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Clan Calder Crest
Clan Story
The Calder Legacy
Clan Calder, also known by the anglicized form Cawdor, was a Highland family based around Inverness whose name may derive from a Norman knight, Hugo de Cadella, or from a Hugo de Kaledouer recorded near Montrose around 1178. By the fourteenth century the Calders were substantial landholders and held the title Thane of Cawdor. A succession crisis followed the death of the seventh Thane, whose infant granddaughter and heiress, Muriel Calder, was seized by the Campbells in 1499, sparking the Battle of Daltullich between her Calder uncles and her captors. Muriel was raised among the Campbells and in 1510 married into that clan, and her descendants inherited the Thanedom, meaning Cawdor Castle and its lands passed permanently into Campbell hands. The English form 'Cawdor' was popularized in the nineteenth century, referencing Shakespeare's Macbeth. No chief of the original Calder line is recognized today.
The clan's historic seat is associated with Cawdor Castle, Nairnshire.
Clan Facts
LandsInverness-shire/Nairnshire, centered on Cawdor
Clan ChiefNo chief is currently recognized by the Court of the Lord Lyon; Calder is an armigerous clan. The historic Thanes of Calder were seated at Cawdor Castle; after heiress Muriel Calder married Sir John Campbell in 1510, the Calder lands and the Cawdor spelling passed into the Campbell family, though Campbell of Cawdor is a separate, likewise armigerous line rather than a chief of Calder.
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