Coll MacDonald [SEP] father
Coll MacDonald
Coll MacDonald was a son of James MacDonald, 6th of Dunnyveg and Agnes Campbell, daughter of Colin Campbell, 3rd Earl of Argyll. Upon mistakenly hearing that his brother, Ranald MacDonald of Smerby, had been killed at Duart Castle under orders of Sir Lachlan Mor Maclean, he executed 86 of Maclean's kinsfolk and servants at Mullintrae. Coll died at Eilean Mor, Knapdale. The rumour had been deliberately started by Allan Maclean, a magnate among the Macleans, who had hoped the rumour would cause Lachlan's
Scots language speakers generally used the form Alexander MacDonald or MacColl. Mac Colla himself would have used both English and Gaelic forms: the three surviving examples of his signature, all in English language documents, use "Allexander Macdonell".
English-speaking writers of the past, not understanding the Gaelic patronymic and "sloinneadh" (genealogical descent) systems, often referred to him as "Collkitto", an anglicised spelling of "Coll Ciotach", a nickname properly belonging to his father, Coll Macdonald. "Ciotach"