Tour Scotland travel video, with Scottish music, of Eilean Donan Castle in Loch Duich on history visit to the Scottish Highlands. This Scottish castle is located where three lochs meet, Loch Duich, Loch Long and Loch Alsh. Former stronghold of the Clan Mackenzie of Kintail, it was destroyed by government fire in 1719 and by 1900 little more than a few fingers of shattered masonry remained. It was recreated between 1912 and 1932 , for Major John MacRae Gilstrap by George Mackie Watson and stonemason, carpenter Farquhar MacRae of Auchtertyre, who is said to have forseen the appearance of the rebuilt castle in a dream. From the late 13th century, the Mackenzies held Eilean Donan as hereditary constables of the Earls of Ross, but by the middle of the 14th century they had lost control of the castle. Expanding east and westwards over the next two centuries, they re-acquired Eilean Donan in their own right in the later 15th century, receiving a charter for the castle and lands of Kintail in 1509. The castle is strongly associated with their devoted allies, the Macraes, " Mackenzie's shirt of mail " who populated this region from the middle of the 14th century and became hereditary constables under the Mackenzie Earls of Seaforth. The involvement of Eilean Donan in a Jacobite plot of 1719, and its disastrous finale at the Battle of Glenshiel, spelt its downfall. While harbouring a small Spanish garrison, the already damaged castle was bombarded to smithereens by Hanoverian frigates, and remained an uninhabitable ruin until the 20th century. Lieutenant Colonel John MacRae Gilstrap, born 31 December 1861, died January 1937, 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. The clans of the ancient Scottish Pictish tribe were the ancestors of the first person to use the name MacRae. It was name for a prosperous person. The Gaelic form of the surname MacRae is Mac Rath, which literally means son of grace or son of prosperity. MacRae has been spelled MacCrae, MacCraith, MacCrath, MacCraw, MacCray, MacCrea, MacCree, MacCreight, MacCrie, MacReagh, MacRae, MacRay, MacRie and many more. John Macrae, aged 24, arrived in Adelaide, Australia, in 1851; Anne Macrae, aged 20, arrived in Adelaide, Australia aboard the ship Lysander in 1851; Mary Macrae, aged 16, arrived in Adelaide, Australia, in 1851; Alexander Macrae, aged 18, a farm labourer, arrived in Auckland, New Zealand aboard the ship Apelles in 1878; Duncan Macrae, aged 29, a Scottish shepherd from Rossshire, departed on 10th August 1878 aboard the ship Hydaspes and arrived in Lyttelton, Canterbury, New Zealand on 9th November 1878; Blanche MacRae, aged 33, settled in Vancouver, Canada, in 1911; Nancy Macrae, arrived in North Carolina, America, in 1771; Duncan MacRae arrived in New York, NY, America, in 1836; Alexander Macrae, aged 22, immigrated to the United States from Aultchruin, Scotland, in 1908; Agnes Macrae, aged 28, settled in America from Coupar Angus, Perthshire, Scotland, in 1909; Anna B. Macrae, aged 19, settled in America from Maryburgh, Scotland, in 1910; Alexander Macrae, aged 25, immigrated to America from Strathcarron, Scotland, in 1913; Bella MacRae, aged 8, landed in America from Stornaway, Lewis and Harris, Scotland, in 1919.
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