[2][3] He was the son and heir of Alexander Macrae of Inverinate, who served as Chamberlain of Kintail to the third Earl of Seaforth, by his first wife, Margaret, the daughter of Murdoch Mackenzie of Redcastle.
His poems suggest Jacobite and Non-Juring High Church Episcopalian sympathies tempered with a spirit of toleration.
The local oral tradition contains many tales of his ingenuity in practical matters and Professor Mackinnon in The Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness (Volume XI) provided this assessment of him: He also appears in a catalogue of heroes from Kintail in Time and Sgurr Urain, a poem by Sorley MacLean: Donnchadh died some time between 1693 and 1704.
A satirical West Coast ditty entitled Cailleach Liath Rasaidh ("The Greyhaired Hag of Raasay") is said to have been inspired by local chagrin over the surrender.
[4] Through their mutual descent from Alasdair MacRae, 8th of Inverinate, North Carolina Loyalist war poet Iain mac Mhurchaidh, who is a highly important figure in 18th-century Scottish Gaelic literature, was the first cousin once removed of Donnchadh MacRath.