An older MacKay cousin of mine (in Canada) once told me of a trip he had taken, while in the UK, to Sutherland. He told me with some amusement - he seemed to take it as a bit of a joke on himself - that when he asked an old fellow there about the MacKays, he was told "they were all sheep-thieves!" I was a teenager at this time; it wasn't till some years later that I came to realize just WHY those MacKays might have been 'sheep-thieves' - and who it was that was so characterising them ....

The MacKays of my lineage emigrated to Canada in 1815 or thereabouts, if I remember correctly; however, no stories have come down relating to the circumstances, etc.