Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 4

INVERMORISTON
in the latter half of the 17th century, Invermay is now
the property of Lord Clinton, who holds 119S acres in
Perthshire, valued at £1016 per anuum. See Fetter-
caikn. —Ord. Sur., sh. 48, 1868.
Invermoriston, a hamlet in Urquhart and Glenmoris-
ton parish, Inverness-shire, at the mouth of Glen-
moriston, on the NW side of Loch Ness, 7 miles NNE
of Fort Augustus. It has a post office (Glenmoriston),
with money order, savings' hank, and telegraph depart-
ments, an inn, and a public school. Invermoriston
House is an old but modernised mansion, the seat of
Ian Robert James Murray Grant, Esq. of Glenmoriston
(b. 1860 ; sue. 1868), whose ancestor got a charter of
the estate in 1509, and who holds 74,646 acres in the
shire, valued at £4955 per annum. It was at Inver-
moriston, in 1773, that Dr Johnson first conceived the
thought of his tour to the Hebrides. — Ord. Sur., sh.
73, 1878.
Inverneil, an estate, with a mansion, in South Knap-
dale parish, Argyllshire, 3 miles S of Ardrishaig. Its
owner, Duncan Campbell, Esq. (b. 1843 ; sue. 187S),
holds 11,810 acres in the shire, valued at £2977 per
annum.
Inverness (Gael. inbliir-Ness, 'the mouth of theNess'),
a parish on the NE border of Inverness-shire at the NE
extremity of the Great Glen of Scotland. It embraces
the old parishes of Inverness and Bona, and is bounded
N by the Beauly and Moray Firths, NE by Petty, for
i mile at the extreme E by Nairnshire, SE and S by
Daviot and Dunliehity, by a detached portion of Croy
and Dalcross, and by Dores, SW and W by Urquhart
and Glenmoriston, and Nff by Kiltarlity and by Kirk-
hill. Along the sea-shore on the N the boundary is
natural, as it also is along the line from Racecourse
Wood SW along the centre of Doehfour Loch and Loch
Ness to the extreme S point of the parish, 4| miles
from the NE end of the latter loch. Elsewhere it is
artificial and very irregular. The extreme length of the
parish, from Culloden Brickworks on the NE in a line
straight SW to the borders of the parish of Urquhart
and Glenmoriston, is 14g miles ; the breadth in aline at
right angles to this varies from 1£ to Sh miles ; while
the area is 23,573 acres, of which the most considerable
portion is under cultivation or woodland, though in the
southern and south-western parts of the parish there is
a good deal of waste ground. The surface along the
seaboard is flat, but rises to the S, until in the SW
portion of the parish, on the NW side of Loch Ness, at
Cnoe-na-Goithe, Carn-a-Bhodaich, and Carn-an-Leitre,
it reaches a height of 1249, 1642, and 1424 feet respec-
tively. The NE half of the parish consists principally
of the north -eastermost portion of the Great Glen of Scot-
land, extending from the lower part of Loch Ness to
the firths, and is flanked on both sides by the termina-
tions of the hill boundaries of the glen. These are
generally well wooded. The surface of the valley is
mostly flat and but little above sea-level, but at one
or two points there are considerable undulations. Of
these we may notice the hill of Tomnahurich ('the hill
of the fairies ') on the left side of the Ness near the town.
It is a beautifully wooded isolated mount resembling a
ship with her keel up, and measuring 1984 feet in
length, 176 in breadth, and 223 in height. It has now
been finely laid out as an extramural burying-place for
the adjacent burgh of Inverness. A little to the W of
this is a gravel ridge called Tor-a-Bhean or Torvean,
rising to a height of 300 feet. The soil along the
coast part is good and well cultivated, and in the
vicinity of the town it is a fine clayey loam, originally
formed by deposit from the river Ness and the firths,
while on the arable land in the SW it is light and
sandy. The subsoil is gravel and clay, and the under-
lying rocks in the low grounds belong to the Old Red
sandstone, while in the upper districts they are meta-
morphic. Sandstone of a light grey colour, with inter-
mixture of mica in small scales, and limestone, occurs
on the lands of Leys, and contains calcareous spar,
steatite, and heavy spar. The sandstone beside Clach-
naharry pier, at the mouth of the Caledonian Canal,
INVERNESS
contains celestine. The drainage of the parish is
effected by the various streams that fall into Loch Ness
or into the river Ness, among which may he men-
tioned the burns of Abriachan — flowing from the small
LochLaide(23 x 2 furl. ; 860 feet) — Doehfour, Holm,and
Inches, which have some small cascades and good wood-
land scenery. The parish is traversed by roads leading
from Inverness as a centre eastward by Elgin to Aber-
deen, northward by Beauly to Dingwall, etc., south-
ward by Badenoch to Perth. The Caledonian Canal
passes through it from the NE end of Loch Ness to the
Beauly Firth at Clachnaharry, a distance of nearly 6J
miles, and connects Inverness with the SW of Scotland.
