MacKay

In Gaelic, this name is rendered as 'Mhic aoidh', or 'son of Hugh' and pronounced 'eh'. 'Aoidh' was a Celtic personal name associated with a pagan god of fire also written (or spoken) as Aed, or Heth. Exactly who Aoidh was is uncertain. Sir Iain Moncreiffe suggested the name comes from a branch of the ancient Celtic royal house that disputed the throne of Alba (early Scotland) in the 12th and 13th centuries. He asserted that the Mackays descend from Aedh, the last Abbot of Dunkeld, first Earl of Fife and elder brother of Alexander (from this ancient lineage some Mackays are still known today as Mhic aoidh na Cille, or Mackay's of the Church). Aedh's wife was the grandaughter of Queen Gruoch, wife of King MacBeth. Malcolm MacAedh married, who married a sister of John, Lord of the Isles, became Earl of Ross. He died in 1186. Malcolm's son-in-law, Iye (another spelling of Aedh) became the Earl of Caithness. He was also lord of the lands of Strathnaver where, by the 14th century, the clan was well established in its recognised form. (Mackays in the southern Hebrides were the 'coroners' of executive officers of the 'Lords of the Isles' with their power base being in western Islay, in region still known as the Rhinns, or the far west, thus they were known as the 'Mackays of the Rhinns').

Iye was chamberlain to Walter, Bishop of Caithness, in 1263. Angus Dubh, sixth in descent from the Chamberlain, married Elizabeth, sister of Donald, Lord of the Isles and grand-daughter of Robert II around 1415. This indicates the clan's importance in historical terms per its Celtic pedigree as it was deemed politically expedient for both the Lord of the Isles and the Kings of Scotland to marry into a family deemed to be of a more ancient royal house i.e. Macbeth and earlier. Angus is said to have been able to call out over 4,000 men from his lands in the Strathnaver (northwest Scotland). From this height of power, the clan spent the next four centuries fighting off their predatory neighbours, the Earls of Sutherland. They were ultimately to lose the lands to the Sutherlands in 1829 (though some Mackays regard the "real Mackays" as being those descended from Hugh Mackay of Scourie and who had several sons who went "into the West" i.e. emigrated to America and Canada).

In 1556 Iye Mackay, then the chief, was captured by the Sutherlands and sent as a prisoner to Edinburgh Castle. His grandson, sir Donald Mackay was created a Baronet of Nova Scotia on 28 March 1627. A year later he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Reay. Lord Reay was a distinguished soldier who fought for Charles I in the civil war. He was to have been created Earl of Strahnvaer, but the royal patent was not completed. He went into exile in Denmark, where he died in February 1649. His second son Angus, became a Colonel in the Danish Army. He married Catherine of Killernan and is ancestor of the Mackays of Melness. His son John, the second Lord Reay, also fought for Charles I. His second wife was Barbara, daughter of Hugh Mackay of Scourie. Hugh, better known as General Mackay, leader of William and Mary's Scots forces at the Battle of Killiecrankie would have been created and acknowledged as the Chief of Mackay but for his untimely death; his descedants in the west are considered by many to be the real chiefs of Mackay. John's second son, Aeneas was Brig. General of the Scots Regiment in the States General of Holland. The family settled in the Netherlands, where they prospered. Barthold Mackay was created Baron Ophmert in the Netherlands in June 1822.

In Scotland, the line of chiefs passed to cousins from time to time, when the chief died without heirs. Eric, the ninth Baron Reay. got heavily into debt, largely through manipulations by the Sutherlands. The Sutherlands acquired the entire Strathnaver when Eric died unmarried n 1875. This succession of the chiefs then passed to Baron Ophmert, who became the 10th Lord Reay. his son, Donald, the 11th Baron, was Gov. of Bombay, Under Secretary of State for India and Knight of the Thistle. He was additonally created a peer of the United Kingdom, but this title became extinct upon his death in 1921. The family maintained their links with the Netherlands, an on the death of the 11th Baron, the title passed to his Dutch cousin, whose father had been Prime Minister of Holland. Lord Reay died within months of receiving the title, which passed to his 15 yr. old son. The new chief became a British subject in 1938 and worked in the Foreign Office during World War II. He retained his Barony and the Castle of Ophmert, which escaped the ravages of war.

There have been many distinguished Mackays including James Mackay, Chairman of P&O Shipping in 1929 and Lord Mackay of Clashfern, appointed as Lord Chancellor of Great Britain. Lord Mackay was the first Scot who is not a memeber of the English Bar, to be appointed head of the English judicial system.

Places associated with Mackays on Jura include Airigh Mhic Aoidh and Claig Castle.