Dear Fellow Clan Colquhoun Members

In the course of some basic research on the internet the other day, and making a few reasonable assumptions, I discovered – to my astonishment – that there may be as many as 100,000 people worldwide who are entitled to regard themselves as members of Clan Colquhoun, taking into account all the different septs and spellings – Calhoun, Cowan, Gunn, Kirkpatrick and so on (I even came across a Swedish variant of our name – Gahn). That still makes us a small Clan though, albeit one with a big heart and an illustrious history. Big ambitions too – I want to see our Clan Society greatly expand its membership and take its place alongside all the larger and better known societies, serving the interests of Clan members who are passionate about their Scottish heritage, and acting as a centre of information.

I succeeded my father as Clan Chief not quite two years ago; when he died he’d been Chief for almost 60 years. I have a day job in London – Kate and I run a private school of around 800 children – but now I find I’m spending more and more of my time at Luss looking after the Clan and family lands, whose preservation means such a lot to me. The big house went a few years back; now it’s the Loch Lomond Golf Club and better preserved than ever. You can’t visit it (well you can, but first you’ll have to take out a membership of one of the world’s most prestigious golf clubs!) but you can take a look on their website www.lochlomond.com if you’re curious to see what “Head Office” looks like. The Clan lands on Loch Lomondside are pretty much intact though, and I now live in a house of rather more manageable size a mile up the road.

It’s one of my ambitions as Clan Chief to visit the States more often and get around the various Highland gatherings. I’m aiming to get the time to do just that in the near future and to get to know as many of our Clan members as possible. In the meantime, wherever you are, please feel free to write to me and to contact me if you are in the area – I’ll do my best to make you feel welcome.

With good wishes

Sir Malcolm Colquhoun of Luss