Lord Reay, of Reay

Reay

Reay is a village which has grown around Sandside Bay on the north coast of the Highland council area of Scotland. It is within the historic Parish of Reay and the historic county of Caithness....

 in the County of Caithness, is a title in the Peerage of Scotland

Peerage of Scotland

The Peerage of Scotland is the division of the British Peerage for those peers created in the Kingdom of Scotland before 1707. With that year's Act of Union, the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England were combined into the Kingdom of Great Britain, and a new Peerage of Great Britain was...

. Lord Reay is the hereditary Clan Chief

Scottish clan chief

The Scottish Gaelic word clann means children. In early times, and possibly even today, clan members believed themselves to descend from a common ancestor, the founder of the Scottish clan. From its perceived founder a clan takes its name. The clan chief is the representative of this founder, and...

 of Clan Mackay

Clan MacKay

Clan Mackay is an ancient and once powerful Scottish clan from the far north of the Scottish Highlands, but with roots in the old kingdom of Moray. They were a powerful force in politics beginning in the 14th century, supporting Robert the Bruce. In the centuries that followed they were...

, whose lands in Strathnaver

Strathnaver

Strathnaver or Strath Naver is the fertile strath of the River Naver, a famous salmon river that flows from Loch Naver to the north coast of Scotland...

 and northwest Sutherland

Sutherland

Sutherland is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic administrative county of Scotland. It is now within the Highland local government area. In Gaelic the area is referred to according to its traditional areas: Dùthaich 'IcAoidh , Asainte , and Cataibh...

 were known as the Reay Country. The land was sold to the Earls of Sutherland in the 18th century. Lord Reay also refers to a legendary magician in Caithness folklore.

The title was created in 1628 for the soldier Sir Donald Mackay, 1st Baronet

Donald Mackay, 1st Lord Reay

Donald Mackay, 1st Lord Reay , known as Sir Donald Mackay, 1st Baronet, from 1627 to 1628, was a Scottish peer and soldier.-Biography:Mackay was the eldest son of Huistean Du...

. He had already the year before been created a Baronet, of Far, in the Baronetage of Nova Scotia. He was succeeded by his son, the second Lord, who fought as a Royalist in the Civil War

English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

. On the death of his great-great-great-grandson, the ninth Lord, the line of the eldest son of the second Lord failed. The late Lord was succeeded by his kinsman, the tenth Lord. He was the son of Barthold John Christian Mackay (who had been created Baron Mackay of Ophemert and Zennewijnen in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 in 1822), great-grandson of Hon. Aeneas Mackay, a Brigadier-General in the Dutch army and the second son of the second Lord. Lord Reay was a Dutch citizen and served as a government minister in the Netherlands. His son, the eleventh Lord, became a British citizen in 1877 and four years later he was created Baron Reay, of Durness in the County of Sutherland, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom

Peerage of the United Kingdom

The Peerage of the United Kingdom comprises most peerages created in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the Act of Union in 1801, when it replaced the Peerage of Great Britain...

. Lord Reay was later Governor of Bombay, Under-Secretary of State for India

Under-Secretary of State for India

This is a list of Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of State and Permanent Under-Secretaries of State at the India Office during the period of British rule between 1866 and 1948, and for Burma from 1858-1948....

 in the Liberal administration

Liberal Government 1892-1895

The Liberal government 1892-1895 was a minority government in the United Kingdom in which the Conservative Party, led by Lord Salisbury, won the most seats but not an overall majority. As a result, William Ewart Gladstone's Liberal Party formed a minority government that relied upon Irish...

 of Lord Rosebery

Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery

Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, KG, PC was a British Liberal statesman and Prime Minister. Between the death of his father, in 1851, and the death of his grandfather, the 4th Earl, in 1868, he was known by the courtesy title of Lord Dalmeny.Rosebery was a Liberal Imperialist who...

 and Lord Lieutenant of Roxburghshire

Lord Lieutenant of Roxburghshire

This is a list of people who have served as Lord Lieutenant of Roxburghshire. The office was replaced by the Lord Lieutenant of Roxburgh, Ettrick and Lauderdale in 1975.*John Ker, 3rd Duke of Roxburghe 17 March 1794 – 19 March 1804...

.

On his death the UK Barony became extinct while he was succeeded in the other titles by his cousin, the twelfth Lord. He was the son of Baron Aeneas Mackay (1806–1876) (a Dutch politician who had been created Baron Mackay in the Netherlands in 1858), son of Johan Francois Hendrik Jakob Ernestus Mackay, brother of the tenth Lord Reay. He was also a Dutch citizen. However, his son, the thirteenth Lord, became a British citizen in 1938 and later sat in the House of Lords

House of Lords

The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....

 as a Scottish Representative Peer

Representative peer

In the United Kingdom, representative peers were those peers elected by the members of the Peerage of Scotland and the Peerage of Ireland to sit in the British House of Lords...

