Ancient Origins of the Chiefly line of Clan Walker
Christopher John Walker was confirmed as hereditary chief of the Name, The Walker of that Ilk by derbfine at Glencoe Scotland in 2018 and resides in the Republic of Ireland.
While there are many different “Walker” male lines, the movement of the male line ancestors of The Walker has been proven in recent years via Y-DNA (male line) advancements to indeed be the same male line linage as that of the ancient Irish Royal House of Eóganachta and of the Pictish Royal House of Óengus, arguably the first truly Scottish Royal House.
The Eóganachta were originally named after Eoghan Mór I (also known as Mug Nuadat) father of the semi-mythological king of Munster Ailill Aulom (aka Ailill Ólom), and now most commonly attributed to being named after Aulom’s eldest son Éogan Mor or Eoghan Mór II; Irish spellings of this time are often inconsistent.
Either way the de-facto founder of the Eóganachta, Conall Corc (born c. 325AD), is considered to be a descendant of both of the men named Eoghan Mór. The Eóganachta thought themselves to be descended from the Milesian invaders of Spain. Academics date their supposed invasion as between 3,500BC and 1,000BC while geneticists specialising in the Eóganachta had thought that they must have arrived in Ireland about 100BC. DNA results from ancient human remains by Trinity College Dublin in 2020 however confirm that the paternal ancestors of the Eóganachta were in Ireland from at least 1,500 BC.
We can often tell when parts of the Y-Dna halogroups mutated in relation to each other but not always when and where, without outside corroboration and testing between different individuals. Irish Y-DNA halogroups are at the forefront of possible ancient identification due to more stable population movement, better documentation of when widespread population displacement did occur, surnames associated with clans and tribes and extensive genealogies, some from very well documented and known families throughout history.
Depending when the part of the Eóganachta Halotype group (EóSNP) that is associated strongly with Scotland (SeóSNP), of which Walker is a part, mutated from EóSNP would inform when and where this line first moved into Scotland pre-surname. The estimated split purely based on mutation calculations could be anywhere from 200BC-400AD, with 150AD-350AD being most likely.
There are three solid possibilities, each with a different time for the mutation of SeóSNP.
The very earliest time frame would see a movement 200BC-100AD, moving fairly quickly from Munster into the region of Kintyre and the islands of Arran, Jura and Islay. This would line up with Ptolmey’s identification of the inhabitants as the Epidii in 150AD of whom little is known, other than an association with horses and horsemen. There have been some who would use this as link with the Milesians, as, pre-Irish invasion, they were a nomadic people famed for their prowesses with horses.
Some historians think the Epiddii spoke Brythonic. Others that they spoke Gaelic due to ease of trade with Ireland via the sea, rather than the rest of Britain overland, but either way were later displaced by the invading Dál Riata (alternativly spelt Dalriada).
Another academic theory is that the Epiddii were the same people who later became know as the Dál Riata, and that the Dál Riata origin story was invented to explain why there were Gaelic speakers living there. The reasoning for this is that some believe the Gaelic word “reti” and later “riata”, normally denotes a riding horse, and that Reti is the root word of Dalriada.
A middle time frame split would have the move again from Munster. This time much more gradually moving north over generations to Ulster and eventually moving to the Kintyre area and islands with the Dalriada about 500AD. There are two different origin founders for the Dalriada based in Argyll. The first has 3 brothers, Fergus Mór, Loarn and Óengus sons of Erc King of the Irish Dalriada and is by far the most popular.
An earlier account by the Venrable Bede places the leader of the Dál Riata lands conquered by the Irish Gaels as a man named Reuda.
Some ancient documents say that the original founder of the Irish Dál Riata, Cairbre Riada, had taken his people to Munster, but that famine caused him to leave along with other native people from Munster. He established his Irish kingdom of Dalriada between the Antrim Mountains and the sea looking east towards Kintyre and the mountains of Lorne.
Some linguists think that as “Dal” can mean “descendants of” or “the kingdom of his descendants” and so “Dalriada” means “the kingdom of the descendants of Cairbre Riada”.
Support for this second theory may be found within a genetic map that has been produced that overlays Y-DNA test results for many of the principal south Munster surnames, and places them in significant clusters on the Eóganachta phylogenetic tree. A best fit overlay of this tree on a ‘historical’ one derived from ancient genealogies associated with Eoghan Mór I, father of Ailill Aulom indicates a rewarding degree of consistency between the two.
SeóSNP on this “genetic map” would best fit with occurring, give or take a generation, with one of Eoghan Mór II’s brothers.
