By the time they were raised to the peerage by James II in 1454, the Boyds had already played a significant role in Scotland’s history, not least through their selfless contribution to the cause of the Nation’s freedom in the bitter and bloody Wars of Independence with England.

Warned that Alexander was prepared to wrest the islands from Norwegian control by force if necessary, King Hakon of Norway embarked with a mighty fleet from Bergen in July 1263.

A party of militia emerged from their high eminence the following morning and engaged in a skirmish with a band of Norsemen attempting to salvage precious cargo from their stricken vessels.

Stung by the insult, King Hakon ordered a further attempt to retrieve the cargo the following day, 1 October, resulting in what has become known as the battle of Largs but which in reality consisted of a series of disorganised skirmishes.

The Norsemen were driven back to their vessels, however, and King Hakon died a few weeks later in Kirkwall, Orkney: the threat to Scotland’s western seaboard in general and invasion of the mainland in particular had been averted.

Intriguingly, while ‘I trust’ is the motto of the Boyds, and a right hand raised in benediction is the crest, several of the family’s coats of arms feature the word ‘Goldberry’.

More than forty years later, the Boyds found themselves at the forefront of the Wars of Independence after William Wallace raised the banner of revolt against the English occupation of Scotland in May 1297.

An expert in the tactics of guerrilla warfare, Wallace and his hardened band of freedom fighters inflicted stunning defeats on the English garrisons, culminating in the liberation of practically all of Scotland following the battle of Stirling Bridge, on 11 September 1297.

Their grip on the realm was further strengthened when Thomas Boyd married the king’s sister, the Princess Mary, and assumed the titles of Earl of Arran and Kilmarnock.

But pressure from a powerful group of rival nobles eventually led in November 1469 to the Boyds being summoned before the king and Parliament to answer charges of treason.

Lord Boyd later showed his devotion to his queen by visiting her periodically during the long exile she spent in England before her eventual execution in the Great Hall of Fotheringhay Castle, in Northamptonshire, in February 1587.

Prince Charles Edward Stuart had arrived on the small Outer Hebridean island of Eriskay on 22 July 1745, landing on the mainland at Loch nan Uamh three days later.

The confident prince and his army set off on the long march south to London a month later, to claim what was believed to be the rightful Stuart inheritance of the throne.

Wounded and taken prisoner at Culloden, the abject Lord Boyd was being led bareheaded along the lines of the victorious Hanoverian army when his eldest son, who was serving as an ensign in the government forces, spotted the plight of his father and rushed forward to give him his own hat.

The statesman Horace Walpole, who was present throughout the trial, left a portrait for posterity of Lord Boyd, describing him as ‘tall and slender, with an extreme fine person; his behaviour a most just mixture between dignity and submission.