The Seaforth Highlanders

The Seaforth Highlanders is the clan regiment of the great MacKenzie family , formerly one of the most powerful, and still one of the most numerously represented, in the Highlands. Only the heads of the Gordon , Campbell, and MacDonald clans could ever bear comparison with the great Earls of Seaforth for extent of vassalage and territorial possessions. At the commencement of the seventeenth century the Seaforth family were lords of Rossshire from sea to sea. “ All the highlands and isles from Ardnamurchan to Strathnaver were either the MacKenzies’ property or under their vassalage, some few excepted , and all about them were 16 bound to them by very strict bonds of friendship.” The great Island of Lewis had also become their property, the title of Seaforth being derived from the district adjacent to Loch Seaforth in this territory . The fabulous tales of Norman or Hibernian ancestry are now discarded by genealogists, and it is generally agreed that the MacKenzies are a branch of the ancient clan Anrias, the aborigines of the hills, which their descendants still inhabit. The armorial bearings of the MacKenzies are a stag’s head and horns, and are supposed to have been obtained in the days of Alexander III. That monarch, while on a visit to his northern dominions, is said to have taken part in a deer hunt at Kintail, and was the first up when the hounds pulled down a royal stag. Rushing forward too eagerly, the stag suddenly shook off the dogs, and turning on him , hurled him to the ground , and would have killed him , had not the MacKenzie chief laid hold of the “ Cabar Feidh ” ( stag’s horns) , shouting “ Cuidich ‘ n Righ ” ( ” help to the king ‘ ), and held on , at the risk of his life, until the infuriated animal was slain , for which devotion the king bestowed on him the castle and lands of Castle Donan, still termed ” the gift lands.” Bravery and loyalty are characteristic traits in the history of the clan MacKenzie, which fought gallantly at Bannock burn and Flodden , and adhered faithfully to the Stuarts in 1715 and 1745. Besides the Earldom of Seaforth , no fewer than eight of the MacKenzie families possessed baronetcies. The earldom became extinct about the beginning of the present century, and the greater part of the vast estates have passed into other hands. Bralian Castle, however, the ancestral home of the old earls, is still in the possession of the Stewart MacKenzies, lineal descendants of the eldest daughter of the last earl, and the chieftainship of the clan is said to be vested in the Laird of Allangrange.