It's Judgement Day for 'clan' Akins

By Timothy N Nurse

I'm afraid this is quite long but please bear with it, it may be worth your while. If you can't be bothered wading through it all, just skip to the conclusion at the end where I've posted a summary.

For those unfamiliar with this exchange, Steven Akins claims that the name Akin derives from the area around Kyleakin in Skye. Prof. Black's mighty tome on Scottish surnames however, concludes that the name is simply a spelling variation of Aiken/Aitken.

Akins responded to this claiming that Black did insufficient research. Black dismisses the entry of a merchant called John of Akyne as a mistake as no such placename exists in Scotland. Akins claims that Black was wrong and that Akyne was identified on a map of Scotland by two American scholars who have both written books on Scottish surnames in America. They identify the area as 'Akin' which features the village Kyleakin and the old tower of Dunakin.

Akins further claims that the practice of naming yourself after location was common and thus Akyne must have existed after which John titles himself. It is on this basis that Akins concludes that the name Akin, is an entirely seperate entity from the commonly held belief that it is Aitken/Aiken derived and, rather than being a form of Adam (from which Aitken and its variants are derived), is a form of Haakan, after which the area of Akin on Skye is named and Kyle Akin, the straight of water seperating Skye from the mainland. Haakan is King Haakan, who assembled his fleet here before doing battle (and losing) at the Battle of Largs. In addition, he has produced what he purport to be a family coat of arms found on a gravestone of one of his relatives in the US and cites similarity with that of the Norwegian standard as further evidence of a link with the area.

Thus, Akins claims, Akin is an entirely seperate entity, from Skye, named after Akin on Skye where they originated and a Scottish clan in its own right, rather than a subset of Aitken who themselves are not a clan but have links with the Gordon clan. This I believe to be a reasonable accurate summary of Steven Akins claims and it is on this that rests his claims to be a clan chief and entitlement to the title 'of that Ilk'. I do not intend to deal with the heraldry aspect of the coat of arms, I will leave that to others to disentangle. However, it is worth bearing in mind that following the Cromwellian occupation of Scotland and the destruction of records, the Lord Lyons office set out to restore those records. An offer was put out that this service was free of charge for a period.

Unsurprisingly, the Lord Lyon's office was flooded with claims of rights to arms, so much so that it took 5 years to sift through the real from the bogus claim with Lyon's heralds travelling far and wide to check the claims. Indeed there were many such bogus claims to arms by canny Scots, trying to take advantage of the lack of records and the offer of a free service in the late 17th C and many a gravestone suddenly sprouted a coat of arms as supposed proof of prior use!

I include below a copy of Akins own statement in response to my questioning, for reference purposes. Akins also boasted that my questioning was going nowhere and that I was just 'looking silly'. He was dead wrong on both counts. It was important that I got out of him a precise statement and a proper understanding of his case before continuing.

Q. 'Kyle Akin would be the area in question. So we're talking about the village of Kyleakin, yes ?'

A. 'The area where the village is now located, I'm not sure there was a village there in the 1300's. I claim that our name originated in the 1300's from the territory where the village of Kyle Akin is presently located, and that as our name is tied to this area, that when my ancestors assumed the use of coat-armor, that the devices borne upon their coat of arms reflect this origin, in so much as that my family's name is based upon the geographical area of Akin which was named for King Hakon IV of Norway, and because the area itself was named for Hakon, the arms used by my family were based upon an heraldic allusion to Hakon's status as a defeated Norwegian ruler of the Hebrides, and likewise the plant-badge of the thistle was adopted by my family because it played a role in the defeat of Hakon's Viking army. The use of the designation 'of that Ilk' however is merely a reference to the fact that my line is the principle (as opposed to a cadet) line, reflecting the chiefship of the clan community, and is in no way tied to possession of geographical property bearing my name, despite the fact that my name is in fact derived from geographical property owned by the MacKinnons.'

So. In addition, Akins claims that whilst they may not have owned this land, as it was property owned by the MacKinnons, his clan comes from this area.Now, there are a number of factors here that are not in dispute, and we should dispense with them first. Kyle Akin is indeed a straight between Skye and the mainland and it was named after King Haakan who did fight and lose at the Battle of Largs. Kyleakin is a real village in this area, Dunakin is a ruined castle here and The MacKinnons did own the land under question. So far, so good. Now, for the benefit of those unfamiliar with the area, a map of Skye would be invaluable.

