Notes for Occaan: Occaan's castle was supposedly located at Loch Fowle, Ireland on the Roe water. In Ireland, there is a Lough Foyle in county Derry into which the River Roe empties. Occaan is a shadowy, legendary figure who is called by several different names and titles, some of which are: Occaan, Oraan; Chief of O Caan, Ocaan, or O'Cathan; and Prince of Fermonaugh, Fermonach, or Farmonach.
He was supposedly a prince in County Derry, Ireland (or king of Craobh, Cianachta and Fir Li) whose castle was on the Roe (or Ro) Water near Loch Foyle (or Feoil or Fowle or Feowl). The Munro name is said to come from the Roe River in Ireland and Foulis (or Fowlis) Castle is named for Loch Foyle.
Foulis or Fowlis is actually a local and personal name common in Scotland. There are parishes of Fowlis-Easter and Fowlis-Wester in Perthshire, and a family of Fowlises or Foulises were the owners from whom the ancestor of Lord Linlithgow in the reign of Charles I, acquired by marriage the valuable mining property of Leadhills in Lanarkshire.
There are several theories about the origins of the Munro Clan. The most popular theory states that they were Ancient Scots who were banished to Ireland and the Western Islands by the Romans in about 357 AD, but returned to Scotland under the leadership of Donald, son of Occaan.
The Eyre-Todd reference calls this story "far-fetched" and says that it seems much more likely that the cognomen had the same origin as the name of Montrose on the east coast of Scotland, which was originally known as Munros--"the hill promontory" or "the moss promontory." This would agree with the location of the territory of the chiefs on the south of Ben Wyvis in Ross-shire, the "promontory country," on the northern shore of the Cromarty Firth. The first known person of the clan is said to have been Donald O'Ceann, in the time of Macbeth. The patronymic, O'Ceann, Skene, in his "Highlanders of Scotland," ingeniously converts into O'Cathan, and so makes out that the clan is a branch of the great Clan Chattan or Siol O'Cain. It seems much more likely, however, that the name Donald O'Ceann is simply what it says--Donald, son of the Chief. The Munroes are also known among the Highlanders as Clan Rothich or Roich.
Another theory says that the Munros originated in Ireland and moved to Scotland in the eleventh century.
Compiled and edited by Allen Alger, Genealogist, Clan Munro Association, USA - email: Alger@alum.mit.edu
More About Occaan: Record Change: 26 Jul 2006 Residence: Loch Fowle, Ireland.783, 784
More About Occaan and <Unnamed>: Record Change: 04 Nov 2001
Occaan (b. Abt. 950)
Notes for Occaan: