Gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 2

INVERNESS.
560
tain, that the Romans were obliged to with-
draw from this district in the year 170.
Among other traditions related of the early
state of the country here, it is told in Inver-
ness, as an authentic legend, that most of the
space, now an arm of the sea, extending from
Fort George to Beauly, was once dry land,
through which the rivers Farrar, or Beauly,
and Ness flowed, uniting their currents at the
present estuary of the Ness. This curious
tradition derives confirmation from the sepul-
chral cairns to be seen at low water, far within
flood-mark in the Beauly Firth, in some of
which, urns, logs of oak, and pieces of wrought
iron, have recently been found. The whole
of the Firth above Fort George is remarkably
shallow, a circumstance also countenancing the
tradition. We may now proceed to detail a
6eries of historical incidents connected with
this ancient town, drawn from authentic sources.
The earliest traces to be found of Inverness in
any thing like credible or authentic history, re-
present it as having been a Pictish capital, and
as having lost that distinction in the union of
the crowns of the Picts and Scots, in the per-
son of Kenneth, in the year 843. Buchanan
and Boethius unite in relating that King Dun-
can was murdered in the castle of Inverness,
by Macbeth, 1039, — " Per occasionem regem
septimum jam annum regnantem, ad Enverness
(alii dicunt Bothgofuane,) obtruncat." Boe-
thius, lib. 12. — " Regem, opportunara insidiis
ad Ennernessam nactus, septimum jam regnan-
tem annum, obtruncat." Buchanan, lib. 7.
Fordun speaks of the transaction as having ta-
ken place near Elgin, — " Latenter apud Both-
gofuane vulneratus ad mortem, et apud Elgin
delatus occubuit." Shakespeare has followed
Boethius and Buchanan in placing the murder
at Inverness ; and the poet has done justice to
the agreeable situation of the castle in which he
supposed the assassination to have occurred :
" This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses."
This edifice, which in reality was the property
and residence of the famed thane of Lochaber,
but which, we fear, has no real pretensions to
this historical and poetic honour, stood on an
eminence to the east of the town, a spot well
worthy of the above flattering description. It
is now generally^allowed that the murder must
have taken place at Bothgowan, (a place now
unknown,) near Elgin. When Malcolm III.,
or Canmore, overthrew the murderer of his fa-
ther, in detestation of the crime, he razed the
castle of Macbeth, which stood on the hill
called " the Crown," and built another fortress
to serve as a royal residence, choosing for its
site a lofty eminence, overhanging the town
on the south. This latter edifice continued
for several centuries to be a royal fortress,
occasionally affording accommodation to the
kings of Scotland, when they happened to visit
this remote part of their dominions. David I.
raised the town to the condition of a royal
burgh ; and in the reign of that beneficent mo-
narch, it was made the appointed seat of a she-
riff, whose authority extended over the wholo
of Scotland north of the Grampians. About
the middle of the twelfth century, the name of
Mackintosh originated at Inverness, in this man-
ner. Shaw Macduff, son of Duncan, the sixth
earl of Fife, or descendant of king Duff, who
was killed at Forres, having come north in the
expedition of Malcolm IV. and settled on lands
acquired by his services, assumed the surname
of Mackintosh — son of the thane, as significant
of his high birth. He was, at the same time,
appointed hereditary governor of the castle of
Inverness ; and he and his descendants have
usually been styled the chiefs of the clan Chat-
tan. In 1214, William the Lion granted four
charters to the burgh, containing many exemp-
tions from burdens, a variety of privileges as to
manufactures, and the appointment of a regular
magistracy. In 1217, another charter was
given by Alexander II. In 1229, during the
reign of this sovereign, the town was plundered
and destroyed by fire, by a turbulent and potent
Highland ruffian, named Gillespick M' Scour-
lane, who levied war against the king, and be-
sides burning the town, spoiled the neighbour-
ing crown lands, and put all to death who would
not swear allegiance to him. Being defeated
and taken, he was beheaded by command of
the king's justiciary. It is shrewdly conjec-
tured, that this melancholy incident was the
moving cause of the town being built on a bet-
ter site, and in a more regular manner. A mo-
nastery of friars was founded in the town by
Alexander II. 1233. The site and garden of
this religious house became, at the Reforma-
tion, the parish minister's glebe, and the site
of its church became the burial-ground, called
now "the Grey Friars' burial-ground." In
1237, Alexander II. gave the town a charter
of additional lands for its support. Edward L