Ailill Aulom is recorded as having 19 sons, but that only 3 of them had offspring: Eoghan Mór II (ancestor of Cornall Corc, who really founded the Eóganachta), Cormac-Cas (ancestor of the Dál gCais, and their most famous son King Brian Boru) and Cian (ancestor of the Ciannachta).
Historians have long believed that that the Dál gCais did not share the same paternal ancestry with the Eóganachta, but had been “tacked on” to Cormac-Cas in the genealogies later to unify the ruling families of Munster and to give each a right to rule, as descendants of Eoghan Mór I. Y-DNA testing has verified the historians suspicions to be correct.
Academics have been somewhat unsure of the Ciannachta claim of decent from Eoghan Mór I. Part of the doubt is that historians believe that at least some of the Ciannachta genealogies have been added to Cian, like the Dál gCais to Cormac Cas, but that they are actually descended from St Cianán or his followers in the late 400sAD. Added to this is unlike the descendants of Eoghan Mor II and Cormac Cas, the majority of the line of Cian were more fully absorbed into other groups over time.
The current genetic analysis overlaying the genealogies would suggest that the genetic path of a son of Ailill Aulom- or if he is regarded as a fictitious character, some other single personage of his ilk and era – could easily account for this migration via the Scottish & north of Ireland dominated SeóSNP haplogroup.
The ancient genealogies state that Tadhg, son of Cian son of Ailill Aulom won lands where his progeny settled in Brega (in Co. Meath), subsequently scattering northwards towards present day Co. Louth (Ard Cianachta) and into Ulster. Over the course of time, their identity dissipated and was absorbed with other tribes, including potentially with the Irish and Scottish Dalriada.
The Dál Riata in Scotland are classified as three main groups, each from the descendants of Fergus and his brothers Loarn and Óengus and each with their own territory.
Óengus’ line became the Cenél n’Óengusa of Islay and Jura, who were recorded as having been the master of ships for the kingdom.
This Óengus should not to be confused with the later Óengus I c.730AD, whose family, the House of Óengus ruled the Picts and at times the Dál Riata for over a hundred years.
Historians have long believed that Óengus was not in actual fact Fergus’ brother, and some believe that he had already established a colony on Islay and Jura, before Fergus’s arrival.
Both of these migration possibilities with the focus on the modern day Argyll region are given an even greater boost by pre-surname SeóSNP locations. The “earliest” two splits/mutations within the SeóSNP halogroup are found in descendants of two islands in Argyll less than a mile from each other. The Lindsays on Islay and the MacCrains on the island of Jura.
The MacCrains have hard evidence of being on Jura since at least the 1500s and were considered an ancient family there, going back to the Cenél nÓengusa.
The Cenél nÓengusa were the only one of the three kindred groups of the not to provide kings of the Dál Riata.
The annals did however record another king Óengus in the 700s AD descended from the Eóganachta male line via a Scottish born son of Conall Corc. First he was King of Pictland, through a maternal line inheritance, then he invaded the Kingdom of Dál Riata and became the overking there. The House of Óengus is one of the most prominent “Pictish” Royal Houses, was the first to provide a son succeeding his father as King of the Picts, unified Pictland & Dál Riata into a single kingdom of Scotland, and was supposedly wiped out along with all other Pictish Royals by their maternal relation Kenneth MacAlpin in “MacAlpin’s Treason” when he murdered all other strong claimants to the throne of Alba.
This leads us to the late time frame possibility, which would place the entry into Scotland from Munster happening abruptly approximately 350-375AD with the de facto founder of the Eóganachta branch Conall Corc, also called Corc mac Luigthig and Corc mac Láire.
In the annals Corc is exiled to the Scotland for seven years, sires twins with a Scottish princess before leaving to successfully claim the throne of Munster. Some believe that the “twins” are in fact the same person. The Irish descendants of the Scottish born son of Corc, Caipre Luachra, were the Eóganacht Locha Léin.
The Scottish descendants of Caipre Luachra’s twin brother, Cairpre Cruithnecháin meaning Cairbre the little Pict, are known as the Eóganacht Maige Geirginn or Magh Geirginn. They are the aforementioned famous kings of Pictland & later Dál Riata, the House of Óengus and the old Feudal Earls (mormaer) of Lennox.
Placenames with Eóganachta origins in the east of Scotland, the epithet “the little Pict” for the founder of the branch, the House of Óengus being kings of Pictland, the territory of the mormaer of Lennox originally including a huge area of modern day Renfrewshire, Stirlingshire and Perthshire as well as modern day Dunbartonshire, and the Eóganacht Magh Geirginn being said to be from modern day Angus & Kincadishire have always made historians believe that Corc must have gone to the east coast of Scotland; to the Picts.
