Ardincaple Castle and its Lairds, 1930

Thank you to Kathy McCauley and Susan Caldwell for locating and compiling this material for Clan MacAulay! Their dedication and commitment to the history of the Clan is second to none!

Ardincaple Castle and its Lairds was published in 1930 by Edward Randolph Welles.  It’s an investigation into the history of Ardincaple Castle and the MacAulays who controlled it, including the last known Clan Chief Auley MacAuley.  The author suggests that those MacAulays were involved with (and possibly related to) the Earls of Lennox.  Welles acknowledges in the preface that he relied on the notes from a previous researcher, Dr. David Murray.  A daughter of Dr. Murray gave Welles permission to use her father’s unpublished manuscript.

From Richard McAuley, 11 Aug 2011:   In preparing his book Welles borrowed liberally from numerous sources, but one source in particular, he borrowed more heavily, and indeed, his book is almost entirely based upon a lecture manuscript by the late Dr. David Murray, of Cardross (1842-1928), whose paper: “The Macaulays of Ardencaple and the Western Lennox”, was read at Helensburgh in 1896.

There are rumors that the manuscript still exists, but where it’s located remains a mystery.  To date, modern-day “Ardincaple MacAulays” don’t seem to have been identified by either historical records or y-DNA testing.

This book is well over 75 years out of print, which puts it in the public domain.  Only 250 copies were printed.  A copy was found in the University of Oregon library and photographed, then converted to a PDF file.  That file can be viewed here.

Links to information for Ardencaple Castle can be found here.