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Kessock Ferry, paragraph
1.—Roads; Allangrange; Kilcoy; Ferintosh; footnote, History of Redcastle,
2.—Ord of Kessock; Drumderfit; Origin of the Logans; Munlochy; Rosehaugh;
Avoch, 3.—Fortrose; Cathedral of Ross; Rosemarkie, 4. General Sketch of the
Black Isle, or Ardmeanach, footnote; Cromarty; Trade, 5. Traditions of
Cromarty, 6.--Conveyances; Sculptured Stones at Nigg, Ect; Geology, 7.—Old
Churches; Urquharts of Cromarty, 8.
1. Tnr road along the west
bank of the river Ness conducts us towards its estuary, through the lands of
Merkinch, to Kessock (Kesswick) Ferry, the narrowest part of the Moray
Firth, and the main passage to the Black Isle, Dingwall, and the west of
Ross-shire. This strait is about three-quarters of a mile broad, and is now
one of the safest ferries in the north. The current of the river Beauly,
which flows down next the northern shore, and the reflux of the ebb of the
sea meeting the flow, create, at certain periods, an agitation of the waters
which is more dangerous in appearance than in reality. It is thus pompously
described by Franck, an officer of Cromwell's army, who wrote memoirs on his
sojourn in Scotland—who, besides the dangers of the waves, says that his
boat was nearly upset by the porpoises, "which vented so vehemently at the
stern :"—" In the midst of this Pontus Cambrosia is a white spumation, or
frothy, foaming, sparkling spray, that resembles via lactea; occasioned, as
you see, from luxuriant tides and aggravating winds, that violently contract
the surface of the sea, and so amalgamises them together, that neither the
one nor the other can divide nor expatiate itself till inevitably sucked
into the bowels of the ocean." Of the many beautiful points of view around
Inverness, that, from the midst of Kessock ferry, of the Beauly and Moray
Firths, and of the heights which line the great glen, of the town itself,
and river's mouth, and the surrounding fields and hanging woods, especially
at full tide, is one of the most interesting and extensive.
2. The peninsula lying between the firths of
Beauly and Cromarty, called the "Black Isle," or "Edderdail" (the land
between the two seas), or "Ardmeanach" (the monk's height), consists chiefly
of three great ridges parallel to one another, and running nearly from
south-west to north-east, of which the loftiest and farthest hack, called
the "Maolbuy" (or yellow hill), rises to the height of between 600 and 700
feet, and which, though now enclosed and extensively planted, was, till of
late years, a bleak undivided commonty. To the tourist this peninsula is
useful, as affording him short routes either to the `Vest or North
Highlands, and as presenting, in all directions, from its high, undulating
surfaces, most grand and extensive views, whether he looks southward, across
the Moray and Beauly Firths, upon Inverness, and towards the recesses of the
Great Glen and Strathglass, or on attaining the summit of the highest ridge,
he beholds all at once beneath him the expanse of the Cromarty Firth,
embosomed in fine cultivated grounds, with high and wild mountains of every
shape and size extending in grand groups and chains behind them.
From the inn of North Kessock, on the Ross-shire
side of the ferry, where carriages, gigs, and saddle-horses can be had, two
roads proceed, one by the sea-side westwards by Redcastle [The fine old
tower of Redeastle, which is still inhabited by the proprietor, Colonel H.
