Page:The Story of the Cheeryble Grants.djvu/49

Rh Gordon; moreover it was occupied by Edward I. of England in the stormy and heroic days of William Wallace. Mackerach Castle, now, like Lochindorb, a ruin, was built by a Grant at the close of the 16th Century.

It is near the centre of the Strath and about two miles from the Spey that the stately Castle Grant still stands — the cynosure of clansmen’s eyes; for there, secure in the loyalty of Highland hearts and the sweep of keen claymores, has remained, through more than five stern centuries, the roof-tree of the chief of the clan. Shadowy pines — the clansman's badge — still adorn with fitting grace the surrounding scene, while, child of the cloud-cleaving Grampians, and eager as a clansman for the fray, the noble Spey still rushes past — the fleetest and most generous of British streams. Its strath is the largest Highland valley, and the greatest waterway north of the