Why is Russell Crowe playing a gig in Inverness?

Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe is playing a music gig in the Scottish Highlands this summer.

The star of Gladiator, Les Misérables, Beautiful Mind and Romper Stomper is also a musician, and has performed rock, pop and jazz with the band Indoor Garden Party and as a solo artist.

Last month, he sang at the Sanremo Italian Song Festival in Italy.

Just days after this performance, he posted on social media platform X: "What about a gig in Inverness?

"Any Fraser of Lovat relatives want to come?"

What has Russell Crowe do with a Scottish clan?

It turns out the New Zealand-born actor and musician believes he is a descendant of the 11th Lord Lovat, who supported Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Crowe was studying his family tree when a cousin found a link to the clan chief on his father's mother's side via a Scot called Angus Fraser.

Angus arrived in New Zealand in 1841 and is described as the first man to land in the country's South Island in a kilt, according to Crowe.

Angus was a descendant of the 11th Lord Lovat.

In a post on X in January, Crowe said: "Look him up. He’s quite the character.

"The Old Fox they used to call him."

Who are the Frasers of Lovat?

Piper Bill Millin was instructed by Simon Fraser, 17th Lord Lovat, to play his bagpipes as troops landed at Normandy on 6 June 1944

The 700-year-old clan is deeply embedded in Scottish history.

Beauly, a village about 20 miles west of Inverness, and the surrounding area has been the clan's homeland since the early 1300s.

In the 16th Century, the Frasers of Lovat supported Mary, Queen of Scots and in her name laid siege to Inverness Castle after she was denied entry to the fortress.

The Frasers would later support the Stuarts' claim to the British throne, with Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat and nicknamed the Old Fox, losing his head because of his support for Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Another famous Fraser of Lovat chief was Brigadier Simon Fraser, 17th Lord Lovat.

On 6 June 1944 at D-Day, he instructed Glaswegian piper Bill Millin to play the bagpipes as Allied troops landed while under fire from German defences.

Mr Millin was unarmed as he marched up and down the beach playing Hieland Laddie.

In the 1962 film The Longest Day, which features a re-creation of Mr Millin's piping, Lord Lovat is played by actor Peter Lawford. It also stars Sean Connery, Richard Burton, Robert Mitchum and Henry Fonda.

Who was the Old Fox?

The background to Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, is quite a story.

The clan chief, the last person to be beheaded in Britain, is recorded in history as a charmer who was prepared to switch sides during and around the times of the Jacobite uprisings.

But the last of those risings, in which he supported Bonnie Prince Charlie, ended in defeat for the Jacobites at Culloden in April 1746. The following year, Lord Lovat was executed at Tower Hill in London.

It is said that several people who had gathered to watch the beheading died after the scaffold they were on collapsed.

Lord Lovat found this incident funny and was said to have been so visibly amused when he was executed that his death led to the phrase "laughing your head off".

The Old Fox is a figure familiar to fans of Diana Gabaldon's series of Outlander books.

In the author's time-travelling, romantic adventure stories, he is the grandfather of Jamie Fraser, one of the books' lead characters.

Scottish actor Clive Russell plays The Old Fox in the television adaptation of Gabaldon's novels.

The headless woman mystery

Forensic scientist Dame Sue Black examines bones at Wardlaw Mausoleum

The story of the Old Fox took an intriguing twist about six years ago.

The official account of The Old Fox's execution was that the Clan Fraser chief's body was buried under a chapel floor in the Tower of London.

But it has long been believed that his supporters intercepted the body while it was being moved and took it on a ship back to Scotland.

A headless body in a lead casket at the Fraser of Lovat family's Wardlaw Mausoleum at Kirkhill, near Inverness, was believed to be him.

To put the rumours to bed, a forensic examination of the remains was made led by renowned forensic anthropologist Dame Sue Black.

In 2018 the results revealed the body was that of a woman aged 25 to 35 - sparking a whole new mystery to who she might be.

So, after all that, is Russell Crowe coming to Inverness?

Yes, is the short answer.

He has posted on X a series of European tour dates with his band, Indoor Garden Party.

On 26 July they are headed for Inverness’ Eden Court.

He told BBC Radio Scotland's The Culture Scene he had also found a connection to the 6th Lord Lovat, who was married to a sister of Robert the Bruce.

Crowe said discovering a link to Scotland "just blew my mind".

He told the podcast: "What I been doing? I have got to go to Scotland.

"We decided instead of playing in Glasgow or Edinburgh we would go to the heart of the matter and play in Inverness."

Crowe also told The Culture Scene of his love for the music of Scottish band Del Amitri - and haggis.