This portrait of Dr John Mackenzie was presented by his son, Colonel Hector Mackenzie. John Mackenzie was born in 1803, the fourth son of Sir Hector Mackenzie of Gairloch. His mother was from Inverness. She returned to the town after the death of her husband in 1826.

Mackenzie studied medicine, becoming an MD and FRCS. He then spent some time in the army before coming back to Scotland in 1830. He took up farming at Kinellan, Strathpeffer. He was a keen reformer of the crofting system, although the crofters themselves were often opposed to his ideas. Dr Mackenzie had the honour on two occasions of welcoming Queen Victoria to the town. He habitually wore Highland dress and she described him in her diaries as 'a fine-looking old man in a kilt with very white hair, and a long white beard'.