Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 28 on 20/09/2006.

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Sons of grace (Clan MacRae)

In this issue, James Irvine Robertson studies the Clan MacRae

If you were one of the world’s richest potentates and wanted to buy a Scottish estate, you would, presumably want it to have the requisite number of salmon, grouse, and stags.

You would probably also want your holiday home to be set in the most beautiful part of this most beautiful country. And that is supposedly why, more than a decade ago, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum of Dubai who is worth, according to Forbes magazine, $12 billion, purchased Inverinate, for the best part of five centuries the ancestral territory of Clan MacRae.

The scenery here is breathtaking, comprising Loch Duich, Kintail with the mountains known as the Five Sisters, and Eilean Donan Castle of which the MacRaes were the hereditary constables for centuries. On the western horizon, you can see the jagged profile of the Cuillins on Skye.

For many clans, their history is that of great men and their struggle for national prominence.

This often glosses over, or tries to gloss over, the inevitable treachery, ruthlessness and brutality as individuals tried to claw their way to the top of the heap. Not the MacRaes. Their story is one of absolute loyalty since their earliest founder.

The MacKenzies were all-powerful in north west Scotland, one of the three or four strongest clans.

Often such power led to the destruction and subjugation of smaller clans, but the MacKenzies had the wisdom to allow room for the MacRaes to survive and prosper in their shadow.

Their reward can be discerned from their n.....

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By James Irvine Robertson

Section : Scottish Clans

Page number : 56