Strome Castle on its mound, overlooking the sheltered waters of the bay that was no doubt once thronged with galleys; with the broader waters of Loch Carron beyond.
Continuing from the previous photo: While Glengarry was unsuccessfully pursuing Mackenzie in the Privy Council in Edinburgh, his son and heir continued to deal with the problem using more traditional methods! Angus Macdonell, Younger of Glengarry, conducted a raid on the Mackenzie’s homelands of Kintail, however, Kintail himself, returning from Edinburgh and armed with the commission of 'fire and sword' he had obtained, defeated the Macdonells in a skirmish in Morar.
Not long after this, the indefatigable Angus Macdonell launched another raid, this time on Lochcarron, the castle his father had previously been forced to hand over to the Mackenzie's in return for his release. "Coming to Lochcarron, he sent his marauders ashore in the twilight. The inhabitants perceiving them, fled to the hills, but the Macdonells cruelly slaughtered all the aged men who could not escape, and many of the women and children. Seizing all the cattle he could, he drove them to the island of Slumbay, where their boats, which were filled with the carcasses, lay".
Clan warfare was not pretty!
As Young Glengarry loaded his plunder and prepared to return south, well pleased with his day's work, he was unaware that the Mackenzie's were waiting for him in the Kyle of Lochalsh - the narrow channel between the Isle of Skye and the mainland. Night had fallen before the Macdonells reached the Kyle, where in the darkness, the waiting Mackenzies seeing a large galley approaching, rowed out in two boats towards it and loosed off a broadside of musketry and arrows. The volley produced results far beyond the Mackenzie's wildest expectations. Those on board the galley, in their alarm, crowded to one side of the vessel, causing it to overturn. All on board were thrown into the water and such of them as were able to reach the shore were promptly dispatched by the waiting Mackenzies. Among the slain was Young Glengarry.
It was against this backdrop and immediately following this event that the Mackenzie's took the opportunity, assisted by their old allies the Mathesons, to attack Strome Castle. The story goes that the Mackenzie's, having spent a fair bit of time assailing the castle without any success, were on the verge of giving up when some Macdonell women drawing water from the castle's well at night accidentally deposited it in the barrel containing the castle's stock of gunpowder rather than in the barrel containing their immediate supply of water. Oh dear! A Mackenzie prisoner in the castle overheard the wailing and gnashing of teeth that followed and in the confusion managed to jump over the walls into a midden before escaping to inform Kenneth Mackenzie that the castle was now effectively defenseless.
The Macdonells, seeing Mackenzie unpacking all his scaling ladders again from the boot of his car, waved the flag of truce and managed to negotiate a surrender and safe passage for themselves and their baggage. Once the Macdonells had marched out, the Mackenzie's blew up the castle with gunpowder (their own presumably). Great chunks of masonry from the keep can still be seen lying around the base of the castle mound, blown there by the force of the explosion.
There was to be one last flare-up in the Macdonell / Mackenzie feud. In 1603, Allan MacRanald of Lundie invaded Ross, plundering the lands of Kilchrist, and others adjacent, belonging to the Mackenzies. "This foray was signalized by the merciless burning of a whole congregation in the church of Kilchrist, while Glengarry's piper marched round the building, mocking the cries of the unfortunate inmates. The pibroch he played, since known as Kilchrist or Cillechriost, has ever since been the family pibroch of the Clanranald of Glengarry."
The feud came to an end when Kenneth Mackenzie, afterwards Lord Kintail, succeeded in obtaining a crown charter to the disputed districts of Lochalsh, Lochcarron and others, dated 1607, after which he came to an agreement over the tenancy and management of these lands with the Macdonells.