The supposed impossibility of this journey, 350 years of silence between Conall Corc and Óengus I
and a conveniently impressive royal Gaelic ancestor for the Lennoxs and Stewarts/Stuarts (through the female line) that gave them an attractive, prestigious linage in keeping with their then actual position have meant that most historians believe the story of Corc coming to Scotland to be fiction.
It’s also possible that Corc went into exile in the more realistic location of the West of Scotland. We know that members of the Dál Riata had intermarried with daughters of Pictish rulers long before Óengus I became Pictish king.
It might be more likely that Eóganachta placenames in the east are from the time of the rule of the House of Óengus there. That they had gained land and become Pict nobility, via maternal inheritance, in the 350 years since Corc landed in Scotland is a given in order for them to be in a position to contend for the Pictish throne. This would explain the Eóganacht Magh Geirginn being said to be “from” that area. And “Little Pict” would make sense as a later, retrospective nickname given that the House of Óengus were kings based in Pictland.
While it’s true that Y-DNA testing has shown that descendants of the earliest recorded mormaer of Lennox are Anglo-Saxon in the male line, there are documents that say the first mormaer recorded was succeeded by the son of his daughter. The Lennox’s believed in the family link enough that they, along with other supposed Scottish descendants of Conall Corc are recorded as fighting in the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 responding to the call for help from their Irish kin.
It should also be pointed out that Ballanucator (Walkerstown), 1 mile north of Flanders Moss marsh which the Roman Antonine ran along (“Walker” also meaning, the Marsh by the Roman Wall) was just a few miles East of the 12th century boarders of the mormaer of Lennox, but would have been well within the Lennox territory in earlier times.
While the genome map doesn’t completely support this late formation of SeóSNP from EóSNP, it’s not that far a stretch especially seeing as putting the mutation as occurring in Corc’s son Cairbre would potentially solve a few anomalies within the genome map.
What is certain is that SeóSNP is the only variant of EóSNP that could possibly give a Scottish line from Connal Corc, even with extra generations placed between Ailill Aulom and Corc in order to make it work.
There is also a fourth hybrid possibility that would solve the problem of an earnestly believed Scottish decent from Connal Corc from the Eóganacht Magh Geirginn, and leave the genetic map untouched.
Ailill Aulom, son of Eoghan Mór I had a foster son who was exiled to Scotland and the annals show a surprising similarity to the Story of Conall Corc:
In one, Corc son of Luigthig (also called Lugaid Láre) whose great-grandfather is Éogan Mór (II) is exiled to Alba by his foster father. After 7 years his foster father dies, he returns to Munster to fight for and claim his throne, and establishes what becomes know as the Eóganachta, named after one of his two ancestors called Éogan Mór. Corc means “red”.
In the other, Ailill Aulom exiles his foster son, MacCon, to Alba. He stays there for 7 years, and returns to fight for his father’s throne, the high kingship of Ireland. In doing so 7 of his 9 half brothers (sons of Ailill Aulom) are killed. No children are recorded as being born in Scotland from Mac Con nor any of the 27 men who went with him.
What is recorded is that a his mentor – the brother of Ailill Aulom-, Lugaid Lága, was one of the 27 who went with Mac Con to Alba, returned to fight alongside Mac Con, and though a turn of events eventually resulted in Ailill Aulom and his descendants being given back the Kingdom of Munster and named the Eóganachta after Éogan Mór.
Lugaid Lága’s eldest son is named ‘Eogan Ruad’. Eogan after his grandfather Eoghan Mór I, and ‘Ruad’ meaning “Red”. Eogan Ruad was likely one of the 27 who went to Alba, but there are no documents recording anything but his and his brothers names. It’s possible that he either stayed in Scotland or left sons there, and his descendants many hundreds of years later would so strongly resonate with the story of Corc of the Eóganachta that they assumed they were of the line of Corc.
You can easily see how it could happen:
“Red” (Corc), son of “Lugaid Láre”, descendant of Éogan Mór (II), King of Munster, who is the namesake of his line, who left Scotland over a claim to a throne which resulted in the descendants of Éogan Mór (II) becoming the Eóganachta kings of Muster.
“Red” (Ruad), son of Lugaid Lága, grandson and namesake of Éogan Mór (I) King of Munster, (who perhaps left or) whose father left Scotland over a claim which resulted in the descendants of Éogan Mór (II) becoming the Eóganachta kings of Munster.
This would fit as perfectly to the genome map as SeóSNP being from his nephew Cian would.
Lugaid Lága later won great esteem at the court of Cormac and was listed as one of the five great warriors of Ireland, along with Cúchulainn, Lug Lámfhota, Conall Cearnach, and Fionn mac Cumhaill.
Whichever is true, the chiefly line of Walker would regard itself- and by extension all others of the name- as being Eóganacht Magh Geirginn.