D. Baillie, was anciently the head castle of the lordship of Ardmeanach, and
also a royal castle. "On the forfeiture of the old Earls of Ross, it was
annexed inalienably by parliament to the Scottish Crown in 1455; and in
1482, the Earl of Huntlic, the king's lieutenant in the north, bestowed the
keepin' of Redcastle on Hugh Rose, Baron of Kilravock. It was seized soon
thereafter by hector Mackenzie, and the country of Ardmeanach spuilzied by
William Forbes in Strathglaish, Chisholm of Comer, and other accomplices,
against whom Rose of Kilravock obtains sentence, 12th May 1492. Thus armed,
the Earl of Huntlie farther gave commission to Mackintosh, Grant, Kilravock,
and others, to the number of 3000, to go against Cainoch M'Cainoch and his
kin (the occupiers of Glen Cainoch) for spuilzing Ardmeanach, and killing
Harold Chisholm in Strathglaish, and that they did harrie, spuiizie, and
slay the clan Kynech by his command, as the king's rebels and oppressors of
the hedges" (Kilravock MSS.) Tradition says, that when Queen Mary was at
Inverness, on which occasion it is also believed her majesty bestowed the
name of Beauties or Beauty on the priory there, she visited Redcastle. It
was afterwards burnt in Montrose's time; and the family of Mackenzie of
Redcastle (the first of the house being Rory More, second son of Kenneth,
fifth Laird of Kintail, and who acquired the estate about the year 1570)
having become unfortunate, the property was sold in 1790 by authority of the
Court of Session, and purchased for £25,000 by Mr. Grant of Sheuglie, the
gross rental bein- about 11000 a-year. In 1824, the same estate was bought
by the late Sir William Pettes for 1135,600 but has since been resold to the
present proprietor for a sum considerably less. On the estate of
lied-castle, the tourist will pass the ruins of the old chapel of Gilchrist
(or Christ's church), the burning of which is described in the horrid "Raid
of Gillie-christ," (page 149.)] (five miles), which joins the great post
road at the Muir of Ord (three miles on, and two miles from Beauly), and is
continued across it to Moy and Contin (five miles more), on the Loch Carron
road from Dingwall. The other road from Kessock holds over the hill, in a
north-west direction, for Dingwall, and at the first toll-bar (two miles on)
a branch of it strikes off for .Munlochy, Avoch, Fortrose, Rosemarkie, and
Cromarty. Another branch from the Dingwall road breaks off three miles
farther on, at the Tore Inn or public-house, and which also conducts to
Avoch and Fortrose, without passing through Munlochy; and an arm of it
strikes west from nearly the same point of junction for Redcastle and Beauly.
Near the top of the ridge of the Maolbuy, a very tedious but straight road
proceeds due east to Cromarty, intersected by cross ones from Munlochy and
Rosemarkie leading to Invergordon ferry. At Arpaphily (three miles from
Kessock) we pass a small Episcopal chapel, and opposite it, in the hollow on
the right, the house of Allangrange, and the site of an old chapel of the
Knights Templars. Farther on is the Castle of Kilcoy (Sir Evan Mackenzie),
on the height above Redcastle, and behind it one of the largest
cairns---enclosed with circles of upright stones—in the north of Scotland.
These lie about half a mile north-west of the tower. Descending thence
towards the head of the Cromarty Firth, the traveller will behold one of the
most magnificent panoramic views in the country, as he passes through the
barony of Ferintosh, a district long celebrated for its superior whisky. The
privilege of distilling spirits in this barony, not subject to the excise
laws, was granted to President Forbes of Culloden (the proprietor), a poor
recompense for his extraordinary exertions in behalf of the Hanoverian
government; and it was bought back by the Crown, in 1786, for a sum of about
£20,000. The tower of Ryefield, on the right, is the messuage of this
estate, which belongs to the county of Nairn; and on the left will be
observed another small tower or fortalice—that of Kinkell, on the estate of
Conon, the old residence, on the eastern side of the island, of the Gairloch
family, an ancient and powerful branch of the clan Mackenzie, now
represented by a promising youth, Sir Kenneth Mackenzie, whose estate in
this quarter is also valuable and beautiful. At Scudal Bridge (two miles
from Dingwall) we join the main post road. (See page 388.)
