Clan McDuck facts for kids

The Clan McDuck is a made-up Scottish clan (a group of families with a shared history) of cartoon ducks. The famous Disney character Scrooge McDuck comes from this clan. In the world of Donald Duck, the McDuck clan is connected to the American Duck family. This link happened when Hortense McDuck married Quackmore Duck, who are Donald's parents.

The Clan McDuck was created by an American comic book writer named Carl Barks. He also created Scrooge McDuck himself. In 1948, Barks wrote a story called "The Old Castle's Secret." In this story, Scrooge and his nephews look for hidden treasure in McDuck Castle. This story first showed the history of the clan. Other writers added to Barks' work. The most famous was Don Rosa, who wrote a 12-part comic series called The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck (1992–94). This series introduced Scrooge's close family members.

Gideon McDuck, shown in an Italian drawing, holding a copy of "The Cricket."

McDuck Castle: The Clan's Home

The main home of Clan McDuck is McDuck Castle. It is also sometimes called Castle McDuck. This castle is located in a place called Dismal Downs, which is in Rannoch Moor, Scotland. Rannoch Moor is a real place! The closest village is the made-up MacDuich. The castle usually looks to be in good shape, even though it is very old.

McDuck Castle as seen in The Old Castle's Other Secret or A Letter from Home by Don Rosa.

In the DuckTales cartoon series, Scrooge's great-great-grandfather, Silas, built Castle McDuck. He built it around an old Druid stone circle to save money. This story suggests the castle was built around the 1700s. The Druids were upset that the McDucks took their sacred meeting place. They used trained glowing dogs to scare the clan away. Years later, Scrooge returns with Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby. They discover the truth behind the mystery.

Clan MacDuck Tartans

The McDuck tartan pattern.

In 1942, Disney created and registered a special yellow, red, and green tartan pattern. This was five years before Scrooge McDuck was even created! They called it "MacDuck Final Version." Disney used this pattern to help sell war bonds during World War II.

Later, in 1984, Disney also created another tartan pattern. This one was brown, green, and black. It was registered as "MacDuck" with the Scottish Tartans World Register. Both the 1121 and 1080 patterns are real. You can buy them as fabric or as finished kilts and other clothes from the House of Tartan.

The McDuck Family Tree

The family trees below show how the McDuck family is connected to Donald Duck's family. There are two main versions of the family tree, one by Carl Barks and one by Don Rosa.

This next family tree is based on the work of Don Rosa.