John MacRae-Gilstrap

Lieutenant Colonel John MacRae-Gilstrap (31 December 1861 – January 1937) was a British army officer and a senior figure of the Clan Macrae.

He contested a rival claim to the chiefship of the clan, and in 1912 he purchased and subsequently restored the Macrae stronghold of Eilean Donan Castle on Loch Duich in the west of Scotland.

The family later returned to Scotland, where Duncan MacRae took up residence at Kames Castle in Bute, becoming Deputy Lieutenant of Buteshire; his older brother Stuart, though also born in India and Scottish by heritage, later played international football for England in the 1880s.

[10] In coming to a decision, announced in April 1909, the Lord Lyon, James Balfour Paul, confined himself to questions of heraldry.

[13] Eilean Donan Castle, probably first built in the 13th century, was a stronghold of the Mackenzies of Kintail who appointed several generations of the Clan MacRae as constables.

[14] In 1912 MacRae-Gilstrap purchased Eilean Donan Castle from Sir Keith Fraser of Inverinate, becoming the first MacRae for many years to hold land in the traditional clan territory of Kintail.

[15] Initially MacRae-Gilstrap intended to preserve the ruins as they were and employed a local stonemason, Farquhar MacRae, to clear the site.

He was engaged during the First World War, but returning to Kintail in 1919 he found Farquhar MacRae making preparations for a full restoration of the castle.

John MacRae opened Eilean Donan to the public in 1955, and established the Conchra Charitable Trust in 1983 to care for the castle.

[18] His daughter Baroness Miranda van Lynden, great-granddaughter of John MacRae-Gilstrap, is the present head of the MacRaes of Conchra.