3. Let us now revert to the roads proceeding
from Kessock to the eastern parts of the Black Isle. The high, round-caped
hill, immediately to the east of Kessock, is called the Ord, or Wardhill of
Kessock, and is crowned with a strong walled structure, extensively
vitrified. One of its acclivities on the right hand, as we descend towards
Munlochy by a side or district road, is called the ridge of Drumderfit or
Druim dour, " the ridge of tears," which, as the many cairns strewed over it
would indicate, was about the year 1400 the scene of a strange and
sanguinary event. Donald, the then Lord of the Isles, having collected a
powerful army, made a descent upon Ross, and encamped on this ridge,
opposite the town of Inverness, which he threatened with fire and sword, if
not propitiated by an exorbitant ransom. Happily for the town, the provost,
whose name was Junor, was a man of penetration and address. Aware that
Donald's army was greatly fatigued, and in want of provisions, Provost Junor
contrived to smuggle into the camp a large quantity of strong spirits, which
were eagerly consumed by the isles-men, who soon sunk, under the power of
the intoxicating beverage, into the most profound slumber. In the mean time,
the provost collected a number of resolute adherents, and crossing Kessock
ferry at dead of night, suddenly fell on Donald's camp and massacred almost
every man. The farm of Drumderfit was, till very lately, occupied for
upwards of 400 years by a respectable family of the name of Logan, from the
Lothians, who were extensive merchants or traffickers, and who, tradition
says, received by marriage into their house the last heiress of the old
Bissets of Lovat, an alliance for which they paid dearly, through the
inroads and jealousies of the clan Fraser, who succeeded the Bissets in the
Lovat estates. The Logans also suffered from their attachment to Episcopacy;
but they afterwards retrieved their losses, by becoming commissioners for
Forbes of Culloden, for the sale of the licensed Ferintosh whisky. Munlochy
is a little post town, situated at the head of a small but picturesque inlet
of the Moray Firth, from which a road continues nearly due north, across the
elevated and far-extending moorland, to Invergordon Ferry on the Cromarty
Firth, and another branch-in- from it leads straight forward along the ridge
of the hill to Cromarty. That by the coast introduces us, four miles on, to
the little fishing village of Avoch, passing previously the mansion-houses
and grounds of Rosehaugh (Sir James Mackenzie of Scatwell, Bart.), and of
Avoch (Alexander G. Mackenzie, Esq.), and, one mile further, to the ancient
burgh of Fortrose.
[Between Avoch and Fortrose a broad green sward formerly extended along the
sea-beach, and was continued to the Ness of Cliauonry, on which the burghers
used to play at bowls and golf, and along which the great Sir George
Mackenzie, Lord Advocate to Charles IL, and author of some of our best
Scottisl'i statutes, used to ride with a large escort when on his way to
court or Parliament. It abounded with the little white Burnet rose (rosa
spinosissisna), and hence the name of the estate, "Vallis Rosarum," or "Rosehaugh."
On a rocky mound now called "Ormond," or the "Lad' Hill," at the west end of
these green links, stood the ancient Castle of Avoch, to which, as related
by Nvyntoun, the Regent, Sir Andrew the Moravia, "a lord of great bounty, of
sober and chaste life, wise and upright in council, liberal and generous,
devout and charitable, stout, hardy, and of gr eat courage," retired from
the fatigues of war, and ended his days about the year 1338, and was buried
in the "Cathedral Kirk of Rosmarkyn." Passing afterwards into the possession
of the Earls of Ross, this castle was, on their forfeiture in 1476, annexed
to the crown, when James M. created his second son, Duke of Ross, Marquis of
Ormond, and Earl of Edirdal, otherwise called ,4rdmanache, and hence this
district, i0lich still bears these names, thus became one of the regular
appanages of the royal family of Scotland.]