. the titles are held by his only son, the fourteenth Lord. He is a former Member of the European Parliament

Member of the European Parliament

A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...

 and also served in junior positions in the Conservative

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 administrations of Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...

 and John Major

John Major

Sir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...

. Lord Reay is still a member of the House of Lords as one of the ninety elected hereditary peer

Hereditary peer

Hereditary peers form part of the Peerage in the United Kingdom. There are over seven hundred peers who hold titles that may be inherited. Formerly, most of them were entitled to sit in the House of Lords, but since the House of Lords Act 1999 only ninety-two are permitted to do so...

s allowed to remain after the passing of the House of Lords Act

House of Lords Act 1999

The House of Lords Act 1999 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was given Royal Assent on 11 November 1999. The Act reformed the House of Lords, one of the chambers of Parliament. For centuries, the House of Lords had included several hundred members who inherited their seats;...

 of 1999.

Lords Reay (1628)

• Donald Mackay, 1st Lord Reay
  Donald Mackay, 1st Lord Reay
  Donald Mackay, 1st Lord Reay , known as Sir Donald Mackay, 1st Baronet, from 1627 to 1628, was a Scottish peer and soldier.-Biography:Mackay was the eldest son of Huistean Du...
  
   (1591–1649)
• John Mackay, 2nd Lord Reay (d. 1681)
• George Mackay, 3rd Lord Reay (1678–1748)
• Donald Mackay, 4th Lord Reay (d. 1761)
• George Mackay, 5th Lord Reay (c. 1735–1768)
• Hugh Mackay, 6th Lord Reay (d. 1797)
• Eric Mackay, 7th Lord Reay (1773–1847)
• Alexander Mackay, 8th Lord Reay (1775–1863)
• Eric Mackay, 9th Lord Reay (1813–1875)
• Aeneas Mackay, 10th Lord Reay (1806–1876)
• Donald James Mackay, 11th Lord Reay (1839–1921)
• Eric Mackay, 12th Lord Reay (1870–1921)
• Aeneas Alexander Mackay, 13th Lord Reay (1905–1963)
• Hugh William Mackay, 14th Lord Reay
  Hugh Mackay, 14th Lord Reay
  Hugh William Mackay, 14th Lord Reay, Baron Mackay is British politician and Conservative member of the House of Lords. He is the only Lord of Parliament to sit in the House of Lords.He was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford....
  
   (b. 1937)

The heir apparent

Heir apparent

An heir apparent or heiress apparent is a person who is first in line of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting, except by a change in the rules of succession....

 is the present holder's son the Hon. Æneas Simon Mackay, Master of Reay (b. 1965)

The heir apparent's heir is his son the Hon. Alexander Shimi Markus Mackay (b. 2010).

Lord Reay in Caithness folklore

In the folklore

Folklore

Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...

 of Caithness

Caithness

Caithness is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic local government area of Scotland. The name was used also for the earldom of Caithness and the Caithness constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . Boundaries are not identical in all contexts, but the Caithness area is...

, in the Highland

Scottish Highlands

The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...

 area of Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, Lord Reay is a magician

Magic (paranormal)

Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...

 who believed he had come off best in an encounter with a witch

Witchcraft

Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...

 in Smoo Cave

Smoo Cave

Smoo Cave is a large combined sea cave and freshwater cave in Durness in Sutherland, Highland, Scotland.- Geology :Smoo Cave is formed within Early Ordovician dolostones of the Durness Group...

. His prize was a gang of fairies

Fairy

A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.Fairies resemble various beings of other mythologies, though even folklore that uses the term...

 who liked nothing better than to work. The construction of various earthworks

Earthworks (engineering)

Earthworks are engineering works created through the moving or processing of quantities of soil or unformed rock.- Civil engineering use :Typical earthworks include roads, railway beds, causeways, dams, levees, canals, and berms...

 in the parish

Parish

A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

 of Reay

Reay

Reay is a village which has grown around Sandside Bay on the north coast of the Highland council area of Scotland. It is within the historic Parish of Reay and the historic county of Caithness....

 are attributed to these fairies, working under direction from Lord Reay.

However, the fairies' appetite for work was insatiable and, eventually, their demands became intolerable. So Lord Reay put them to work building a causeway

Causeway

In modern usage, a causeway is a road or railway elevated, usually across a broad body of water or wetland.- Etymology :When first used, the word appeared in a form such as “causey way” making clear its derivation from the earlier form “causey”. This word seems to have come from the same source by...

 of sand

Sand

Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...

 across the Pentland Firth

Pentland Firth

The Pentland Firth , which is actually more of a strait than a firth, separates the Orkney Islands from Caithness in the north of Scotland.-Etymology:...

where, of course, the fierce currents wash away the sand just as fast as the fairies can build.