About Us

This is a website dedicated to understanding and assessing the work of Robert Ronald McIan. While his images of the clans of Scotland are ubiquitous in the popular imagination, the man behind these is relatively unknown. The aim of this site is to appreciate the depth of McIan’s studies of Highland life and dress, but also to consider them critically: how authentic are they in depicting of Scottish life?

This website has been compiled by Dr Charlie Edward Lynch, as principal researcher, and Dr Miles Kerr-Peterson, as editor, for St Kilda Publications.  

St Kilda Publications is part of the St Kilda (Holdings) Ltd. group of companies, which also includes Gaelic Themes and R G Hardie, and the group is the largest manufacturing wholesale supplier of highlandwear and bagpipes. A true ‘one stop shop’. A number of years ago, inspired by McIan’s illustrations, St Kilda commissioned a series of 1:12 scale pewter figurines, which will soon be available in a smaller 1:24 scale.  

The publications arm deals with all printed material and web content across the group and is the publisher of the Third edition of the Clan & Family Encyclopaedia. The Encyclopaedia, edited and complied by George Way and the late Romilly Squire, is the culmination of over 12 years research and it contains specially commissioned articles and heraldic art and brings together an incredible range of material in one volume. 

This is a website dedicated to understanding and assessing the work of Robert Ronald McIan. While his images of the clans of Scotland are ubiquitous in the popular imagination, the man behind these is relatively unknown. The aim of this site is to appreciate the depth of McIan’s studies of Highland life and dress, but also to consider them critically: how authentic are they in depicting of Scottish life?