Gordon;[1] moreover it was occupied by Edward I. of England in the stormy and heroic days of William Wallace. Mackerach Castle,[2] now, like Lochindorb, a ruin, was built by a Grant at the close of the 16th Century.
It is near the centre of the Strath and about two miles from the Spey that the stately Castle Grant still stands — the cynosure of clansmen’s eyes; for there, secure in the loyalty of Highland hearts and the sweep of keen claymores, has remained, through more than five stern centuries, the roof-tree of the chief of the clan. Shadowy pines — the clansman's badge — still adorn with fitting grace the surrounding scene, while, child of the cloud-cleaving Grampians, and eager as a clansman for the fray, the noble Spey still rushes past — the fleetest and most generous of British streams. Its strath is the largest Highland valley, and the greatest waterway north of the
- ↑ Morayshire seemed not to have loved the Gordons in
olden times. A rather amusing saying of its people, in those
unregenerate days, was:—
“The Gule, the Gordon, and the hoodie craw
Are the three worst foes that Moray ever saw.”But there were manifestly reprisals, for another old saying was:—
“A win, fae Mearns and a wife, fae Moray
Are the two worst things a Highlander could hae.” - ↑ Near here, in 1771, Sir James McGrigor, who became chief of the Army Medical Department, was born.
