III. KENNETH MACKENZIE,


Commonly called Coinneach na Sroine, or Kenneth of the Nose, from
the size of that organ. Very little is known of this chief. But
he does not appear to have been long in possession when he found
himself serious trouble and unable to cope successfully with the
Earl of Ross, who made determined efforts to re-establish the
original position of his house over the Barons of Kintail. Wyntoun
says that in 1331, Randolph, Earl of Moray, nephew of Robert the
Bruce, and at that time Warden of Scotland, sent his Crowner to
Ellandonnan, with orders to prepare the castle for his reception
and to arrest all "misdoaris" in the district, fifty of whom the
Crowner beheaded, and, according to the barbarous practice of even
much later times, exposed their heads for the edification of the
surrounding lieges high upon the castle walls. Randolph himself
soon after arrived and, says the same chronicler, was "right
blithe" to see the goodly show of heads "that flowered so weel
that wall" - a ghastly warning to all treacherous or plundering
"misdoaris." From what occurred on this occasion it is obvious
that Kenneth either did not attempt or was not able to govern
his people with a firm hand and to keep the district free from
plunderers and lawlessness.

It is undoubted that at this time the Earl of Ross succeeded in
gaining a considerable hold in the district over which he had all
along claimed superiority; for in 1342 William, the fifth and last
O'Beolan Earl, is on record as granting a charter of the whole
ten davochs of Kintail to Reginald, son of Roderick of the Isles.