Clan Mackenzie in the 13th and 14th centuries, terminated in the heiress Margaret del Ard, the Lady of Erchless, who married Alexander Chisolm of Cromer c.1350. In the 14th century during the Wars of Scottish Independence the Clan Mackenzie is said to have been among the clans who fought on the side of Robert the Bruce at the Battle of Inverurie (1308) against the forces of the Clan Comyn who were rivals to the throne. Chief Iain Mac Coinnich is said to have led a force of five hundred Mackenzies at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 where the English were defeated.
Battle of Allt Camhna they were guilty of treachery, which is much worse than a defeat. The day and place were fixed for their meeting the Caithness men, and they did not appear, but allowed those to be cut down by a host which had laid their accounts to have the combined forces of Caithness and Sutherland to contend with"". 17th-century historian Sir Robert Gordon (1580–1656), who was living at the time of the battle and who was a younger son of Alexander Gordon, 12th Earl of Sutherland, wrote an account of the battle in his book "A Genealogical History of the Earldom of