I've often wondered about the devices used on my clan's crest. I've looked here and there to try to derive meaning, but haven't had any luck. I'm Clan MacLaren so we have a silver crowned black Lion with laurel branches on either side. Underneath is alternating Red and gold elements.
If you click on the EScotland drop down menu on the top menu bar you can select "Search our Sites" and that will take you to our site search engine. I note if you enter MacLaren there are over 100 links offered. Mind that the main Electric Scotland site is huge with tons of books and articles and so the site search engine will search through all that content for any reference to your search term.
One of the links on ES takes you to the following.
Not much information.. and no detalied information on the Lord Lyon's pages.
Just found this, which has some information. You may wish to follow it up ?