Inverness

“ Oban, Fort-William, and Inverness are the chief bases of West Highland touring. To Lorne and to Lochaber we shall return anon. Of Inverness, properly a Highland frontier city, if capital of the Highland Railway, enough has been said in my former volume; but here I would take the opportunity of correcting a slight anachronism by which I there spoke of Inverness Castle as used for a prison. I learn that within the last two or three years it has been freed from this degradation. The Highlands have not much need of prisons ”

“ Wesley describes Inverness as the largest town he had seen in Scotland after Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen. "It stands in a pleasant and fruitful country, and has all things needful for life and godliness. The people in general speak remarkably good English, and are of a friendly, courteous behaviour." ”

“ At Inverness the Lowland life came to an end. To the west of that town no road had ever been made till some years after the rising of 1715. All beyond was the work of General Wade and the other military engineers. "Here," writes Johnson, "the appearance of life began to alter. I had seen a few women with plaids at Aberdeen, but at Inverness the Highland manners are common. There is, I think, a kirk in which only the Erse language is used." The plaid, which was not peculiar to the Highlands, had been rapidly going out of fashion. ”

“ A very good bridge over the Ness leads to that ferry, and to Beauley, and the country of Aird, or Frazer country; and by another road south-west, to the places that lie upon the north-west side of Loch Ness, Glen Urquhart, &c. When I was at Inverness there was not a trace of its ancient castle; some person having lately removed the small remains of its ruin to build offices, or some such thing, for his own convenience:—what an Hottentot! There is at Inverness a provost, or mayor, and twenty-four other magistrates. ”

“ INVERNESS, a royal, municipal and police burgh, seaport and county town of Inverness-shire, Scotland. Pop. (1891) , 19,303; (1901) 21,238. It lies on both banks, though principally on the right, of the Ness; and is 118 m. N. of Perth by the Highland railway. Owing to its situation at the north-eastern extremity of Glen More, the beauty of its environment and its fine buildings, it is held to be the capital of the Highlands; and throughout the summer it is the headquarters of an immense tourist traffic. ”

“ I travelled partly on horseback and partly on foot through almost every county that lies southern of Inverness; I have read the map of Scotland upon the great scale of nature, from the summits of Ben Nevis and Ben Lomond; I have visited that island whence savage and roaming bands derived the benefits of knowledge and the blessings of religion. Yes, amid the ruins of Iona I have abjured the rigid philosophy which would conduct us indifferent and unmoved over any ground that has been dignified by wisdom, by bravery, and by virtue. ”

“ Perth, September 6, 1902.
Our farthest north on our European tour was Inverness, the capital of the Highlands, which we reached from Oban by way of the magnificent route through the Caledonian Canal, and which we left by way of the railroad that runs southwards through the battlefield of Culloden, where the Young Pretender was defeated, and the cause of the Stuarts finally overthrown in 1746. The town has twenty thousand people, is well built of substantial materials, a fresh-looking pink stone predominating, and is the cleanest city we have seen in Great Britain. ”

“ On the slope of the hill were clustered a crowd of women and children, screaming and lamenting, while at the far extremity of the glen, where the narrow and winding road that led to Inverness dipped down towards the Caledonian Canal, we perceived a train of carts laden with furniture—the miserable household gear of our poor cotters; while the bayonets of a party of soldiers who escorted it—like a Spanish treasure or a Roman triumph—flashed a farewell ray in the setting sun, for resistance had been anticipated by Mr. Ephraim Snaggs ”

“ The Times says four feet of snow has fallen at Inverness, where I am to spend next Monday night. Do you suppose there will be coal enough and tartans heavy enough to remedy all these miseries?
In spite of the gloomy, cold weather in Bath and its suburbs, I liked the country immensely. I saw hills standing out in clear outlines against the sky, magnificent trees, and a richness of verdure unequalled elsewhere, unless it is in the valleys of Switzerland. But all this is not to be compared with Saint-Cloud or Versailles in fine weather. ”

