The charter was granted and dated at the Castle of Urquhart,
witnessed by the bishops of Ross and Moray, and confirmed by David
II. in 1344. ['Invernessiana,' p.56.] From all this it may fairly
be assumed that the line of Mac Kenneth was not far from the
breaking point during the reign of Kenneth of the Nose.
Some followers of the Earl of Ross about this time made a raid
to the district of Kenlochewe and carried away a great herschip.
Mackenzie pursued them, recovered a considerable portion of the
spoil, and killed many of the raiders. The Earl of Ross was greatly
incensed at Kenneth's conduct in this affair, and he determined
to have him apprehended and suitably punished for the murders and
other excesses committed by him.
In this he ultimately succeeded. Mackenzie was captured, chiefly
through the instrumentality of Leod Mac Gilleandrais - a desperate
character, and a vassal and relative of the Earl - and executed
at Inverness in 1346, when the lands of Kenlochewe, previously
possessed by Kintail, were given to Mac Gilleandrais as a reward
for Mackenzie's capture.
On this point the author of the Ardintoul manuscript says, that
the lands of Kenlochewe were held by Kenneth Mackenzie "and his
predecessors by tack, but not as heritage, for they had no real or
heritable right of them until Alexander of Kintail got heritable
possession of them from John, Earl of Ross," at a much later date.
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