Chanonry of Ross

Castle Chanonry of Ross, also known as Seaforth Castle, was located in the town of Fortrose, to the north east of Inverness, on the peninsula known as the Black Isle, Highland, Scotland. Nothing now remains of the castle. The castle was also known as Canonry or Chanonrie of Ross, the former county.

The Castle no longer stands. However, it is known that it was a rectangular tower house built by the Bishop Fraser between 1497 and 1507. The trouble started when John Leslie, Bishop of Ross granted to his cousin Leslie, the Laird of Balquhair, the right and title to the castle at Chanonry together with the castle lands. The Mackenzies regarded the Munros as wrongful possessors of their property which they had legally purchased from Leslie. On 31 October 1578, James VI gave the "castell, hous and place of the channonrie" to Henry Stewart, 3rd Lord Methven. The Chanonry had been given to Alexander Hepburn (d. 1578), the successor to John Lesley, Bishop of Ross, who shared Queen Mary's exile. Lord Methven would receive the income from the lands until such time as a new Bishop of Ross was appointed. In July 1589 James VI arrived at the Chanonry in person, where "he slew ane great hairt, and wes weill bancketted and ressavit by the barronis and gentilmen in the way."

The Calendar Writs of Munro of Foulis are series of contemporary legal documents concerning the Munro of Foulis family from the year 1299 to 1823 that were published in books by the Scottish Record Society in the 1940s. One of these documents is a letter dated 1572 from Andrew Munro of Milntown to the Regent of Scotland complaining that Colin Mackenzie of Kintail had "slew thre servandis of myne and left thre deidlie woundit brunt and distroyit my cornis hous and barnis in the channorie ". The letter from Munro of Milntown goes on to say that "the nowmer of thre thowsand men" (three thousand men), "asseigit the said hous be a lang space fortefeit" (laid siege to the said house that had been a long time fortified) and that "quhill at last thei seing the hous onrecoverabill" (at last they seeing the house unrecoverable) "be thair force efter thai haid committit greit harshippis upoun the Laird of Foulis and his kin" (their force after had committed great hardships upon the Laird of Foulis). It also mentions that the Mackenzies along with the Mackintoshes had laid siege to the Chanonry with three thousand men: "McKenze and Mcanetoische wes with thair haill hoistis to the nummer of thre thousand men or therby lying at the sege of the castell of the channory".</blockquote>

George Mackenzie, 1st Earl of Cromartie wrote an account of the feud in his History of the Family of Mackenzie which was written in 1669. George Mackenzie says that the Mackenzies who occupied the steeple of the church made some attempts on the castle that was occupied by the Munros but to little purpose until June 1572 when it was heard that the Munros had gone out to fish on the Ness which was one of the debatable possessions. It has therefore been suggested that they derive from a common source. However, while similar to the Earl of Cromartie's account, Mackenzie of Applecross states that twenty six Munros were killed and not just three, but agrees with Cromartie that only two Mackenzies were wounded.

Alexander Mackenzie wrote an account of the feud in his books The History of the Mackenzies (1894) and The History of the Munros of Fowlis (1898). contrary to the manuscripts which show that it was handed over. In 1649, after the Siege of Inverness (1649), the leader of the Scottish Parliamentary army, David Leslie, Lord Newark, left a garrison in the castle. However, soon afterwards the Mackenzies retook the castle from the Parliamentary forces. The Parliamentary forces responded by taking the Mackenzies' Redcastle and hanged the garrison. A 17th century poem, written by Brahan Seer concerning the Castle Chanonry of Ross, predicted that: "The day will come when, full of the Mackenzies, it will fall with a fearful crash. This may come to pass in several ways. The Canonry is the principal burying place of the Clan, and it may fall when full of dead Mackenzies, or when a large concourse of the Clan is present at the funeral of a great chief". The castle was reduced to rubble during the Jacobite risings in the 18th century, but it is not known who was responsible.

The castle itself no longer stands. However, the street it was on is now known as Castle Street. Nearby, built into the outside wall of an extremely old house is a stone known as a "Dormer Pediment", which shows a coat of arms and the initials CBS, which stand for Countess Barbara of Seaforth. Barbara was the wife of George MacKenzie, second Earl of Seaforth (1633–1651). This stone may be the only surviving relic of the castle.