4. As a free town, and as the seat of the
bishops of Ross (whose palace or castle was completely, and their cathedral
in a great measure, destroyed by Oliver Cromwell), Fortrose was in ancient
days a place of considerable consequence; the records of its chanonry or
canon courts contained transcripts of almost all the valuable documents
relating to the family histories and estates in the county of Ross, and it
gave birth to men eminent both in church and state. Here resided the
celebrated historian, Bishop Lesley, the last Catholic bishop of Ross, who
lost his see for his zealous support of Queen Mary. Dr. Gregory Mackenzie,
the laborious compiler of the lives of the most eminent writers of the
Scottish nation, also dwelt here, in an old castle belonging to the Earl of
Seaforth, and lies interred in the tomb of that family within the cathedral;
and a physician of the same name, noted in his day for a work entitled " The
Art of preserving Health," is said to have been in his youth a teacher of
the grammar school in this burgh. The famous Scottish statesman and lawyer,
Sir George Iaclkenzie, often retired from courts and senates to enjoy the
delightful and secluded walks about Fortrose ; and the late Sir James
Mackintosh, the well-known historian, senator, and author of the "Vindicioe
Gallicee," received the rudiments of his education in this place. With the
adjoining older burgh of Rosemarkie, which dates its first privileges from
Alexander II., and with which the old chanonry of Ross was united by a
charter from King James II. (anno 1444), under the common name of Fortross,
softened into Fortrose, it now shares the honour of possessing a numerous
tribe of knights of the awl and shuttle; but, although provided by
government with an elegant and commodious harbour, and by the neighbouring
gentry with an academy for the education of youth, and an Episcopal chapel,
Fortrose boasts of little or no trade, and no rapidly increasing population.
The situation of the town is romantic and sunny, and the grounds about it
which have long been under cultivation, are rich and in high order; and when
the cathedral green was surrounded by large old trees, before Cromwell's axe
was laid to their roots, and the houses of the town were removed to a
distance from the cathedral—save that the canons and presbyters of the see
had each, near it, his manse, with gardens and court-yards, entered by
gothic arched gateways—the whole place must have had a very beautiful and
imposing appearance, more like an English ecclesiastical town than a Scotch
one. After the Restoration in 1660, the bishops, from poverty, feued out
small portions round the edges of the green for building, and thus the
sacred enclosures, which were formerly reserved as a site for certain annual
fairs, and as a burying-ground, has been encroached upon. Mr. Neale, in his
"Ecclesiological Notes" of 1848, thus describes what remains of the
cathedral—though his ground plan which accompanies it was too hurriedly got
up; and we doubt much his accuracy in separating the south chapel into
distinct nave and chancel: " On one side of this green are the remains of
the once glorious cathedral, the see of the bishops of Ross. It was not
destroyed in the Knoxian Reformation, but by Oliver Cromwell, who applied
the stones to the construction of a fort at Inverness.
The fort has perished; the
cathedral, in the last stage of decay, still exists. It formerly consisted
of choir and nave, with aisles to each, eastern lady chapel, western tower,
and chapter-house at the north-east end; what remains consists merely of the
south aisle to chancel and nave, and the detached chapter-house. The style
is the purest and most elaborate middle-pointed; the material, red
sandstone, gave depth and freedom to the chisel ; and the whole church,
though probably not 120 feet long from east to west, must have been an
architectural gem of the very first description. The exquisite beauty of the
mouldings, after so many years of exposure to the air, is wonderful, and
shows that, in whatever other respect these remote parts of Scotland were
barbarous, in ecclesiology, at least, they were on a par with any other
branch of the mediaeval Church. The east window, fragments of the tracery of
which hang from the archivolt, must have been magnificent, and consisted of
five lights; it is wide in proportion to its height, and must have afforded
great scope for throwing up the altar beneath. On the outside, in the gable,
there are two lancets, the lower one much longer than the other; the whole
effect is extremely satisfactory; I know not, indeed, where one could look
for a better model for a small collegiate church, and such as might suit the
needs of our communion at this moment. There are two windows on the south
side, of the same elaborate and beautiful description, but consisting of
four lights. The piscina remains, and the mouldings are truly the work of a
master. The south aisle was separated from the chancel by two middle pointed
arches, now walled up, but not so much injured as to destroy their extreme
loveliness. In the first of these arches is a canopied tomb for the
foundress, a Countess of Ross, the date of which is probably 1330. Very
possibly her lord might be interred in a similar position in the north side
of the choir. This must have been one of the most beautiful monuments I ever
saw. Between the foot and the easternmost pier, a credence is inserted,
sloping up with a stone lean-to against the passage wall. In the second arch
is a poor third-pointed high tomb and canopy, with the effigy of a bishop,
by tradition, the second bishop of the see; a thing manifestly impossible,
unless the monument were erected long after the decease of the person
commemorated. The chancel-arch is modern. The nave consists of four bays,
and much resembles the chancel in its details : the fourth is, however,
blocked off for the burying place of some family (the Mackenzies of
Sea-forth). In the second arch is another third-pointed monument. On the
south side the first window is injured ; the second resembles those in the
chancel arch ; the third is high up and mutilated ; the fourth is a plain
lancet. The west front is remarkably simple, and contains nothing but a
small two-light middle-pointed window, without foliation. The rood turret
still exists, and is a very elegant, though somewhat singular composition.
