The term clan (from Gaelic clann, "offspring") is used from at least this time in the northern British Isles in reference to Irish and Scottish family groups with common names and ancestors.

Cináed mac Duib (anglicised Kenneth III, the Grim), king of the Scots from 997, dies in 1005 in battle at Monzievaird in Strathearn at the hands of his cousin Máel Coluim mac Cináedin (son of Kenneth II), who succeeds him to rule as Malcolm II.

In the same way that Brian Bóru, High King of Ireland, is very far from being the only king in Ireland, Máel Coluim is one of several kings within the geographical boundaries of modern Scotland.

His fellow kings include the king of Strathclyde, who rules much of the southwest, various Norse-Gael kings of the western coasts and the Hebrides and, nearest and most dangerous rivals, the Kings or Mormaers of Moray.

The Earls of Bernicia and Northumbria, whose predecessors as kings of Northumbria had once ruled most of southern Scotland, still control large parts of the southeast.