Even so, the stag motif did not have a complete monopoly among MacGillivray matriculations. In 1914, long before the 1967 matriculation of the Chiefly Arms, the arms at left were entered in the Public Register for Dr. Angus MacGillivray, an opthalmic surgeon residing in Dundee, Scotland. Dr. MacGillivray claimed descent from a family resident in the Lagg township of the old Dunmaglass estate. Among the MacGillivray stones at Dunlichity there is a very weathered, and strangely altered, stone in the outer graveyard bearing the name "Lagg," the date 1761 and arms in the Dunlichity style that was a model for the 1967 Chiefly Arms. Dr. MacGillivray was clearly quite familiar with these stones when he matriculated personal arms in 1914. During the 1950s, he also pressed a well publicised claim on the Chiefship of the Clan itself, going so far as to publicly style himself "MacGillivray of MacGillivray." Lacking sufficient documentation, however, he never acquired official recognition as Chief from Lord Lyon during his lifetime, which ended in 1947.
In 1961 the popular clan map "Scotland of Old" was published by the late Sir Ian Moncrieffe, Albany Herald, decorated in the margins by Don Pottinger, then Unicorn Pursuivant, with the arms of no fewer than 174 Scottish chiefs and family heads. Number 101, shown at right, was designated "MacGillivray of Dunmaglass." It was annotated to indicate that, since no arms were actually on record for a chief at that time, those illustrated were a reconstruction based on recorded cadets of the name or old armorials. It is obviously very similar to the Hon. William's arms, substituting a hand palewise couped at the wrist and apaumy gules for one of the cross crosslets fitchy, and the name "Dun-ma-glas" for the Cawdor motto. The Dunlichity stones as well as Dr. MacGillivray's matriculation were apparently overlooked, or overruled by the slight preponderance of the stag and galley motifs among recorded clansmen's arms. This clan map is still widely sold and circulated.
Likewise, until quite recently when the crest and motto from the chiefly arms of 1967 have become more common, merchants purveying bonnet badges and other clan regalia have consistently offered up the stag's head and motto "Dun-ma-glass" for use by MacGillivray clansfolk. Meanwhile, as a mixture of the two versions is still on the market, it is clearly a source of confusion for MacGillivrays which is the proper one to use. Let it be said that there can now be no doubt that the devices from the 1967 Chiefly Arms--as Crest, a Cat sejant guardant, its sinister forepaw raised in a guardant posture and its tail reflexed beneath; and as Motto "Touch Not This Cat"-- are definitely the correct ones for use as a Clan crestbadge by MacGillivray clansfolk at large.
Still, it remains something of a mystery why such an early and persistent symbol of Dunmaglass as the stag is absent from the armorial stones at Dunlichity. And it is a pity too, perhaps, that this handsome and distinctively Highland beast, and its associations with the early history of Dunmaglass, should now be banished altogether from the recorded Chiefly Arms, which are, after all, designated "MacGillivray of Dunmaglass." This is all the more so since wild herds of the native red deer seasonally roam the hills and moors of Dunmaglass, which in recent times has generated a significant income as a shooting estate because of this.
Bruce P. McGillivray, FSA Scot