There are four areas we need to look at in detail, the castle, the village, the area itself and family names. It was quite clear that my local library would be insufficient and so, I made arragements to gain access to the huge Scottish History section of the main library of The University of Glasgow. I also availed myself of their excellent maps section. The references I used are listed at the end. So, on with the show.

Background :

The MacKinnons held large areas of land on Mull and Knapdale but, following a war with the McLeans, they lost large parts of their Mull lands. Following the War of Independance and the Battle of Bannockburn, at which the MacKinnons played in sheltering Bruce and then fighting at Bannockburn, they were rewarded with the area of land on Skye stretching from Elgol across to the pennisula containing Kyleakin by Robert The Bruce. (See Calmac map). This effectively sandwiched them between the Cuillins to the north and the Macdonalds of Sleat, to whom they were vassals, to the south. North of the Cuillins was MacLeod of Dunvegan territory with whom the Macdonalds of Sleat and the MacKinnons seemed to be at perpetual war with. The other major families at that time on Skye were the MacQueens, who occupied the land around Uig, and the MacNicols who occupied from around Portree down to Broadford and including the Island of Raasay. The MacKinnons, like many clans, claimed descendency from Kenneth MacAlpin but there is no evidence to lend support to this claim.

The Castle :

The area where the ruin of Caisteal Maol now stands has probably been used as a castle or lookout point from the days of the Picts if not before due to the commanding view it gives across the Kyle. The first mention of a castle there dates from an Act of Council of 1360 where it is referred to as Castle Findanus. However the tower who's shattered ruin now stands there dates from the 15thC and was probably more a glorified look-out tower and bolt-hole for the McKinnons when war flared up between the Macdonalds and MacLeods and they would have to abandon their main home, Dunringill at Elgol. The earlier 'castle' was almost certainly a broch, but nothing remains of it. The first mention of the new castle is contained in Dean Munro's tour of the diocese in 1577, by which time the new castle had been renamed "Dewnakyn". The castle was occassionally used, but there is little evidence that the MacKinnons stayed there for any period of time. However towards the end of the 16thC there was a rebellion in which an attempt to reinstate the title Lord of the Isles took place. In order to deal with claims to title, the MacKinnons were appointed adjudicators to decide on these matters and the adjudication would take place at 'Dewnakyn Castle'. It's not exactly clear when it changed its name to Caisteal Maol (Castle Moil) but it was abandoned by the MacKinnons in the 17thC and by the 18thC had its current name. The ruin remained the property of the MacKinnons until hard times befell them following the Jacobite uprisings and the last direct line clan chief died penniless, having sold or had forfeited all his land and property on Skye. So, in the 1360s, the original castle was known as Castle Findanus and it was about a 100 years later a new castle was built and renamed Dewnakyn, to become Dunakin and then Maol. There is a mythology story that the castle first came into the hands of the MacKinnons following the marriage of a MacKinnon to a Norwegian princess called "Saucy Mary". It is alleged that the two of them then set about extracting a toll from ships by hauling a large chain across the Kyle to prevent boats passing thus, as Cooper puts it,"..defying belief and all known laws of engineering'. The later title of the castle, Maol, means 'toll'. Given that it is unlikely that there were any MacKinnons on Skye at this time, the story is improbable, although it is oft repeated.

The Area :

The area of land occupied by the MacKinnons was known as Strath and their main centre was Strathaird around Elgol. Martin Martin writes. "The next adjacent part to Slait [Sleat] and joining it to the North side is Strath. It is the property of the Laird of MacKinnon." In the 1577 account by Dean Munro, he refers to the area where the castle stands as Strathvardeil - "Strathvardeil perteins to MacKynuin. He has a castle called Dewnakyn" In a 1641 account of the arrival of the first protestant minister in the area, it notes that he is the nephew of "..Sir. L. MacKinnon, 14th Chief of Strath" In The New Map of Western Isles, in Martin Martin's book, the map identifies the area as Strath. It is quite clear from this that the area occupied by the MacKinnons and stretching Elgol to Kyleakin and Dunakin was known as Strath, with the penninsula on which Kyleakin and Dunakin stands as Strathvardeil. In all the searching of maps, I failed to find a single mention of 'Akin' in any land area, in any shape or form aside from Dewnakyn and the village of Kyleakin itself, even down to field level using the 1in to 880ft scale. The areas aroung the village and the castle was known as Cnoc na Loch and Ceann Caol Druim a' Bhidh. The area name Strathvardeil had become Strathardal. Anyone adopting an area name from this area would either refer to themselves as John of Strath or John of Strathvardeil using the early form. A search of Coopers Gazeteer turned up nothing. The prefix or suffix -akin is conspicuous by its absence both past and present.

