Minstrelsy of the Scottish border - National Library of Scotland

THE SCOTTISH BOllDER. 405
The castle is the manor-place of the estate of Kintail,
which is denominated the barony of EUandonan. That
estate is the property of Francis, Lord Seaforth. It has
descended to him through a long line of gallant ances-
tors ; having been originally conferred on Colin Fitzge-
rald, son to the Earl of Desmond and Kildare, in the
kingdom of Ireland, by a charter, dated 9th January,
1266, granted by King Alexander the Third, " Colino
Hyhernio," and bearing, as its inductive cause, " ji^o
" bono etjideli scrvitio, tam in bello, qiiam in pace" He
had performed a very recent service in war, having
greatly distinguished himself in the battle of Largs, in
1263, in which the invading army of Haco, Kmg of
Norway, was defeated. Being pursued in his flight, the
king was overtaken in the narrow passage which divides
the island of Sky e from the coasts of Inverness and Ross,
and, along with many of his followers, he himself was
killed, in attempting his escape through the channel
dividing Skye from Lochlash. These straits, or kyles,
bear to this day appellations, commemorating the events
by which they',were thus distinguished, the former being
called Kyle Rhee, or the King's Kyle, and the latter
Kyle Haken.
The attack on EUandonan Castle, which forms the sub-
Fifty delinquents were there executed, by his orders, and, according
to the Prior of Lochlevin, the Earl had as much pleasure in seeing their
ghastly heads encircle the walls of the castle, as if it had been surround-
ed by a chaplet of roses.