by 1,252 landowners). The current chief is a member of the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs. The current chief of Clan Mackenzie lives at Castle Leod, which is thought to date from the 16th century. The chief has leased the unoccupied old tower to the Clan Mackenzie Charitable Trust (CMCT) for 99 years. In 1991 it was announced that the castle was planned to be restored. The restoration was to include a clan genealogical centre that would be open to the public. During the 1990s there was extensive work done on the tower. In 2002 the Highland Buildings Preservation Trust (HBPT) was contacted, to carry out a feasibility study to investigate the potential for the re-use of the upper floor space of the tower, which deemed public funding to be sought to cover the costs of restoration. Because of concerns of physical and legal separation between the clan chief and the tower, the chief decided that the conditions of public funding were too onerous. Chief Clan chief: John Ruaridh Grant Mackenzie, 5th Earl of Cromartie (b. 1948), Viscount Tarbat of Tarbat, Baron Castlehaven, Baron MacLeod of Castle Leod, Chief of Clan Mackenzie. Chiefs of Clan Mackenzie are titled as Caberféidh (translation from Scottish Gaelic: "Deer's antlers"). This Gaelic title is derived from the stag's head charge on the former chief, the Earl of Seaforth's Coat of Arms. Castles Castle owned by the Clan Mackenzie have included: Eilean Donan Castle was long held by the Mackenzies of Kintail and it may have been given to them after they helped to defeat the Norsemen at the Battle of Largs in 1263. William Mackenzie, 5th Earl of Seaforth had the castle garrisoned with Spanish troops during the Jacobite rising of 1719, although the castle was battered into submission by three frigates, and it was then blown up from within with barrels of gunpowder. The ghost of one of the Spanish soldiers who was killed is said to haunt the castle. The castle was left very ruinous before being completely rebuilt in the twentieth century. Brahan Castle, about three miles south-west of Dingwall has now been completely demolished except for one wall. It was held by the Mackenzies of Brahan who were patrons of the Brahan Seer. Castle Leod which is a few miles west of Dingwall is an L-plan tower house that dates from the seventeenth century with later additions. The current Castle