The regiment was raised by Francis Humberston MacKenzie, Chief of the Clan Mackenzie and later Lord Seaforth, as the 78th (Highlanders) Regiment of Foot (or The Ross-shire Buffs) on 8 March 1793. First assembled at Fort George in July 1793, the regiment moved to the Channel Islands in August 1893, and embarked for Holland in September 1794 for service in the French Revolutionary Wars. It saw action at the defence of Nijmegen in November 1794. In a bayonet attack there the regiment lost one officer and seven men; a further four officers and 60 men were wounded. The regiment moved to England in April 1795 and then sailed to France for the Battle of Quiberon Bay in June 1795 and the landing at Île d'Yeu, off the Brittany coast, in September 1795, after which it was stationed in England.