I missed this thread earlier but I must step in and state a few thoughts. As a Cape Bretoner descended from those "red headed Scots" I would like to testify that MacLeod's characters are based on the people that he knows so well. We still live and breath on Cape Breton Island as our ancestors did in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland two centuries ago. Some of us still speak the Gaelic tongue of our forebearers, so we are no stereotype. Our music and culture still reflects that of the Celtic tribes from which we descend. Cape Breton remains to this day the most western of the Hebrides and that is simply who we are!
Other authors who write with a similar insight are Lindon MacIntyre and Frank Macdonald.