DALCROSS CASTLE-INVERNESS. 419 the right bank of Nairn Water, about a mile further south-east, contains a very large and most striking series of Druidical circles and Caledonian cairns. Inshes House and Castle Hill, to the left of the railway, between Culloden and Inverness, were long the seats of the old families of Robertson and Cuthbert; and Leys Castle beyond them, a splendid modern mansion, is the seat of John F. Baillie, Esq. Frith, north-west of Fort George Station, | moor, 2 miles to the south-east, and is is a regular fortress, commanding the sea- now marked by a monumental obelisk, way up to Inverness, and overawing the constructed in 1850. Clava Plain, on circumjacent country. It was built soon after the suppression of the rebellion in 1746, and cost upwards of £160,000. It covers about 12 acres, and contains accommodation for about 2050 men. It has a polygonal outline, with six bastions, and is defended on the land side by a ditch, a covert-way, a glacis, two lunettes, and a ravelin. It is bombproof and strong, yet could readily be assailed from the neighbouring ground. Campbelton village, 1 mile south-southeast of it, and near the railway, is a seabathing retreat, and has a strong chalybeate spring, a hotel, and about 950 inhabitants. 1250. DALCROSS CASTLE, on a commanding site, in the southern vicinity of Dalcross Station, is a decayed edifice of two towers, joined to each other at right angles, built in 1620 by the eighth Lord Lovat, and sold in 1702 to Mackintosh of Mackintosh. Kilravock Castle, on the left side of Nairn Water, 3 miles to the north-east, the seat of Mrs. E. Campbell, comprises a square keep of very ancient date, and a long, highroofed building, of the time of Inigo Jones. Holme House and Cantray, the seats of General Sir John Rose and Colonel James Fraser, further up the Nairn, are elegant modern mansions. Castle-Stewart, some distance northwest of Dalcross Station, a fine baronial structure of 1625, is a seat of the Earl of Moray; and Flemington and Gollinfield, in the same vicinity, are the seats of John Marshall and John Gollinfield, Esqs. 1251. CULLODEN HOUSE, in the northern vicinity of Culloden Station, now the seat of Arthur Forbes, Esq., and greatly renovated, belonged in 1746 to Lord President Forbes, and was the head-quarters of Prince Charles Edward for several days before the battle of Culloden. The battlefield was on the 1252. INVERNESS is a sea-port, a royal burgh, and the nominal capital of the Highlands. It stands on low ground on both banks of the river Ness, near the mouth. The scenery around it is a rich combination of lowland, upland, and sea; and the immediate environs have fine adornings of mansions and wood. The section of the town on the right bank includes all the site of the original town, and consists partly of dense masses of alleys and short streets, partly of regular systems of airy thoroughfares. The section on the left bank is on a tasteful plan, folding along the river, | yet neither compact nor regular. Two bridges connect the sections; the one an old structure, going rapidly to decay; the other an elegant and commodious suspension bridge, constructed in 1855-C, at a cost of upwards of £26,000. The County Buildings, on Castle Hill, are an imposing edifice in the castellated style, built in 1835, at a cost of £7500. A steeple, at the corner of High Street and Church Street, formerly connected with a jail, and built in 1791, is a very beautiful structure, 130 feet high. The Town Hall, in High Street, is a plain edifice of 1708, but shows a fine carving of the burgh arms; and in front of it are the ancient town Cross, and a curious, blue, lozenge-shaped stone, carefully preserved from old times as the palladium of the burgh, The Caledonian Bank, in High Street, opposite Castle Street, is an 2 elegant recent edifice, with tetrastyle | 1745, and then was blown to pieces by Corinthian portico, crowned in the tym- an exploding mine, never again to be repanum by allegorical sculptures. The edified. A great pentagonal fort, with Royal Academy, on the porth-east side accommodation for 1000 men, was conof Academy Street, is a large structure structed on the Ness, below the town, by of 1792, endowed with £25,000 from Oliver Cromwell, in 1652-7, at a cost of Captain W. Mackintosh, and with other £80,000. It had strong ramparts all funds, and has a large play-ground and round, and was defended on one side by a small museum. The Farraline Park the Ness, and on the other sides by a School, off Academy Street by Mar- fossé so deep and wide as to float small garet Street, is a handsome and con- vessels. It was so offensive to the spicuous edifice, raised from a bequest by Highland chiefs, that the Government, Dr. Bell of Madras. The Infirmary, on after