Two women with a passion for The Arts but differing ideas about life..

The two sisters were born three years apart. Sibell, the eldest sister, was titled Countess of Cromartie (1878-1962), while her sister was Lady Constance (1881-1932). Siblings who shared a love of the Arts they may have been but it would be their differences that would characterise their relationship. They were both women of conviction, though; a thread that weaves its way quietly through Mackenzie history.

They grew up in the Victorian era when nearby Strathpeffer was a busy spa town frequented by people wishing to absorb the medicinal properties of the natural spring waters - the craze of the time. Residing in Castle Leod, their interests took them in diverse directions. 

Sibell was a retiring child, quiet and shy, who would lose herself in books and wandering the moorland with her dog. By her 20s, she had begun a career as an author of short stories and mystical romantic novels. Her six novels include Heremon the Beautiful, Temple of the Winds and From a Dark Place which although out of print are still sought after. She believed in spiritualism and was said to have experienced sightings of ghosts and other psychic phenomena. She was widely travelled in the Middle East and claimed to have a Phoenician spirit guide; some of her predictions were reported to have come to pass. Eventually, she became president of the Spiritualist Society of Great Britain. 

Lady Constance was a competitive swimmer who won several gold medals at London’s prestigious Bath Club. She was also accomplished in fencing and shooting. She practised the latter on safaris in India and Africa where she hunted big game, a far cry from her sister’s more gentle pursuits. Also an author, her book Dancing, Beauty and Games (Arthur L. Humphreys, 1913) concerned the return to a ‘natural’ way of life where strenuous physical activity would encourage a balanced mind. The book was digitised by the Internet Archive Project in 2008; it can be dowloaded here.

While Sibell performed the role of Countess in high society and spent her time considering philosophy, spiritualism and life after death, Constance is best known (infamous, perhaps) for her dancing roles. With her friend, Isadora Duncan, she toured theatres across Europe and America dancing in scantily-clad costumes not befitting that of a Lady in the Victorian era. She was eventually banished from court when during her performance of the scandalous Dance of the Seven Veils, she took it upon herself, in her character of Salome, to demand the head of King Edward VII’s finance minister rather than that of John the Baptist. Unimpressed, the King took the rather severe action of banishing her from court. 

Her younger sister's behaviour in public must have embarrassed Sibell whose gentle nature and responsibility as Countess meant she had a prescribed duty to perform. In contrast to this, Constance was impulsive and impetuous: she took her life by the horns and lived it her own way regardless of the consequences.

In 2023, award-winning author of historical fiction, Elizabeth Hutchison Bernard, published a novel inspired by the contrasting lives of Sibell and Constance entitled The Sisters of Castle Leod. It is a ‘haunting, emotionally-charged story of two sisters torn apart by jealousy and superstition, and the impossible leap of faith that could finally bring them together’. 

It is, perhaps, a story that would have appealed to both sisters, equally, had they read it in their time.

The photograph above pictures Constance, Isadora Duncan, Maud Allan and Ruth St Denis; it was taken in New York for Vanity Fair in 1916.