This is an account of the rivalry and sometimes bloody conflict between two families from the west coast of Scotland, the Campbells and the McDonalds. Starting with the violent death of the Campbell chief in 1297, the feud then went on for 450 years in Scotland and Northern Ireland with numerous cullings and clashings inflicted by both sides, amongst which the incident at Glencoe just happens to be the best publicized. Despite the mutual antipathy, both families continued to grow, to scatter over the world and to produce a large number of talented descendants including two British Prime Ministers (Campbell Bannerman and Ramsay MacDonald) and the first Canadian Prime Minister.