" If this view is well-founded
the ancestor of the Earls of Ross was chief in Kintail as early as
the beginning of the tenth century. We have seen that the first
Earl of Ross recorded in history was Malcolm Mac Heth, to whom
a precept is found, directed by Malcolm IV., requesting him to
protect the monks of Dunfermline and defend them in their lawful
privileges and possessions. The document is not dated, but judging
from the names of the witnesses attesting it, the precept must have
been issued before 1162. It will be remembered that Mac Heth was
one of the six Celtic earls who besieged the King at Perth two
years before, in 1160. William the Lion, who seems to have kept
the earldom in his own hands for several years, in 1179 marched
into the district at the head of his earls and barons, accompanied
by a large army, and subdued an insurrection fomented by the
local chiefs against his authority. On this occasion he built two
castles within its bounds, one called Dunscath on the northern
Sutor at the entrance to the Cromarty Firth, and Redcastle in the
Black Isle. In the same year we find Florence, Count of Holland,
complaining that he had been deprived of its nominal ownership
by King William.
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