Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 2

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INVERNESS- SHIRE.
INVERNESS-SHIRE, one of the most extensive
counties, and by far the most mountainous, in Scot-
land. It is bounded on the north by Ross-shire, and
part of the Moray frith ; on the east by the shires of
Elgin, Moray, and Aberdeen ; on the south by Perth
and Argyle; and on the west by the Atlantic ocean.
A small insulated district, between the shires of Banff
and Moray, containing Cromdale and Inverallen, is
annexed to it; and several of the Hebrides are poli-
tically attached to this county. The mainland ex-
tends in length from the point of Arasaig on the
west, to the point of Ardersier on the east, where
Fort-George is built, about 92 miles ; and its greatest
breadth, from the ferry of Ballachulish to the boun-
dary of Strathglass, is nearly 80 miles.
Playfair estimates the superficies of the continen-
tal part of this county at 2,904 square miles, or
1,858,560 acres; while Robertson estimates the su-
perficies of this part at 7,200 square miles, or
4,608,000 acres ; and that of the islands at one-half
more. The former admeasurement — though an ap-
proximation only — is doubtless nearest the truth ;
but to it must be added 132 square miles, or 84,480
acres for the lakes. The surface of the islands at-
tached to this county is equal to 1,150 square miles,
to which we may add 59 square miles of lakes, —
making in all 1,209 square miles, or 773,760 acres.
Inverness-shire contained, in 1801, including its
islands, 74,292; in 1811, 78,333 inhabitants. In
1821, the population was 90,157; in 1831, it amount-
ed to 94,797 : whereof 44,510 were males, and 50,287
females. The number of families employed in agri-
culture, in 1831, was 9,892; in trade and manufac-
tures, 2,753. The number of inhabited houses 17,312;
the total number of families 19,046. The valued
rent, as stated in the county-books, is £3,188 9s.
Scots ; and the real land-rent was estimated, in 1811,
at £70,530 sterling. The value of assessed property,
in 1815, was £185,565, of which the proportion under
entail was nearly one-half. — The shire comprises 37
parishes. The number of parochial schools, in 1834,
was 34, attended by 2,639 children ; and the total
salaries and emoluments of the teachers amounted to
£1,335 15s. lid. The number of schools not par-
ochial was 122, attended by 6,667 children.
The divisions of this county are chiefly determined
by natural boundaries. Lochaber comprehends that
tract of country whose waters are discharged into the
Western ocean at Fort- William. Moydart, Arasaig,
South and North Morar, and Knoydart, seem to
belong, in an extensive acceptation, to Lochaber,
because these districts are amenable to the sheriff-
court established in that country. Glengarry is ac-
counted a division ; and Glenelg, Glenmoriston, Ur-
quhart, Strathglass, and Aird, the vicinity of Inver-
ness, the lordship of Petty, Ardersier, Stratherrick,
the braes of Strathnairn and of Strathdearn, and the
lordship of Badenoch, are all accounted separate di-
visions of the county of Inverness. These divisions
are generally marked by the different valleys watered
by a river peculiar to each, and comprehended with-
in parallel ranges of opposite hills. The divisions of
high land and low land can scarcely be applied in
this county ; unless the Aird, the vicinity of Inver-
ness, Ardersier, and the lordship of Petty, be ac-
counted the low-land division ; which indeed it is in
relation to the rest, being all bounded on one side
by the sea-shore, and by mountains on the other.
The reader will find separate articles on most of
these divisions inserted in their respective alpha-
betical order in our pages: at the same time we shall
here insert a general sketch of the topography of
Inverness-shire from Dr. Robertson's ' Agricidtural
Survey.' London: 1808, 8 vo.
Unless one were to enter Inverness-shire by
the coast of the German ocean, its aspect from
any other line of approach is rudely grand and
forbidding. The dark blue mountains piled upon
one another, — and stretching away in immense
chains, with hardly a pass or an opening to afford
access from the south or west, — form a barrier which
requires a certain degree of fortitude to attempt,
and of enterprise to surmount. The frequent sight
of poles set up by the side of the public road in
these defiles, as beacons to guide the weary tra-
veller in exploring his way, when the fog is so thick
that he cannot see, or the snow so deep that the
proper path is concealed from view, is a proof of the
danger which is sometimes to be encountered in
entering this part of the kingdom. These moun-
tains stretch across the island, and lie parallel to
every valley, — rising like immense walls on both its
sides, while the inhabited country sinks deep be-
tween them, with a lake or rapid river flowing in
the centre ; and no sooner is one defile passed over,
than another range of hills comes into view, which
conceal in their bosom another defile, and another
strath of inhabited country. Over the whole county
the same appearance of lofty mountains, in constant
succession, seems to intercept the traveller's pro-
gress, — except when he descends along the tract of
a valley, and follows the course of a river, or the
windings of a lake, between two ranges of heath-clad
hills, or of towering rocks whose base is generally
covered with wood.
There are two Highland roads into Inverness-
shire. Going from the county of Perth to Fort-
William, a part of Argyleshire must be passed
through, between Tyndrum and Ballachulish. In
this ride — which is an ordinary day's journey — the
Black-mount, the inn called the King's house, and
the valley of Glencoe, are objects which arrest a
traveller's attention. The Black-mount has been
covered — at least all round the base — with a forest
of natural firs. The remains of this wood are still
growing at Inveroran. The soil is a crust of moss,
formed by the deciduous parts or the leaves of fir
and heath, upon a subsoil of gravel or deep peat
earth. The stocks of the old trees are so weather-
beaten by the storms that their bleached tops re-
semble human skulls strewed on the ground. On
the south are high hills affording good pasture for
sheep. On the north is a boundless flat of deep
moss, reaching from Glenlyon and Rannoch on the
east, to the braes of Badenoch on the north, and
westward to the confines of Lochaber at Lochtreig.
There is little doubt of this being the most exten-
sive field of moss in Britain. Numberless little
lakes are interspersed throughout its entire extent,
and in some of these are islands with tufts of trees.
On approaching King's house inn, that steep as-
cent, with its manifold traverses, called the Devil's
Staircase, appears in full view in the west. This
path is now deserted; and the public road is turned
towards the left, down the valley of Glencoe, which
forms a long circuitous line to Fort- William : See
Glencoe. After travelling some miles down the
glen, the eye is refreshed by the beauties of Inver-
coe, and the glen — which had hitherto been dreary
and frowning — all of a sudden assumes a pleasant
aspect, in its winding limpid stream, — the variety of
wood which covers its verdant banks, — the appear-
ance of cultivation in the fields, — and the snugness
of the laird's house, situated at the extremity of a
bay of the sea which opens to the meridian sun. A
few miles below Invercoe, and on the left side of
Loch-Leven, that arm of the sea narrows into a
strait, named Calas ic Phatric, — 'the Strait of the
Son of Patrick,'— which is the ferry at this place
from the county of Argyle into that of Inverness.