Donald Mackenzie of Urray, what was father's occupation?

[Skoosh]

Anent "Pigeon Holes of Memory!" Rena. Amazon have it for £7 odd. One story from the book!  Chapter "The funeral which walked across Scotland!"  Dr John was halfway across Ross-shire to visit Gairloch when a rider met him with the news that his brother Gairloch's young English wife Kythe had died in childbirth. He blamed himself & believed he could have saved her, however, on arrival at Dun Dige in Gairloch he found his brother distraught and could manage nothing. Dr John sent to Inverness for a plumber to make a lead lining for the coffin & get both to Gairloch. No road west of their winter home Conon House remember. He set about organising a cast of hundreds of bearers to carry the coffin to the Gairloch tomb in Beauly Priory. Many were turned away but the doctor selected & trained the youngest & strongest 500 of the clan tenantry, in their Sunday best, for the task & meantime set about embalming his young sister in law & the bairn while they waited for the coffin to arive. The kitchen at Conon House had the task of feeding the multitude at the places appointed for overnight stops, the weather kept fine so most slept in the heather. Eight men carried the coffin shoulder high in silence & in relays from the salt water at Gairloch to the east coast at Beauly. The last night was at Conon & trouble arose when the Conon tenants insisted on carrying the coffin to Beauly & peace was only restored by letting them take the last lift as far as the estate boundary at Highfield then the Gairloch men had the honour of taking her on the final stage. All went off well at the funeral & the numbers were swelled by a multitude of mourners who all had to be fed & drammed back at Conon House. Staggering logistics when you consider the catering also required for the 500 bearers return journey to Gairloch, mebbes 200 km return trip over the roughest of country & not one man failed in the task. A great read!

Skoosh.   

[Rena]

Lovely that you came back to me Skoosh.  A very emotional tale of the times eh? I'll take a look at the amazon site when my eyesight improves (catarracts now removed but it's still difficult finding my way around websites I'm not used to)

[Skoosh]

I get two eye-tests a year Rena but the cataracts haven't caused a problem! 

Bests.
Skoosh.

[Rena]

I get two eye-tests a year Rena but the cataracts haven't caused a problem! 

Bests.
Skoosh.

lol Skoosh - mine started about 20 years ago and not been a problem until the optician decided otherwise. Since then, my car has been sitting idly enjoying a quiet life for more months that I can remember.   Coincidentally the hospital that operated on my right eye in February 2019 phoned up today to ask how I was getting along - that's the first contact I've had from them, especially as I understood I would be hearing from them via my optician four months after the op - which would be summer 2019.  Maybe the optician was working within the NHS money guidelines = we will pay "X" and not a penny more (and the surgeon you chose from the list given you was extremely expensive, and used up all the allocated money with that one visit).

[Skoosh]

Good luck with that Rena! Fairburn went to the Stirling family, Lovat's cousins but still a Gairloch connection through the wife. Now a nursing home. Keep safe!

Skoosh.

[Rena]

I've got a query about the place of birth of Alexander Mackenzie.  The only "Knockroy" that I can find is one on he Island of Mull, Argyllshire and according to the vicar's notes it only took a six days journey from the birth on Mull to arriving  at Urray on the Black Isle

Knockroy, on Mull apparently had a small settlement in the forest.  There's no hint of father John Mackenzie's occupation, so he could be working for a timber company or as Mull had a thriving herring fishery, maybe he did some sort of paperwork for a fisheries company.

My question:-  Is/was there another placename of Knockroy?

JANNET Mackenzie  born 17 April 1765 in Balloan baptised 21 April 1765 in Urray.

ALEXANDER Mackenzie  born 14 July 1770 in Knockroy, baptised 21st July 1770 in Urray

MARY Mackenzie born 27 Aug 1771 Urray bapt 2nd Sept 1771 in Urray

DONALD Mackenzie born 9 July 1775 in Belloan baptised 17 July 1775 in Urray

JOHN Mackenzie b 26 June 1782 in Laigh Fairburn (posthumous) baptised 30th June 1782 in Urray/

[Skoosh]

Alexander born after he was baptised Rena?

Skoosh.

[Rena]

Alexander born after he was baptised Rena?

Skoosh.

lol, Quite a copycat aren't I 

It just shows, that I don't know whether I'm coming or going and have overtaken myself.   Stupidly I copied and pasted the baptism dates set out in my rootschat post then added the baptism dates.  What I should have done was copy and paste the original list of dates that I already had on a Word document.

the Scottish national archive catalogue has a John Mackenzie,  on the western coast at the right time of 1770 but the wording seems as though that John lived there permanently.

[Skoosh]

I have a similar problem with an Urray Grant, he has the banns called in Lochalsh & her in Urray. What was he doing in Lochalsh? I can only imagine cattle droving or the fishing?
 If this bairn was born in Mull then taken to Urray for baptism, & this was before the canal was built, surely a hazardous trip that would at least need a pony?
 I recently re- read my Dr Halliday Sutherland books, in one of them he mentions infants in the Outer Isles not getting over the thresh-hold untill they were a year old. On the subject of infant mortality in the cities he states that Aberdeen was the highest in Scotland when Edinburgh & Glasgow were equal but lower than Aberdeen. Surprisingly, the black-houses of Harris & Lewis had the lowest infant mortality in Scotland & one of the lowest figures in Europe, while St Kilda's were horrific!
 I would have to check his date for this, Sutherland also worked on epidemics, he was a naval doctor from Easter Ross, Corona would have been right up his street!

Don't see Knockroy on my map of Mid-Ross.

Skoosh.