Macraes of eishken
In March 2026, the Kinloch Historical Society launched the Macreas of Eishken exhibition, celebrating 150 years of the Macrae family serving as gamekeepers of the Eishken Estate.
Below is an article from the online publication, “We Love Stornoway” which covered the launch event.
“Living history” marks 150 years of family as gamekeepers at Eishken
“Living history in the making” has gone on display marking 150 years of one family as gamekeepers of the Eishken estate.
Kinloch Historical Society in Balallan previewed its exhibition of pictures and artefact relating to the “momentous” service offered by the Macrae family to the Eishken estate over the past 150 years.
The involvement of the family will hit the landmark 150 years in May this year when current head keeper Chris Macrae celebrates his 44 years in the role and his son, Duncan, continues the tradition to become the fifth generation of the family to serve as game keeper.
Explaining how the exhibition came about Chair of Kinloch Historical Society Ken Roddy Mackay, said “We were doing Gaelic interviews with members of the community recording the last 80 years and during one of those we interviewed Chris Macrae and he mentioned that in May his family would be head keepers at Eishken for 150 years and we thought that it was such a momentous thing we would do a display on that and the family have worked closely with us on it. In today’s context, to have five generations of one family doing the same job is unique probably.”
Chris Macrae, explained that he went into game keeping at Eishken straight from school. Asked what the exhibition meant to him, he said: “It’s fantastic, we have had lots to do with it and worked closely with Kinloch Historical Society.
Many of the exhibits and pictures reveal the physicality of the role. Chris relived some of the dramatic moments of stalking, particularly in “rutting time” where the stags in particular can be quite dangerous when getting back on their feet but “not often maybe once or twice in a lifetime,” he reflected.
Chris said that his favourite part of his day was the early mornings and that most of the activities of the day were influenced by the weather. He said he has no intention of retiring just yet “we’ll see if the health prevails and I’ll keep at it. It can be tough at times and very physical but it’s a good life.”
Chris talked of the importance of ghillies in helping with the heavy physical work of gamekeeping and revealed that getting local people involved with the job of ghillies was a challenge, with most at present coming from the mainland.
However, the gamekeeping dynasty is set to continue Chris explained with his son, Duncan, coming into work on the estate as the fifth generation and his daughter Heather also employed there too. “It’s living history in the making, Chris said.
Chair, Mr Mackay expressed his gratitude to all who attended and his delight at how well the event was attended and brought people together to learn about each other.
“The exhibition has been good to bring people together with people here today who are distantly related but the Macraes in Eishken didn’t know them so it’s been good to bring them together and that they can learn about their past and how their cousins are and things like that.
“ That happens at every exhibition we have. People who come who may not be known to the people to whom the exhibit pertains but it all helps.”
Ken explained that the exhibition will be open until the end of April and we will look at whether we extend it after that.
Ken revealed that the exhibition brought fond memories back to him of growing up in and visiting Eishken. “I remember four generations of Macraes and so it’s really good for me to see that recorded properly. Deer stalking is not something that most of the people in the community know about but it is good that they understand what other people are doing in the community and the jobs that are involved. Not just the stalking but the people who look after the estate and do the gardens, everything. It’s a local employer and has been for over 100 years so it’s really important to record that.”
We Love Sty