immigrants.

The tacksman was the next step down (a considerable one I concede) from the landlord. Historically he was a close relative of the clan chief, enjoying elevated status in his own community in return for administering clan laws, putting fighting men at the clan's disposal and assuming the role of officer-leader in battle.

By the 18th century these family connections still existed but rent had replaced warriors, farms were measured and let, and the most senior tacksman in an area acted as factor to the landlord. In Assynt, at the time in question, the Seaforth MacKenzies had just lost ownwership to the Sutherlands.

However, the old family positions still held with MacKenzie of Ardloch, the senior tacksman in Assynt, in his large house in Tubeg, running his 10,000 acre farm including the wintering area of Filin which is now Lochinver, and acting as factor to the Sutherland estate. A relative, another Ardloch MacKenzie was tacksman at Inverkirkaig, a 2,000 acre farm which was the average size of the 42 Assynt farms at that time.

Traditionally the tacksman let to sub-tenants to work areas of land for rent. They in turn would often sub-let and they also allowed costars to live on the land free in return for labour. This latter class would have provided the astonishing number of servants in the houses of tacksmen and tenants.

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