Forse Castle (7)
Like the other properties I have visited driving up the coast of Caithness, the earliest named owners of Forse were the 'le Chens' or Cheynes - as they were known as later.  The website <a href="http://www.caithness.org" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.caithness.org</a> states that the Cheynes obtained them &quot;by a marriage to an heiress of the Norse ruling family.&quot;  

While that may be true, I can't see a likely marriage in the Cheyne pedigree.  Sir Reginald le Chen of Inverugie, Duffus &amp; Straloch, Sheriff of Inverness etc., whose daughter married Nicholas Sutherland of Duffus, married Helen, daughter of Malise, Earl of Strathearn.  His father, Sir Reginald le Chen of Inverugie, Duffus &amp; Straloch, married Mary, daughter of Freskin de Moravia of Duffus; and his father, another Sir Reginald le Chen of Inverugie, married a daughter of William de Comyn, 1st Earl of Buchan.  Further back than that, the pedigree I have shows no wives - Norse or anything else.  The jury's out!
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