It stands at the junction of the south aisle of nave and chancel, and acts
as a buttress. Square at the base, it is bevelled into a semi-hexagonal
[Octagonal. It forms a cross or short transept to the chapel.]
superstructure, and has elegant two-light windows on alternate sides. The
top is modern. The chapter-house, as at Glasgow, consisted of two stages, a
crypt and the chapter-house properly speaking. The crypt still remains, and
is used as a coal-hole ; the upper part, which has been rebuilt, is now a
school and court-room. The remarkable disorientation of the chancel to the
south is worthy of notice; it gives, at first sight, the effect of a
gigantic apse to the whole north side of the ruins. There is a Scotch chapel
in Fortrose, a horrible conglomeration of pinnacles, without chancel—without
any one good point; it seems quite new."
We trust her Majesty's Commissioners of Woods
and Forests will now save the remains of the cathedral from farther decay,
and protect the green from encroachments, by enclosing it as a place of
healthy recreation for the inhabitants.
A new parish church has lately been erected by
subscription, and a stipend for a minister appropriated out of a fund left
by a worthy bailie of Fortrose in the end of the seventeenth century,
intended for the benefit of the Episcopal communion. This building, and a
Free Church near it, both make pretensions to modern Gothic, but they are
spiritless and devoid of symmetrical proportions. The Gaelic language is but
little known in this or the adjoining parish of Avoch, but the English
spoken dialect is peculiar, and abounds in obsolete words and phrases, many
of which, especially among the fishermen at Avoch, are Danish. So late as
1686, the bishop and his chapter made over the grass of the cathedral green,
and the feu and manse maills and duties, to the schoolmaster of the parish,
on account of the "troubles," and seeing that Episcopacy was then again
likely to be overturned. The first Presbyterian pastor was established here
about the year 1710. Fortrose can boast of a most comfortable inn, and
private lodgings are easily had, both here and at Rosetnarkie, which are
delightful sea-bathing quarters. The manse and church of Rosemarkie (on the
site of the tomb of St. Boniface, the patron saint of this parish, and who
is believed to have taken up his residence here on a mission from the Pope
in the seventh century), a little to the east, are beautifully situated. In
digging the foundations of the present church, a large stone coffin was come
upon, and a cross, which is beautifully carved with foliage and knotwork on
both sides, but without any inscription, and was likely the patron saint's
cross. It was coolly appropriated as a grave-stone, and broken in two. The
projecting sandy point of Chanonry, running out into the firth, between
Fortrose and Rosemarkie, is terminated by a fine and useful lighthouse, and
by the ferry-house, where we take boat for Fort-George and the
Inverness-shire coast.
