Return to MacKay Family & Connections in the Maritimes.
Strathnaver is the ancestral home of the MacKays. It is a region in the very north-west of Scotland, corresponding to the northern part of the modern county of Sutherland. It was known by its Gaelic-speaking inhabitants as Dúthaic 'ic Aoidh --- "MacKay's Country." After the dispersal of the inhabitants of Moray around 1160, the clan system took root in Scotland. The followers of the MacEths became the Clan MacKay.
Iye MacEth is reputed to be the first of the Clan MacKay to settle in Strathnaver. "Aodh" is a Gaelic proper name which has been translated into English as "Iye" --- hence, "MacKay" means "son of Aodh." Aodh was a son or nephew of Kenneth MacEth, and was born sometime around 1210. He was Chamberlain to Walter de Baltrode, Bishop of Caithness. He had three sons: Iye Mor, Morgan, and Martin. Martin is said to have settled in Galloway, in the very south-west of Scotland, where he founded the Galloway branch of the MacKays.
Iye MacEth's son, Iye Mor, married the daughter of the Bishop of Caithness around 1263, and also acquired lands from him in Durness.19 Iye Mor was succeeded by his son, Donald, who married a daughter of Iye of Gigha (Gigha is a small island west of Kintyre).
Donald's son, Iye, was murdered along with his grandson, Donald, in the castle of Dingwall, 1370, by Nicholas Sutherland of Duffus, brother of the fifth Earl of Sutherland. Iye was about to succeed in a favourable judgement by the Lord of the Isles and the Earl of Ross and the Earl of Buchan disposing of Sutherland's claim to regality over MacKay. The children of Iye were: Donald, Farquhar (physician to King Robert II), and Mariota, hand-fasted wife of the Earl of Buchan.
The next chief of Clan MacKay was the son of the murdered Donald, who was Angus. This Angus was the father of Angus Du, who married the sister of Donald, Lord of the Isles, and who was the leader of four thousand men in 1427. Angus Du fell in battle in 1433 at the Battle of Drum nan Coup, at which Angus Moray of Cubin and the forces of Sutherland were decisively beaten. Angus Du left a son, Neil, to succeed him.
Neil Vass was captured by King James I in 1427 and imprisoned on Bass Rock. He escaped after the murder of King James in 1436, and led the MacKays at the Battle of Sandside Chase in 1437 against the men of Caithness.
Neil's son, Angus Roy, was killed by the Rosses at Tarbet in 1486, leaving a son, Iye Roy. Iye Roy obtained extensive grants of land in Caithness and Sutherland from 1499 to 1511. He fought along with his brother, John Riavach, at the Battle of Flodden in 1513, where the latter is said to have fallen. Iye Roy died in 1517. His son, John, of Strathnaver, died circa 1529.
John was succeeded by his brother, Donald MacKay, of Strathnaver. Donald was at the battle of Solway Moss 20, and returned to Edinburgh with the king, and was granted lands, forfeited to the crown, by charter, on 28 November 1542. Donald died circa 1550 and was succeeded by his son, Iye Du MacKay.
Aodh MacKay of Strathnaver, Chief of MacKay, also called Iye Du MacKay, married, first, his cousin, Helen, daughter of Hugh Macleod of Assynt, in Sutherland. By her he had two sons, Donald and John-Beg, but because the marriage was within the forbidden degree of consanguinity, Donald was prevented by Canon Law from succeeding to the inheritance. Aodh MacKay married, second, Christine, daughter of William Sinclair of Dun. By her he had two sons, Hugh, also called Uisdean (1561-1614), who became Chief, and William, who is ancestor of the MacKays of Bighouse. Aodh MacKay obtained lands from the Earl of Huntley in 1571 which had belonged to his father Donald, but been granted to the Huntley by the Crown. Iye Du had several conflicts with the Earl of Sutherland, and was sent as a prisoner to Edinburgh Castle after surrendering to the Earl in 1556. Upon his release, he returned to Strathnaver, and died in 1572.
Huistean Du MacKay succeeded his father, Iye Du, and married twice: first, to Lady Elizabeth Sinclair, widow of Alexander Sutherland of Duffus, and second, in 1589, to Lady Jane Gordon, elder daughter of the 12th Earl of Sutherland. By his second wife, Huistean Du had a son, Donald, who succeeded him to became the first Baron Reay, after his death on 11 September 1614. 21
19
Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage,
Baronetage and Knightage. Peter Townend, ed. London: Burke's
Peerage Ltd., 1970. p. 2233.
20
Ibid, p. 2233.
21
Ibid, p. 2233.
Table 4
The MacKays of Strathnaver
Aodh MacEth Walter de Baltrodi Neil of Gigha
b. 1210 c. Bishop of Caithness |
| | |
| ------ |
| | |
|------------|-------------------- |
| m. 1264 | | | |
Aodh mor = --- Morgan Martin Aodh of Gigha
| | |
| v |
| GALLOWAY MACKAYS |
| |
| --------------------------------
| |
Donald = ---
b. 1265 |
|
|
Aodh
murd. 1370
|
|---------------------------?------------
| | |
Donald Farquhar Alexander = Mariota Torquil
murd. 1370 | E. of Buchan | Macleod
| v v of Lewis
| Clan ERCHAR Earls of Mar |
| |
| -------------------------------------------
| |
|-------|------------------------
| | | | |
Angus = --- Uisdean Martin Neil Alexander Macdonald
d. 1403 | of Keppoch
| v |
| POLSON MACKAYS |
| |
| -------------------------------------
| |
|-------|------------
1 | 2 | |
Elizabeth = Angus du = --- Rorie Gald George Munro
of | k. 1433 | k. 1411 of Foulis
the Isles | | |
| | --------------------------------
| | |
| --|--------------
| | |
Neil Vass = Euphemia Munro John Aberach Mackenzie
| of Foulis | of Kintail
| v |
| ABERACH MACKAYS |
| |
| -------------------------------------
| |
|--------|-----------
| | |
Angus Roy = --- John Roy Norman O'Beolan
k. 1486 | of Carloway
| |
| --------------------------
| |
----------------+-------|-------------------------------------------
| | | | | |
John Aodh Roy = --- Neil Sutherland = --- Hector = ---
| d. 1517 | of Dilred Mackenzie
- | of Auchterneed
|
---------+-----------------------------------------
| | |
John Sinclair John Donald = Helen Sinclair Hugh Macleod = ---
of Dun | d. 1550 | of Stempster of Assynt |
| - | |
| | |
------------ | --------------------
| 2 | 1 |
Christian = Aodh du = Helen
| d. 1572 |
| |
| --------------------------------
======---------------- | |
1 | 2 | | |
Elizabeth = Uisdean du = Jane William Donald Balloch John Beg
Sinclair | d. 1614 | Gordon | | k. 1579
| | v v
| | BIGHOUSE MACKAYS SCOURY MACKAYS
Christina |
|
======================-------------------------------
| | | 1 | 2
Donald John Sinclair = Annas Hector = Mary = Alexander Gunn
Lord Reay | of Brims Munro of Killearnan
| v
v STRATHY MACKAYS
MACKAYS
OF
STRATHNAVER
| Chiefs of MacKay
Continue to The Lords Reay
These pages written and maintained by Michael MacKay.
Last updated: July 26, 1998.