Sorley MacLean
Sorley MacLean was born at Òsgaig on the island of Raasay on 26 October 1911; Scottish Gaelic was his first language. Before he went to school at the age of six, he spoke very little English. He was the second of five sons born to Malcolm (1880–1951) and Christina MacLean (1886–1974). The family owend a small croft and ran a tailoring business, but they later gave up the croft to move to a better house, which proved detrimental to their finances when the Great Depression took a high toll on the tailoring business. His brothers were John Maclean (1910–1970), a schoolteacher and later rector of Oban High School, who was also a piper; Calum Maclean (1915–1960), a noted folklorist and ethnographer; and Alasdair (1918–1999) and Norman (c.1917–c.1980), who became general practitioners. Sorley's two younger sisters, Isobel and Mary, were also schoolteachers. His patronymic was Somhairle mac Chaluim 'ic Chaluim 'ic Iain 'ic Tharmaid 'ic Iain 'ic Tharmaid; he could not trace his genealogy with certainty to the eighth generation.
Sorley Boy MacDonnell
In 1583, taking advantage of Sorley's perceived weakness through the absence of a significant number of MacDonnell warriors, who had been hired by Turlough Luineach O'Neill for a campaign in the west, the Mac Quillans made their last great attempt to decisively defeat the MacDonnells and recover the Route. In alliance with Sir Hugh MacPhelim 'Bacach' O'Niall of Edenduffcarrig (Shane's Castle, Randlestown) and accompanied by two companies of English shot 'sent from the pale' and commanded by the newly appointed Senechel of Clandeboye, Captain Chatterton, the Mac Quillans launched a devastating raid on the northern glens. Sorley assembled a small force which threatened the main camp of the raiders sited on a broad ridge near Slieve na Orra. The cavalry and heavy infantry of the raiders were tricked into charging the small, apparently vulnerable, MacDonnell host across what they believed to be sound ground but what was in fact a deep bog, where they were incapacitated and decisively defeated by the MacDonnells. Hugh Mac Phelim and Chatterton fled, but were hunted down and killed near the summit of Orra while Rory Oge MacQuillan sought refuge on a crannog at Loughgile, where he was killed by a pursuer. This action is called the battle of Slieve-an-aura and has been inaccurately dated to 1559 by a number of sources, following Rev. George Hill's history, "The MacDonnells of Antrim". The accurate date has been preserved in the State Papers for Ireland.