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A small village in Easter Ross, Redcastle
lies on the north shore of the Beauly Firth, 4 miles east of
Muir of Ord. The ruined 16th-century Redcastle, a former
stronghold of the Mackenzies, stands on a mound at the head of
the Beauly Firth on a site where the original castle of Edradour
is thought to have been built by William the Lion in the 12th
century. There is a fine range of late 18th-century stables in
parkland near the castle and the gothic Redcastle Church by the firth was rebuilt from 1800.
From the period
when this Castle was erected, the tide of prosperity which had
hitherto attended the Mackenzies of Redcastle began to ebb.
During the
Civil War the Clan Kerr supported the Parlimentry Covenantor
army of General David Leslie. In 1649 a rebellion took place in
the north by the Covenantors of the Clan MacKenzie who were
opposed to Leslie's parliamentary forces. As a result Leslie's
forces under Colonel Kerr took the MacKenzie's
Redcastle,
demolished it and hanged the garrison.
The last of
the family of the Mackenzies of Redcastle, Miss Mary or Molly,
died at a very advanced old age a few years ago, at Lettoch, in
a house which she had occupied there for many years.
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