James Baillie Fraser


1783 - 1856

Traveller, author and painter. Born in Edinburgh into a cadet branch of the Frasers of Lovat, Fraser was brought up on the family estate at Reelig to the southeast of Beauly (E Highland). He joined a family business in Calcutta in 1813 and is noted for his illustrated accounts of his journeys to Persia (Iran) and India between 1815 and 1834, which included an epic 2600 mile (4180 km) journey on horseback from Constantinople (Istanbul) to Isfahan. He explored areas never before visited by westerners, including parts of the Himalayas.

He became the 15th Laird of Reelig on the death of his father in 1835, but died childless at Moniack and is buried in the family grave at Kirkhill.


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