Tour Scotland Travel Video Early Winter Clan MacRae Castle Western Highlands

Tour Scotland travel video Blog of early Winter at the Clan MacRae castle on a small tidal island where three sea lochs meet, Loch Duich, Loch Long and Loch Alsh on ancestry visit to the western Highlands of Scotland. According to tradition, the Macraes were originally from Ireland and shared a common ancestry with the Mackenzies and Macleans. The Macraes were said to have originated from Clunes, which is located near the southern shore of the Beauly Firth, and was within the lordship of Lovat. The Macraes are known to have been constant supporters of the Clan Mackenzie in recorded times; in 1520, and for many years onwards, they were constables of Eilean Donan Castle. In 1539 the Clan Macdonald of Sleat besieged Eilean Donan as part of their attempt to restore the Lordship of the Isles and Duncan Macrae is credited with slaying the Macdonald chief with an arrow which brought the siege to an end. In view of their constant service to the Mackenzies, the Macraes of Kintail became known as the Mackenzies' " shirt of mail. " Farquhar Macrae, born in 1580, Constable of Eilean Donan, was both an energetic churchman and a great Latin scholar. On his first visit to the island of Lewis, he is said to have baptised all the inhabitants under forty years of age, no clergyman having resided on the island during that period. His second son, John Macrae, became minister of Dingwall in 1640 and died in 1704. This Scottish castle has made several appearances in films, beginning with Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1948 and The Master of Ballantrae in 1953. The castle was the setting for the 1980 short film Black Angel, filmed to accompany screenings of The Empire Strikes Back in cinemas. It featured prominently in Highlander as the home of Clan MacLeod, was backdrop to a dance scene in the Bollywood movie Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and served as the Scottish headquarters of MI6 in The World Is Not Enough In Elizabeth: The Golden Age the castle stood in for Fotheringhay Castle in England. In the the movie Made of Honor the castle can be seen as home of the groom's family.

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