The regular service of passenger steamers from Glasgow
has its terminus at Muirtown, about 1 mile from the
mouth of the canal, and 1 mile NW of the suspension
bridge over the Ness in the burgh. The parish is also
traversed by the Highland railway system, which
passes through its whole breadth along the seaboard,
for a distance of 6 j miles. The main station is at Inver-
ness, and there is a station 1 J mile to the NW at Clach-
naharry. Besides the burgh of Inverness, the parish
contains also the suburban village of Clachnaharry and
the villages of Balloch, Culcabock, Hilton, Resaudrie,
and Smithtown of Culloden. There are a number of
objects of antiquarian interest, of which some are
noticed under the town, while others are noticed sepa-
rately under Bona, Clachnaharry, and Craig Pha-
drick. Tomnahurich, already noticed, was at one time
a ward and mote-hill, and in later days the magistrates
of the burgh of Inverness used to patronise horse-races,
run round its base. The ridge of Torvean, already
noticed, seems to take its name from Donald Bane, who
was in 1187 killed in conflict with the garrison of
Inverness. Part of it shows traces of an ancient hill
fort ; and in 1808, near the base, there was dug up a
massive double-linked silver chain, now in the Anti-
quarian Society's Museum at Edinburgh. Some cairns
near the fort are known as Kilvean or Kil-a-Bhcan, the
cell of Bean or Bane, who is by some identified as the
islesman just mentioned, but according to others is
Baithene (536-600), second abbot of Ioua in succession
to St Columba. The whole estate of Bucht, of which
Torvean forms part, is said to be also called Kilvean.
In the Abriachan district there are also traces of a Kil
and a number of cairns. At Leys, 3 miles SE of the
burgh of Inverness, is a so-called Druidical circle of no
great size, but very perfect. There are three circles,
the external diameter being 30 paces, and the internal
diameter 6. On the eastern border of the parish is
part of Drumniossie Muir, where the battle of Culloden
was fought. Near the mouth of the Ness, now a con-
siderable way within flood-mark, is a large cairn of
stones known as Cairn Aire ( 'the cairn of the sea'). It
is now marked by a beacon, as it is dangerous to vessels
approaching the harbour. Due W of this, in the Beauly
Firth, are other three cairns, in one of which urns have
been discovered. The whole four seem interesting as
pointing to a change in the relative level of sea and
land. Mansions, all noticed separately, are Culloden,
Doehfour, Muirtown, Ness Castle, and Raigmore ; and
19 proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and
upwards, 76 of between £100 and £500, and 88 of from
£50 to £100. Inverness is the seat of a presbytery
in the synod of Moray. There are three charges,
the first, second, and third, for respectively the
High Church, the West Church, and the Gaelic
Church, all of which are in the burgh. The stipend
of the first charge is £388, 10s., with £10 for com-
munion elements, and a manse and glebe worth re-
spectively £55 and £105 a year ; that of the second
charge is £3S7, 18s. Id., with £10 for communion
elements, and with a glebe worth £106 a year, but no
manse ; that of the third charge is £136, 6s. 8d. from
Government, and about £64 from the holders of the
ancient bishop of Moray's rents, with a glebe worth
£25 a year, but no manse. Under the landward school-
board are the public schools of Abriachan, Culcabock,
Culduthel, Culloden, and Dochgarroch, which, with
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