at length in 'The History of the Macdonalds and Lords of the Isles.'
But thus far it cannot fail to be extremely interesting to all the
members of the clan Mackenzie, whether they believe in the
Gillanders and O'Beolans or in the Fitzgeralds as the progenitors of
the race; for in any case the clan was in its earlier annals closely
allied with the O'Beolan Earls of Ross by descent and marriage.

It has been established that Gillanders and O'Beolan were the names
of the ancient and original Earls of Ross, and they continued to be
represented in the male line by the Old Rosses of Balnagowan down
to the end of the eighteenth century, when the last heir male of
that family, finding that the entail ended with himself, sold the
estates to General Ross, brother of Lord Ross of Hawkhead, who,
although possessing the same name, was of a different family
and origin. It will, it is believed, be now admitted with equal
certainty that the Rosses and the Mackenzies are descended from
the same progenitor, Beolan or Gilleoin na h'Airde, the undoubted
common ancestor of the old Earls of Ross, the Gillanders, and the
Rosses. The various steps in the earliest portion of the genealogy
connecting the Mackenzies with the common ancestor will be given
with the same detail as that of the Rosses, and it will be stated
with sufficient accuracy to justify the conclusions at which, in
common with Dr Skene and all the best authorities on the subject,
we have arrived. The genealogy of the Clan Andres or Rosses in
the manuscript of 1467, is as follows:

"Pol ic Tire, ic Eogan, ic Muiredaigh, ic Poil, ic Gilleanrias,
ic Martain, ic Poil, ic Cainig, ic Cranin, ic Eogan, ic Cainic,
ic Cranin, McGilleoin na h'Airde, ic Eirc, ic Loirn, ic Fearchar,
Mc Cormac, ic Abertaig, ic Feradaig."