according to this manuscript, the clan's chief was paul mactire, a man who appears in contemporary records in the 1360s. the manuscript records that paul's great-great-grandfather was gillanders, who was in turn eight generations in descent from gilleoin of the aird, who is also recorded within as the progenitor of the mackenzies and the mathesons. gilleoin of the aird is thought to have flourished around 1140, and is thought to have governed a large expanse of land in the north of scotland, independent of the 12th century mormaers of moray. according to alexander grant, he is likely to have filled the vacuum in southern ross, left by the reduction of norse power in the later part of the 11th century.