Kenneth Mackenzie

Commonly called Coinneach na Sroine, or Kenneth of the Nose, from the size of that organ. Very little is known of this chief. But he does not appear to have been long in possession when he found himself serious trouble and unable to cope successfully with the Earl of Ross, who made determined efforts to re-establish the original position of his house over the Barons of Kintail. Wyntoun says that in 1331, Randolph, Earl of Moray, nephew of Robert the Bruce, and at that time Warden of Scotland, sent his Crowner to Ellandonnan, with orders to prepare the castle for his reception and to arrest all "misdoaris" in the district, fifty of whom the Crowner beheaded, and, according to the barbarous practice of even much later times, exposed their heads for the edification of the surrounding lieges high upon the castle walls. Randolph himself soon after arrived and, says the same chronicler, was "right blithe" to see the goodly show of heads "that flowered so weel that wall"--a ghastly warning to all treacherous or plundering "misdoaris." From what occurred on this occasion it is obvious that Kenneth either did not attempt or was not able to govern his people with a firm hand and to keep the district free from plunderers and lawlessness.

It is undoubted that at this time the Earl of Ross succeeded in gaining a considerable hold in the district over which he had all along claimed superiority; for in 1342 William, the fifth and last O'Beolan Earl, is on record as granting a charter of the whole ten davochs of Kintail to Reginald, son of Roderick of the Isles. The charter was granted and dated at the Castle of Urquhart, witnessed by the bishops of Ross and Moray, and confirmed by David II. in 1344. [Invernessiana, p.56.] From all this it may fairly be assumed that the line of Mac Kenneth was not far from the breaking point during the reign of Kenneth of the Nose.

Some followers of the Earl of Ross about this time made a raid to the district of Kenlochewe and carried away a great herschip. Mackenzie pursued them, recovered a considerable portion of the spoil. and killed many of the raiders. The Earl of Ross was greatly incensed at Kenneth's conduct in this affair, and he determined to have him apprehended and suitably punished for the murders and other excesses committed by him.

In this he ultimately succeeded. Mackenzie was captured, chiefly through the instrumentality of Leod Mac Gilleandrais--a desperate character, and a vassal and relative of the Earl--and executed at Inverness in 1346, when the lands of Kenlochewe, previously possessed by Kintail, were given to Mac Gilleandrais as a reward for Mackenzie's capture.

On this point the author of the Ardintoul manuscript says, that the lands of Kenlochewe were held by Kenneth Mackenzie "and his predecessors by tack, but not as heritage, for they had no real or heritable right of them until Alexander of Kintail got heritable possession of them from John, Earl of Ross," at a much later date. Ellandonnan Castle, however, held out during the whole of this disturbed and distracted period, and until Kenneth's heir, who at his father's death was a mere boy, came of age, when he fully avenged the death of his father, and succeeded to the inheritance of his ancestors. The garrison meanwhile maintained themselves on the spoil of the enemy. The brave defenders of the castle were able to hold their own throughout and afterwards to hand over the stronghold to their chief when he arrived at a proper age and returned home.

The Earl of Cromarty, who gives a very similar account of this period, concludes his notice of Kenneth in these terms--" Murdered thus, his estate was possessed by the oppressor's followers; but Island Donain keeped still out, maintaining themselves on the spoyle of the enemie. All being trod under by insolince and oppression, right had no place. This was during David Bruce's imprisonment in England," when chaos and disorder ruled supreme, at least in the Highlands.

Kenneth married Finguala, or Florence, daughter of Torquil Macleod, II. of Lewis. by his wife Dorothea, daughter of William, second O'Beolan Earl of Ross by his wife, Joan, daughter of John the first Red Comyn, and sister of John the Black Comyn, Lord of Badenoch and Earl of Buchan, with issue, an only son, Murdoch Mackenzie.

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