Kintail ( Gaelic. Ceann Tàile "the head of two seas"; Eng. Kintail ) - a historical area in the north-west of Scotland on the coast of the straits that separate the island of Skye from the main island of Great Britain . Kintail itself is a small area between the Loch Long and Loch Duych fjords, however, the Lochals Peninsula, facing the Isle of Skye, is also included in the historic Kintail area. This region is currently part of the Highland area .
The largest settlement of Kintail is Kyle of Lohals (approx. 1 thousand people), the final point of the railway line and the crossing point to the Isle of Skye. The historical center of the region is the medieval castle of Eilean-Donan , one of the "calling cards" of highland Scotland. Kintail is one of the most picturesque regions of Scotland: mountain ranges (heights of up to 1000 m) almost drop off steeply to narrow straits and fjords , there are also many waterfalls (in particular, one of the largest in the UK, Glomah Falls (113 m)).
In 1266 , the lands of Kintail were bestowed by the King of Scotland, Alexander III, to the Irish Baron Colin Fitzgerald for his help against the Norwegian fleet at the Battle of Largs . The descendants of Colin Fitzgerald became the ancestors of the Mackenzie clan, one of the most important Scottish clans. Mackenzie began to dominate Kintail from the fourteenth century , when he was transferred to the royal castle of Eilean-Donan. Their influence in northwestern Scotland was especially strengthened at the end of the 15th century , when after the fall of the MacDonalds , Lords of the Islands, a vacuum of power formed in the region. Gradually, Mackenzie extended his power to much of Ross . In 1623 , the head of the clan received the title of Earl of Seafort from the king. At the end of the XVII-XVIII centuries, Mackenzie became one of the Jacobite leaders and used their positions in Kintail to organize invasions of Scotland with the aim of restoring the Stuarts . So in 1715 , Earl Seafort became lieutenant general of the Jacobite forces of Northern Scotland, and in 1719 he provided Eilean-Donan for the landing of the Spanish expeditionary force, but the English fleet was able to prevent this.
