Carse connections

“Skibo Castle, near Dornoch, has early Carse of Gowrie connections by way of a later legitimised great-great-grandson of Lord Gray,” writes Donald Abbott of Invergowrie, “his father having been a Roman Catholic priest; this was in 1539.

“His forebear was one of two sons of Sir Andrew Gray of Fowlis, later the first Lord Gray. That son, Andrew Gray, had killed Sir John Scrimgeour, Constable of Dundee who had been engaged in a quarrel with his father.

“Andrew Gray fled northwards in 1456 and, amongst other purchases, he bought land near Dornoch. One of his sons, William Gray, became a priest and was the ancestor of the Grays of Skibo.

“The great-great-grandson, John Gray, had feud several lands including the lands of Skibo and the Earl of Sutherland appointed him Hereditary Constable of Skibo Castle, ownership passing to him in 1565. This branch of the House of Gray and their associated Ross family remained prominent owners of Skibo, Overskibo and sundry other properties until the end of the 18th Century, when Skibo was sold to Dundee-born George Dempster of Dunnichen, advocate and MP and founder of the Dundee Banking Company in 1763.

“The later prominent owner was Dunfermline-born philanthropist

Andrew Carnegie.

“It is interesting how scions of the Carse of Gowrie family of Gray with its own antecedents from Croy in Picardy and early associations with William the Conqueror were later domiciled in the north-east of Scotland.”