the Restoration, destroyed it, out of the left bank of the Ness, some distance compliment to them; but its fossé reabove the upper bridge, stands within a mained, and was afterwards widened spacious enclosed area, was built in 1804, into a regular harbour. Several old and comprises a large centre and two houses possessed much historical interest, wings. The Established High Church as winter residences of the magnates of is a plain, commodious edifice, adjoined the North, and in connection with the reto an old square tower, which is sup-bellion of 1745; but nearly all have recently posed to have been built by Oliver Cromwell. The Free High Church is a handsome edifice with a spire. The Established West Church, the Free East Church, the Episcopalian Chapel, and the Roman Catholic Chapel, are ornamental buildings. An ancient castle stood on a rising ground called the Crown, a little east of | Petty Street, and is thought to have been the property of Macbeth, and the scene of his murder of King Duncan, but was demolished by Malcolm Canmore. A spacious, strong edifice, serving the double purpose of a palace and a fortress, was constructed by Malcolm Canmore on Castle Hill, figured for centuries in most of the political and military history of the parts of Scotland north of the Grampians, and long made effectual resistance to tumult and convulsions; but at length, in 1649, was captured and nearly demolished by the northern Royalists. A rough reconstruction from it was raised by the Jacobites after the Revolution, but was soon taken from them; and the new pile, together with some extensions, was formed into strong barracks, under the name of Fort George. This made a great figure in the rebellion of been removed. A Lady chapel, a Franciscan friary, and a Dominican friary, anciently stood in the town, but were swept away, either amid the changes of the Reformation, or as building materials for Cromwell's fort. The cemetery of the Dominican friary is still in use. Inverness claims to have originated at least sixty years before the Christian era, but does not appear in record till the times of the Pictish kings, and probably did not acquire any considerable bulk till the time of David I. It made a great figure in the wars of the Succession and in the struggles of the Crown with the Lords of the Isles. James I. held a Parliament in it. James III. and James IV. visited it. The Queen Regent, Mary of Guise, held in it a Convention of Estates. Queen Mary made a prolonged stay in it, quelling an insurrection of the Earl of Huntly, and cultivating the favour of the Highland chiefs. It made a bold stand, after the Revolution, for the cause of the Stuarts; and it was the head-quarters of Jacobitism throughout the rebellion of 1745-6. It retained some peculiar manners till recent times; but it now differs little or nothing from the best provincial towns in the Low lands. It is a charming place of resi- | twelve places of worship, and seven chief dence, both physically and socially, for hotels—the Caledonian, the Union, the respectable annuitants; and it offers ex- Royal, the Vine, the Commercial, the cellent facilities to tourists for visiting Glenalbyn, and the Star. It is governed the most attractive districts of the Nor- by a provost, four bailies, and sixteen thern Highlands. It owns shipping to councillors; it is the assize town for the the amount of about 12,000 tons, carries northern counties; and it unites with on some manufactures, publishes three three other burghs in sending a memnewspapers, and has a large country ber to Parliament. Its population in trade. It contains a key post office, six | 1851 was 12,793. See 1270, 1334, and banking offices, a public reading-room, 1344. 422 STRATHSPEY AND THE GREAT GLEN. SIXTEENTH DIVISION. STRATHSPEY AND THE GREAT GLEN. THIS Division comprehends all the parts of the basin of the Spey upward from Orton, the parts of the basins of the Findhorn and the Nairn south-east and south of Culloden, all parts of the Great Glen, and all the parts of the west coast between Ardnamurchan and Lochalsh. The grand feature of the region, at the same time a remarkable feature of Scotland, is the Great Glen, traced with lakes along the bottom, and extending in a straight line from sea to sea. All the other features, with small exception, are narrow glens and lofty mountains. The glens have much diversity of character, but embosom many a scene of force or beauty. The mountains, generally, are broad and lofty, and include a vast extent of bleak moor, both hanging and tabular. All the places or objects of any attraction are seen or commanded in the lines of route which we shall trace. coach; continuous re and Church, right......1258 Kinrara, left; Tor-Alvie, versed; Lianach For- ...........1184 |