The name MacRae is a personel one, and not patronymic like MacDonald.  It originated quite independently in various places in Ireland and Scotland from an early date and was given to individuals who were in no way connected with each other.  The name appears in Scotland as early as the reign of Malcolm IV (1141-1165).  It first appears as a surname in the North of Scotland in an agreement made at Inverness in 1386 between the Bishop of Moray and the Wolf of Badenoch, for a parcel of land.

    Three sons of the MacRaes of Clunes, left the district.  One settled in at Brahan, near Dingwall, where there was a piece of land named The Hill of MacRae and a well called MacRae's Well.  Another son went to Argyllshire, while a third was said to have gone to Kintail, in the first half of the forteenth century.  There in Kintail MacRae married a MacBeolan or Gillanders, a kinswoman of the Earls of Ross.  The Earl of Ross held, at that time land rights to the Castle and surrounding Kintail.  The MacKenzies did become Barons of Kintail, and they got loyal support from the MacRaes.

     The MacRaes formed a bodyguard of the Chief of Kintail and they were instrumental 
in raising the Barony of Kintail to such an important position in the history of the highlands.  It was an honour to have the MacRaes bear the dead bodies of the Baron of Kintail, later the Lords of Seaforth.

     The founder of the MacRaes of Kintail was Black Finlay, son of Christopher, a grandson 
of the MacRae who came from Clunes.  Black Finlay lived at the same time as Murdo MacKenzie, 5th Chief of Kintail who died in 1416.

     In the year 1772 no less than sixteen vessels full of emigrants sailed from the western part
of Inverness and Ross, supposedly containing 6,400 souls and carrying with them at least 38,000 sterling.  Robert Chambers 1802-1871, writing about the MacRaes stated: the clan is said to be the most unmixed in the Highlands, the MacRaes being the handsomest and most athletic beyond Grampians. 

     In the last two hundred years, the country has been denuded of its inhabitant and the MacRaes of Kintail are spread all over the world.  

     Mass emigration between 1770-1780 and remaining 50 years, saw the clan scatter to  Canada, US, Australia and New Zealand.
   
by Donald MacRae 
published in 1970
 
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