Family Names :

Nicolson's book on the history of Skye lists just about every family name past and present who have existed on Skye. Naturally, he concentrates on the great chief titles of MacLeaod and MacDonald and shamelessly plugs his own, but he also lists a great number of the lesser names. There is not one Akin/Akyn or any variation thereof mentioned. Had such a clan existed, it would have warranted a mention.

The Village :

Finally, we come to the village. Herein lies the last refuge of Clan Akin. It is certainly true that taking a surname from a town or village from which you hail was very popular and so here, is perhaps, the strongest link. So what of the village? In the early 19thC, the new Lord Macdonald arrived on Skye, having been raised and educated almost entirely in London since he was a child. He arrived with a grandiose plan. His plan was to build a new town and port on Kyle Akin that wopuld rival the Clyde ports. It would have many fine town houses and would be called, incredibly, New Liverpool. It rapidly became clear that such a plan was doomed to failure as the economy of the island simply couldn't support such a scheme and it was rapidly scaled down. Instead a small village was built in the same area and it was named by Macdonald after the Kyle as Kyleakin. Note that it was all one word and not, as Steven Akins claimed, two words. This was in line with the main ferry port further South on Sleat, Kylerhea. This is also the form it takes in the 1875 map Isle of Skye Sheet XLI. It appears that the seperating it into two words seems to be a late Victorian or Edwardian style, but it returned to its original form sometime later to join the traditional form of its northerly companions Kylerhea and Kylescu. Alas, there was no village prior to the 19thC and that the ferry did not start here until the 19thC. The Glenelg - Kylerhea crossing was preferred one. The strong, racing tidal currents at Kyle Akin made it an extremely dangerous crossing. Alas, no John of Kyleakin.

Summary :

So, what can I say in summary other than I had a fascinating time going through old books in an extremely good library and the novelty of having to wear white gloves to handle some of them (and having all my pens temporarily confiscated!)? Well, its' patently obvious that Akins has no case. There was no Kyleakin prior to the 19thC. The original broch in 1360 was known as Castle Findanus, not Dunakin. It was only with the building of the later 15thC tower, who's ruins now stand on the rocky promontary, that the name Dewnakyn or Dunakin was adopted. The area around the tower and the 19thC village of Kyleakin was called Strathvardeil, later Strathardal, and there is not one single part of the land that makes any references at all to 'akin', other than the 15thC tower, the 19thC village and the Kyle itself. In short, Black was correct. There is no area called Akyn in which John of Akyn could name himself after (unless he was aquatic and lived in the Kyle itself!) and the 'scholars' that Steven Akins cited are left looking very foolish indeed. So, having no connection with Skye, the Akins name reverts to a spelling variant of Aitken/Aiken, has no clan associated with it other than a subset of Aitken, themselves a subset of Gordon and hence, no clan chief who can claim to be 'of that Ilk'.

Conclusion :

Black is vindicated, Steven Akins and his family name has no association with Skye and he is no clan chief. He should now do the honourable thing and dismantle his website, abandon any claims he makes to title and cease using the title 'of that Ilk' to which he has no entitlement. Scottish history is full of charlatans taking advantage of gaps in Scottish history for their own personal aggrandizement or financial gain, the Sobieski brothers being the most notable. There are two possibilities as far as Steven Akins is concerned. either the whole thing is wishful thinking on his part, or it is a deliberate ploy for personal gain. If it is the former, he will dismantle his website, if the latter, he will continue with the charade.

Bibliography :

OS map of Skye, merely to keep my bearings [1998 Edition]
Isle of Skye Sheet XLI scale: 1in to 880ft (this is a *huge* scale) [1875]
History of Skye by Alexander Nicolson [Published 1930]
Summer in Skye by Alexander Smith [Published 1866]
Skye by Derek Cooper - which also features Cooper's Gazeteer [Published 1970]
A Description of the Western Lands of Scotland by Martin Martin [Published 1703]
Scottish Castles: A Gazeteer of 1026 Scottish Castles - Mike Salter
Collin's Clans, Tartans and Heraldry of Scotland.

Copyright © of Timothy N Nurse - 19th May 2000
Published here with the author's full permission