From Fortrose, the public road to Cromarty sweeps across to the opposite
firth, and a shorter branch by Eathie, but at present in bad order, bends
inland across the intervening hills, whilst beyond Raddery there is a
further choice of the road from Munlochy to Cromarty. A footpath along the
cliffs overhanging the sea is generally preferred by the pedestrian, and to
the geologist we would particularly recommend it, that he may visit the
small but very curious Has deposit near Eathic, and the sandstone beds with
the Ichthyolite concretions, in the description of which Mr. Hugh .Miller
laid the foundations of his fame. We may also remind our scientific friends,
that along the sea-beach eastward from Rosemarkie, they can form a good
collection of specimens of hornblende-rock, chlorite and actynolite schist,
quartz-rock, and granite and gneiss charged with garnets; and by the
botanist, these 'rocks will be found extremely prolific in herbaceous
plants, ferns, and mosses.
5. Cromarty is celebrated all the world over for
the safety of its bay (the Portus Salutus of the ancients) the convenience
and neatness of its harbour, the boldness of its bluff promontories (called
the Sutors)—the opposing disjoined members of the coast line—and which
protect it from the blasts of the north-east, south, and west, and for the
exceeding beauty and fertility of its neighbourhood. At morning's glow it
hails the sun, rising, between the Sutors, from the bed of the German Ocean,
and at even it beholds his level rays gilding the massive shoulders of Ben
Wyvis, and burnishing the broad retiring waters of its own inland firth.
Cromarty is often a stirring place, and a refuge in storms to all vessels
which may be out on the adjoining seas. It has a fine pier and lighthouse,
and a beautiful esplanade, and has a good beach for sea-bathers. It contains
also a manufactory for bagging, one or two timber yards, several cooperages,
a brewery, two banks, and a depot for pickled salmon and for the other
produce of the country, which is collected here previous to being carried
away to the southern markets by the Inverness trading vessels and steamers.
A considerable trade in pork has for fifty years been carried on at
Cromarty: the annual value now cured may be from £5000 to £10,000. The
import and export trade of Ross-shire formerly passed through this town; but
the erection of a harbour at the more convenient and central port of
Invergordon has, of late, diverted it very much; and the many ruinous and
tottering buildings in Cromarty indicate, that unless a new spur to its
commerce is found out, its glory will speedily depart. The estate on which
it is situated has been, till very recently, under trust, and the subject of
litigation, which also of course mar the prosperity of the whole
neighbourhood. It now belongs to the family of Mrs. Rose Ross. As at
Rosemarkie, Fortrose, and Dingwall, the ancient cross of Cromarty is still
standing, though it is perhaps questionable whether the worthy burghers
should be allowed to retain any such mark of distinction, their ancestors
having, through their simplicity, and little estimation of those political
honours for the acquisition of which people now-a-days manifest such
inordinate zeal, resigned to his _!Majesty King Charles II. their privilege
of presenting a delegate to parliament. Cromartyshire is now united with
Ross. 6. Macbeth was
Thane of Cromarty or Crombathi, [The curved or crooked bay.] and Cromarty
House stands on the site of the old castle of the Earls of Ross. The seaward
quarters of the town are inhabited by a colony of fishermen, who go ten or
twelve miles out to sea to the haddock and herring banks, where they find
their perilous livelihood. A friend and fellow townsman of their own, Mr.
Hugh Miller, their most interesting and graphic historian, a few years ago,
among his other writings, published an account of these hardy fishermen;
from which we extract the following notices of the former history of the
town of Cromarty :-
"James the Sixth attempted to civilize the Highlands and Isles, by
colonising them with people brought from the southern counties of the
kingdom; and his first experiment, says Robertson, was made in the Isle of
Lewis, where, as the station was conveniently situated for prosecuting the
fishing trade, he settled a colony brought from the shores of Fife. The
historian adds further, that the project miscarried in this instance,
through the jealousy of the islanders, who were alike unwilling to forsake
their old habits, or to acquire new; and that it was altogether abandoned on
the accession of James to the throne of England. That Cromarty was
originally peopled by some such colony, appears at the least probable, from
the following circumstances. The surnames of the oldest families in it are
peculiar to the southern counties of Scotland; and the Gaelic language,
though that of the adjacent country, was scarcely known in it prior to the
erection of its hemp manufactory.
