Baronies originated during the Middle Ages and were lands held by barons in feu as "tenants in chief" of the monarch.

The baron had the rights to the production of the land and was responsible to maintain law and order in the name of the king.

The Abbey was granted valuable salmon fishing rights on the Findhorn river by Robert the Bruce in 1312 and went on to become one of the largest and wealthiest religious houses in Scotland.

[7] It is one of the oldest seaports on the coast of the Moray Firth and was a trading port for exporting grain and timber to Holland and Flanders and importing wine and merchandise.

Apparently, the original town was one and a half miles northwest and was cut off and inundated by the sea in 1701, due to the shoreline eroding and shifting.

[10] In 1938, with the start of World War II, much of the land of the barony was requisitioned (compulsorily purchased) by the government to build a new Royal Air Force base, RAF Kinloss.

After the war, the mission of the base changed to anti-submarine warfare and search and rescue under Coastal Command.

[11] An Ordnance survey map in 1870 shows a few buildings labeled "Muirtown" at a site that is now the southeast corner of Kinloss Barracks(see below).

[12] A charter by James IV in 1497 granted the Abbots of Kinloss a burgh of barony for the "town before the gate of the monastery".

[13] John Robertson, 1st of Muirton, was a younger son of Alexander the fifth Baron of Strowan and married to Margaret Crichton, granddaughter of James II.

He sold the abbey buildings to Alexander Brodie of Lethen but retained the lands and barony of Muirton.

[3] During and immediately after the Glorious Revolution in 1688 there was a period of tumult and multiple transitions in the ownership of the barony.

Hugh Rose (1663-1732) was, in addition to being baron of Kilravock and Muirton, Commissioner for the Justiciary, Sherriff of Ross (1706-1722, 1729–1732) and Member of Parliament for Nairn (1725-1732).

[28] Just before the Battle of Culloden this Hugh Rose hosted both "Bonnie" Prince Charles and the Duke of Cumberland at the castle two days apart, apparently hedging his bet on the outcome of the Jacobite rising of 1745.

On 3 November 1817, an Instrument of Sasine (in Latin) was recorded in favor of Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro for the Barony of Muirton.

He was later designed Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro of Novar and Muirton and was well known as an art collector.

Upon his death his lands and titles fell to his cousin, Robert Munro Ferguson of Novar and Muirton.

[30] Munro Ferguson served in the Army in India until 1884 and upon returning to Britain was elected to Parliament.

He is descended from the Bruces, the Cuthberts of Castlehill and the Roses of Kilravock and is also related to the Robertsons and Abbot Robert Reid.

[23][25][31] He is married to Lady Kristi Dawn Culbert, Baroness of Muirton and their children are; The moors near the borders of the barony are reported to be the location of the famous scene involving the "weird sisters" and Macbeth and Banquo in Shakespeare's historic play "Macbeth".

It has been suggested that Sueno's Stone, nearby, was erected to depict his victory in battle and subsequent murder[34][35]