There are nine clan societies affiliated with the Associated Clan MacLeod Societies (ACMS), an international body which coordinates the nine affiliated National Societies around the world. The National Societies are:
- Australia (established 1912; re-established 1951)
- Canada (est. 1936)
- England (est. 1937)
- France (est. 1981)
- Germany (est. 2003)
- New Zealand (est. 1954)
- Scotland (est. 18
91)
- Switzerland (est. 2014)
- The United States of America (est. 1954)
A Society in Sweden is in the process of being established. Membership to many of these Societies is open to: anyone who bears the surname MacLeod; anyone who is descended from people bearing the surname MacLeod, connected by marriage; anyone who is a member of the septs of the clan; anyone with an interest in the affairs of the clan, whether or not they are related to the MacLeods. In all Societies, memberships are available at a price; with yearly memberships to 15 year memberships depending on the Society. Every four years members of the National Societies gather together at a Clan Parliament, which is held in Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye, ancestral home of the Chiefs of Clan MacLeod for 800 years. According to their own genealogies, the MacLeods and Dunvegan Castle become intertwined in the 13th century through the marriage of their progenitor, Leod, with the heiress of the Macarailts, in those days the Viking Seneschals of Skye who lived at Dunvegan. Leod himself was a son of Olaf the Black, King of the Isle of Man, who in his turn was descended from the Norse King Harald Hardrada. Leod and his Lady had two sons, Tormod and Torquil, progenitors respectively of the MacLeods of Dunvegan, Harris and Glenelg and the MacLeods of Lewis and Raasay. The gaelic word ‘Mac’ meaning ‘son of’ helps to symbolise the moment when Clan MacLeod first appears as a historical reality. Tormod, the first Chief of MacLeod of Harris and Dunvegan was the first individual member of that Norse family to ‘live’ in the Gaelic language. The reason for this immense cultural change lay in the political upheaval caused by the unexpected defeat of the powerful Norse King, Haakon, at the Battle of Largs in 1263 by the young King, Alexander III, of the comparatively young kingdom of Scotland. That defeat broke the direct hold of the Norse power on the Hebrides and Clan MacLeod's Gaelic period of recorded history began.