"At the close of the seventeenth century, and
early in the eighteenth, the herring fishery of Cromarty was very
successful; and the era of the Union is still spoken of as the time of the
'herring drove.'
"During the era of the `herring drove,' Cromarty was a place of considerable
commercial importance. I have heard from old men, that at the beginning of
the last century, not less than five three-masted vessels belonged to it,
besides others of lesser size. Like many of the trading towns of Scotland,
it suffered from the Union, and the failure of the herring fishing completed
its ruin. It fell so low before the year 1730, that a single shopkeeper, who
was not such literally, for in the summer season he travelled the country as
a pedlar, more than supplied the inhabitants. It is a singular fact, that
the tide now flows twice every twenty-four hours over the spot once occupied
by his shop. "Those
acquainted with the natural history of the herring, know that it is not
uncommon for it to desert on the sudden its accustomed haunts.
"Cromarty, as I have stated, after the failure
of its herring fishery, dwindled into a place of no importance; and its
excellent harbour, which, as an old black-letter folio states, was so early
as the sixteenth century `callit by Scottish folks the hailI (health) of
seamen,' proved of value only to a few half-employed fishermen, or to the
voyager driven from his course by tempest. This change materially affected
the character of the inhabitants.
"Unsuccessful exertion is naturally succeeded by
inert apathy, a mood the most unfavourable both to learning and the arts.
During the era of the `herring drove,' strange as it may seem, there were
fishermen in Cromarty who were no contemptible scholars. There is a
tradition that one of the Urquharts (extensive proprietors in the
neighbourhood) of that time, when sauntering along the shore, accompanied by
two guests, gentlemen from England, asked a fisherman he met several
questions in Latin, and to the surprise of the visitors received prompt
answers in the same language. In the age which succeeded, education among
this class was entirely neglected. Nothing can give a stronger conception of
their nerveless apathy than the fact that children of the men who, their
rank in life considered, were both learned and intelligent, scarcely knew
that the world extended more than a thousand miles round the place of their
nativity. Though inhabitants of a sea-port town, they believed that at the
distance of a few weeks' sailing the ocean was bounded by the horizon, and
that all beyond was darkness: but though thus ignorant, not Virgil himself
was better acquainted with the signs of the weather, or could tell more
truly when storms or calms might be expected.
"The domestic economy of the people at this age
is deserving of notice. Their clothing they manufactured themselves. Every
half-dozen neighbours had a boat, and every family a strip of land. The
latter supplied them with bread, and by the former they supplied themselves
with fish. At midsummer, when cod, ling, mackerel, &c., are to be caught
near the shore, it was customary for them to sail to Tarbet Ness, an
excellent fishing station, twenty miles north of Cromarty, and stay there
for several weeks, laying up store for winter. The day was occupied in
fishing; at night they moored their boats and converted the sails into
tents. In autumn the more enterprising among them formed parties, and
scoured the firth in quest of herrings. During the time of the 'drove,' a
premium of twenty pounds Scots was awarded every season to the boat's crew
that caught the first barrel of fish. This premium (I have not learned from
what quarter it came) was afterwards much more the object of the fishermen
than the herrings themselves; but it was not every season they caught enough
to entitle them to it. The grandfather of the writer, a man who witnessed
the smoke of Culloden from the hill of Cromarty, and who, in his
eighty-fifth year, possessed all his faculties, bodily and mental,
frequently made one in these parties. I have often, when a child, stood by
his knee, listening with an intense interest to his minute characteristic
details of men and times, which were unknown almost to every other person
living. From his narratives, and the knowledge I have acquired of the
character of the present age, I find data to conclude, that in the last
ninety years, there has been a change in the manners and habits of the
inhabitants of this part of the country, greater beyond comparison than any
other that has taken place among them since the era of the Reformation. The
men of the present age in the north of Scotland are much more unlike their
predecessors of the reign of Queen Anne and George the First, than the
latter were to the people who lived there three hundred years before. To
give a detail of the signs of this change, to examine into the various
causes which effected it, and to consider and balance its advantages and
disadvantages, physical and moral, would be a work of interest, and, as the
subject now presents to me, one not of great difficulty."
