In about the year 1406 a feud arose between the Clan Mackay and the Clan MacLeod of Lewis (and Assynt).
:For the place in Scotland, see Clashmore, Assynt.
Born in Assynt, Scotland, Mackenzie entered politics by winning a seat in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia (BC) in the 1920 BC election.
The boundary between Ross-shire and Sutherland (and therefore between the parishes of Lochbroom and Assynt) runs the length of the loch.
Assynt House was later the home of the artist Lady Isobel Blunt-Mackenzie (b. 1922 – d. 1962), sister of the 4th Earl of Cromartie, and her husband Captain Oscar Linda, son of General Maximilian Linda of Zakopane, Poland.
In 1572, Roderick was brought before the Privy Council, where he was forced to resign to the Crown his lands of Lewis, Assynt, Coigach and Waternish.
Traditions linked the MacNicols with Lewis, as well as Assynt across the Minch; before being supplanted by the MacLeods who married a MacNicol heiress.