assembly, the organisation's objectives were determined: to unite three unrelated groups of MacAulays under one chief – Clan MacAulay (the MacAulays of Ardincaple), the Macaulays of Lewis, and the Macaulays of Wester Ross; this new chief would then, in effect, be chief of all MacAulays. In 1999 MacAulay intended to petition the Lord Lyon King of Arms to be recognised as chief but was challenged by Iain Davidson MacAulay, originally a native of Helensburgh who claimed a direct bloodline to the chiefs of the clan. In 2001, an ad hoc derbhfine took place at Tulloch Castle, Dingwall in Easter Ross with the intention of nominating a person to petition Lyon Court to become a recognised clan chief. Prior to the derbhfine Ross Herald wrote to six armigers and ten landowners supplied by the Clan MacAulay Association, who would be involved in the voting. The derbhfine, which was supervised by Ross Herald, took place in front of 50 clan members, and the voting was carried out by only 11 members. The derbhfine ruled that Iain McMillan MacAulay, then an 80-year-old armiger, should lead the clan. After being nominated as leader, MacAulay then petitioned the Lord Lyon King of Arms for the right to receive the undifferenced arms of the last chief of Clan MacAulay, legally making him clan chief. Later in 2002, the Robin Blair, the Lord Lyon King of Arms rejected MacAulay's petition. He ruled that a petitioner without a genealogical link to a past chief would have to rule as Commander of the Clan for ten years before being considered for recognition as a chief. Following this, The Scotsman reported that the reasoning behind his ruling was that recognising MacAulay as chief would discourage any further research into finding a blood link to the chiefs of the clan. And that such research was unnecessary. The Lord Lyon also stated, that with no historical evidence linking the Macaulays of Lewis and Clan MacAulay (the MacAulays of Ardincaple), "there does not seem to be any firm basis for considering the present Petition other than in the context of the Ardincaple MacAulays alone." Later in 2002, clan members then decided on a democratic process to select a clan chief. It was decided that a potential chief would have to be elected by all clan members for a duration of five years at a time, before being re-elected again. At the time it