Mac Rae History
Mac Rath means in Gaelic Son
of Grace, and of its many English spellings the
Irish form Magrath is the one that best preserves
its original pronunciation.
The clan appears to have
inhabited the lands of Clunes in the Beauly
district in the 12th and 13th centuries and
removed to Kintail in the 14th century.
The most famous Highland
branch is that of Kintail in Wester Ross, which
was erected as a barony for the Chief of the Mac
Kenzies in 1508. Kintail'
s stronghold stands
on Eilean Donan in Loch Duich. This castle was
held for them by the Mac Raes, who became known
as "Mac Kenzie'
s shirt of mail".
The Mac Raes profited by the Mac Kenzies'
expansion into Mac Leod lands.
After the Reformation, the Mac
Raes added to their warlike reputation in the
fields of religion and literature. Duncan Mac Rae
of Inverinate was the compiler of the precious
Gaelic anthology known as the Fernaig Manuscript.
He was also a devout Episcopalian and an example
of the cultured aristocracy of the Highlands
which, during the next century, was to be
destroyed.
It was in 1774, while this
process was at its meridian, that John Mac Rae
emigrated from Kintail to America just in time to
fight on the wrong side of the War of
Independence, and to die during his imprisonment.
Before he did, he composed the Gaelic songs that
were carried back across the Atlantic. These
songs of Iain Mac Mhurchaidh as he is known, have
been preserved by J. C. M. Campbell, whose mother
was a Mac Rae, and who grew up near to Eilean
Donan in Kintail.
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Mac
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