The McMillans of Galloway.

The terrain of Galloway is more remote and less accessible than the rest of the Scottish Highlands, a significant factor in its history.

Though probable descendants of Gilchrist Maolan can be found in Galloway as early as the 12th century, the first "McMillan" as such only appears on the record in the early 14th century - and it's not until the mid 16th century that one can identify the earliest certain ancestors of the Galloway clan chiefs, the McMillans of Brockloch. They were almost certainly a branch of the McMillans of Arndarroch, who are first documented in 1507, and by the 17th century there were a number of other landed families in and to the south of the Glenkens of Galloway - such as the McMillans of Garcrogo, Caldow & Barr, and the McMillans of Barwhinnock. In the early 19th century, when the direct male line of the Brockloch family died out, the chiefship passed by marriage to the McMillans of the Holm of Dalquhairn, with whom it remained until the death in 1977 of John Goldie McMillan - whose youngest daughter, Mrs. Susan Seed, still farms this ancient McMillan holding. Amongst the most notable of Galloway McMillans were the Rev. John McMillan of Balmaghie, the founder in the early 1700s of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, and Kirkpatrick McMillan, the inventor in the 1830s of the bicycle.

Articles relating to Galloway in Clan MacMillan International magazines and newsletters.

McMillans of Brochloch - Nov./Dec. 2003, Issue 1

Revising the history of the Galloway McMillans - Nov./Dec. 2003, Issue 1

Galloway MacMillans in Covenanting Times - Nov. 2007, Issue 9

See the Genealogy section of this website for the descent of the Arndarroch, Brockloch, Holm of Dalquhairn, and other McMillan families in Galloway.