The writer from whom this extract is taken is
now well known to the public as a poet, a man of science, and a reviewer;
and Mr. Miller's work on the " Old Red Sandstone," and his "Foot-prints of
the Creator, or the Ostrolepis of Stromness," will long be popular proofs
that we may find "sermons in stones, and good in everything."
7. In summer a two-horse coach runs daily to and
from Inverness and Dingwall by Kessock, or by Beauly, and proceeds up
Strathpeffer, for and with passengers visiting the mineral wells. Another
coach used, in favourable and busy seasons, to proceed from Kessock by Avoch
and Fortrose to Cromarty, but for the present it has been discontinued. [The
post gig, carrying three passengers, now supersedes it.] The London, Leith,
and Inverness steamers regularly call at Invergordon and Cromarty, landing
passengers and goods by the way at Fortrose and Fort-George; and a small
steamer has lately been introduced solely for the Moray Firth and
Sutherlandshire coasting trade.
A packet-boat in summer sails daily between
Nairn and Cromarty (fare for a single passenger being 2s., or about 15s. for
the boat), and another twice a-week between Fortrose and Inverness. [The
antiquary should not omit, while at Cromarty, crossing to Icing, and seeing
the beautiful sculptured stone cross in the churchyard there, and the
similar ones at Hilton and Sandwick, five or six miles to the eastward. They
resemble the great carved pillar at Forces; but are in some respects more
interesting and beautiful, the figures on them being more distinctly
Christian. The geologist, also, will find the ichthyolite beds, so fully
illustrated by Mr. Miller, at low water, in the bay between the town and the
Sutor of Cromarty; the has and fish beds at Ęthie, beyond the Sutor, on the
margin of the Moray Firth; and the nearest cliff to the ferry-house on the
Nigg shore, exhibits the line of junction of the primary with the red
sandstone and fish beds, which enabled Mr. Miller to determine the true
position of the latter, and which he regards as displaying an epitome of the
geology of the whole north of Scotland, and especially of Caithness-shire.]
8. Three miles westward of Cromarty, by a good
road, the tourist will reach a pier and ferry, where a boat may be had for
Invergordon, and into which carriages and horses can be safely taken. We
pass on the way Pointzfield (Sir G. G. Munro), Bra,erlan;well (General Sir
Hugh Fraser), and New Hall (Shaw
Esq.), and the interesting remains of the old church of Kirkmichael, so
picturesquely described by Mr. Miller. A district road proceeds westwards
past the modern kirk and manse of Resolis, which joins the main post road
from Inverness to Thurso, near Scudel bridge, one branch of it, already
mentioned, striking across the hill southwards, past Belmaduthy, the
beautiful residence of Sir Evan Mackenzie of Kilcoy, to Munlochy, and the
other proceeding by Findon and the shore side to Alcaig Ferry, at the mouth
of the river Conon. This road is interesting, as it commands most extensive
and beautiful views of Easter Ross and Ferindonald, and at its western
extremity, looks right into the long vista of Strathpeffer, having the town
of Dingwall most suitably placed at its entrance, and in the centre of the
picture. Beneath the road, likewise, we see the ruins of the ancient church
and grave-yard of Cullicudden—the old Bishop's palace of Castle Craig—and
the site of a church dedicated to St. Martin of Tours. The whole district,
in fact, was a very early seat of the church (probably from the seventh
century), and when her earthly power fell, it was taken up by the wild
iron-fisted barons—the Urquharts of Cromarty—the gable of one of whcue
mansions at Kinbeachy, with the date on it of the middle of the sixteenth
century, is still standing; and hard by, a cottage contains one of their
monumental tablets, showing, from its astrological dates and signs, their
learning, and probable connection with the superstitions of diabolrie, or,
as the people called it, the "black art." |