“ Many poor students there were from the far Highlands of Inverness, whose future careers, if not indeed their very lives, depended upon their success in this competition, and who, if unsuccessful, would have to go back to the misery of their smoky Highland homes and hard work, to be the butt of many a senseless joke and the laughing-stock of the parish, that would tell them to their faces that pride goeth before a fall and haughtiness before destruction. ”

“ Just at the lake, on the left, is a monastic ruin.
From Inverness to Fort Augustus, 32 miles.
I would advise you to set out very early indeed, from Inverness, for you cannot sleep at General's Hut; the only house between Inverness and Fort Augustus. While your horses are baiting at General's Hut, eat your meal as fast as you can, and take a guide to the Fall of Fyres, which is close by the road you are to go to Fort Augustus, and order the carriage to follow you to the fall; as soon as the horses shall be sufficiently rested. ”

“ Between Elgin and Inverness, it is true, we shall see but few of the great sheep-farmers and flock-masters of the west country, who converge on the annual tryst from other points of the compass and by various routes—by the Skye railway, by that portion of the Highland line which extends north of Inverness, through Ross into Sutherland, by the Caledonian Canal, etc. But it is promised to me that I shall see many of the notable agriculturists of Moray land, who go to the market as buyers ”

“ The same coast is much more comfortably served by railway as far as Inverness, the starting-point being Point Tupper, C. B., on the opposite side of the Strait from Mulgrave. Intercolonial trains are transported by ferry, en route to Sydney via the Bras d'Or Lakes. (See fine print following "Inverness County.")
Inverness County.
Once across the majestic canal provided by nature as a passage from the ocean to the lower Gulf of St. Lawrence, one has entered a kingdom where Nature in all things reigns undisputed. Cape Breton has no sophisticated cities or pretentious resorts. ”

“ Inverness-shire (90) , the largest county in Scotland, stretches from the Moray Firth to the Atlantic, and includes many islands, Skye, the Outer Hebrides (except Lewis) , and others; it embraces a large part of the Highlands, is very mountainous, has many glens and lochs, but little fertile land; there are large deer forests, grouse moors, and sheep runs; Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles (4406 ft.) , is in this county. ”

“ It happened on one occasion that Gibbon More chanced to go to a fair or market at Inverness. The streets were crowded with people, as well as with horses, cows, and oxen of all sorts. There might have been observed the eagle-winged bonnet of the chief, followed by his tail of clansmen and dependants; and chieftains were seen promiscuously mingled with cattle-boys, gillies, and serfs of every degree and denomination, thronging the public way. ”

“ The county returns one member to parliament, but the county town, along with Forres, Fortrose and Nairn, belongs to the Inverness district group of parliamentary burghs. Inverness forms a sheriffdom with Elgin and Nairn, and there are resident sheriffs-substitute at Inverness, Fort William, Portree and Lochmaddy. The county is under school-board jurisdiction, and there are voluntary schools (mostly Roman Catholic) in several places. The secondary schools in Inverness and some in the county earn grants for higher education. ”

“ Since this was first published, the late Alexander Fraser, Registrar, Inverness, a well-known Northern Antiquarian, wrote four full and most interesting papers, entitled, Northern Folk-lore on Wells and Water; with an Account of some interesting Wells in the neighbourhood of Inverness and the North, which appeared in the Celtic Magazine, Vol. ”

“ At Aberdeen, close to the rounded and trimmed beauties of Deeside, avenue for Balmoral and Braemar, one has a choice of routes to Inverness, over a fine half-Highland, half-Lowland country, or along the rocky coast of the Moray Firth. [17] From Inverness a single line runs on to the far north, with a branch to the ferries of Skye, rivalled now by the West Highland extension to Mallaig. Half a century ago Dean Stanley declared it easier to get to Jerusalem than to Skye. Jerusalem to-day has its railway ”

“ We met, and determined that the gentlemen should take a walking and fishing ramble through Ross-shire and Inverness-shire, while the ladies should remain at the country-house of a friend, who had already gathered round her a merry group of young people, lately set free from the restraints of school, and bent on enjoying the beauty and freedom of the Western Highlands. ”

