Clan Macrae Castle With Scottish Music On Visit To Loch Duich Highlands Of Scotland

Tour Scotland travel video clip, with Scottish fiddle music, of the Clan Macrae Castle in Loch Duich on ancestry visit to the Scottish Highlands. Eilean Donan Castle is located where three lochs meet, Loch Duich, Loch Long and Loch Alsh. It has long been associated with the Macraes, when it was a stronghold of the chiefs of Clan Mackenzie. The castle was destroyed by the British Royal Navy in 1719 during the third of the Jacobite Risings. The ruinous castle was purchased and rebuilt between 1912 and 1932, by Lieutenant Colonel John MacRae Gilstrap, born 31 December 1861, died January 1937, who was a British army officer and a senior figure of the Clan Macrae. He contested a rival claim to the chiefship of the clan, and in 1912 he purchased and subsequently restored the Macrae stronghold of Eilean Donan Castle on Loch Duich in the west of Scotland. John was the second son of Duncan MacRae and Grace Stewart. He was born in the Punjab where his father had served as a surgeon with the East India Company during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The family later returned to Scotland, where Duncan MacRae took up residence at Kames Castle in Bute, becoming Deputy Lieutenant of Buteshire; his older brother Stuart, though also born in India and Scottish by heritage, later played international football for England in the 1880s. His grandfather, Major Colin MacRae, also served in India with the 75th Highlanders. John's great great grandfather was John MacRae of Conchra, one of the " Four Johns of Scotland " who were killed fighting for the Jacobites at the Battle of Sheriffmuir in 1715. All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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