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. There is no trace of any other earl in actual
possession until we come to Ferquard or "Ferchair Mac an t' Sagairt,"
Farquhar the son of the Priest, who rose rapidly to power on the
ruins of the once powerful Mac Heth earls of Moray, of which line
Kenneth Mac Heth, who, with Donald Ban, led a force into Moray
against Alexander II., son of William the Lion, in 1215, was
the last. Of this raid the following account is given in 'Celtic
Scotland,' Vol. I. p. 483:

"The young king had barely reigned a year when be had to encounter
the old enemies of the Crown, the families of Mac William and
Mac Eth, who now combined their forces under Donald Ban, the son
of that Mac William who bad been slain at Mamgarvie in 1187, and
Kenneth Mac Eth, a son or grandson of Malcolm Mac Eth, with the son
of one of the Irish provincial kings, and burst into the Province
of Moray at the head of a large band of malcontents. A very
important auxiliary, however, now joined the party of the king.
This was Ferquhard or Fearchar Macintagart, the son of the 'Sagart'
or priest who was the lay possessor of the extensive possessions
of the old monastery founded by the Irish Saint Maelrubba at