“ Thus the fortified houses near Inverness, had all the importance of border fortresses; and the reduction of Inverness, for the Hanover interest, would relieve their owners of their perilous position, by giving their friends the command of the pass between the North Highlands and the rest of Scotland. The small body under Rose and Forbes, with Lovat’s, and a party of the Grants, amounted in all to about 1,300 men—a considerable force in that war of small armies. They laid plans for systematically investing Inverness ”

“ On Saturday afternoon I left Elgin for Forres, with the hope of better weather. During the walk I could hardly persuade myself I was out of Aberdeenshire, the country is so very like, but it is rather flatter. Next morning was clear and cloudless, and the sun shone bright over a country drenched and covered with water. I wished that day to reach Inverness, but a new difficulty appeared. I was told that the Findhorn was so swollen that no mortal man could get across. ”

“ The Master of Ross, having come by sea to Inverness, was joyfully received by the loyal Clan of the Rosses, when he immediately repaired to this country with the concurrence of the gentlemen of his name, particularly the Laird of Inverchasley, he raised an independent Company with which he joined Lord Loudon. ”

“ As a center for tourists, Inverness is increasingly popular and motor cars are very common. The roads of the surrounding country are generally excellent, and a trip of two hundred miles will take one to John O'Groats, the extreme northern point of Scotland. The country around has many spots of interest. Cawdor Castle, where tradition says Macbeth murdered Duncan, is on the Nairn road, and on the way to this one may also visit Culloden Moor, a grim, shelterless waste, where the adherents of Prince Charlie were defeated April 16th, 1746. ”

“ The clan of Mackintosh, a branch of an ancient and renowned tribe which took its name and badge from the wild cat of the forests, had a dispute with the Macdonalds, which originated, if tradition may be believed, in those dark times when the Danish pirates wasted the coasts of Scotland. Inverness was a Saxon colony among the Celts, a hive of traders and artisans in the midst of a population of loungers and plunderers, a solitary outpost of civilisation in a region of barbarians. ”

“ Baddeck on the Little Bras d'Or is a drive of 25 miles from this side of the lake.
The stranger who comes to Inverness will find himself comfortably quartered at the Imperial Hotel, kept by two ladies from Antigonish. The windows give an uninterrupted outlook upon the waters of the gulf, often illuminated by the pageantry of sunset. The houses of the superintendents of railway and mine stand in a clearing opposite the hotel. The rest of the town is as dingy as coal mining towns seemingly must be, no matter what their location. ”

“ North of Inverness, matters were, if possible, still worse. There was no bridge over the Beauly or the Conan. The drovers coming south swam the rivers with their cattle. There being no roads, there was little use for carts. In the whole county of Caithness, there was scarcely a farmer who owned a wheel-cart. Burdens were conveyed usually on the backs of ponies, but quite as often on the backs of women.* [8] The interior of the county of Sutherland being almost inaccessible, the only track lay along the shore, among rocks and sand, and was covered by the sea at every tide. ”

“ Pennant, who had been there four years earlier, describes the scenery as “most romantic and beautiful.” [588] Wesley thought the neighbourhood of Inverness one of the pleasantest countries he had ever seen. [589] In striking contrast with the enjoyment of these four travellers are the feelings of those who a few years before had seen the spot when the alarms of war were still fresh. “On each side of Loch Ness,” writes Ray, “is a ridge of most terrible barren woody mountains. ”

“ A few miles farther on we came to Pitlochry, a surprisingly well built resort with excellent hotels and a mammoth "Hydropathic" that dominates the place from a high hill. The town is situated in the very center of the Highlands, surrounded by hills that supply the gray granite used in its construction; and here we broke our journey for the night.
Our way to Inverness was through a sparsely inhabited, wildly broken country, with half a dozen mean-looking villages at considerable distances from each other and an occasional hut or wayside inn between. ”