"Glenmoriston of the Past"

By all accounts, the way of life in the Highlands had changed very little for several centuries up to the early nineteenth. In fact a large painting dated 1870, now hanging in the Glenmoriston Arms Hotel, clearly illustrates the primitive conditions under which the people of Achnarconneran lived just a hundred years back. The Act of Union of 1707 did help the cattle trade with England which would have brought in a few extra pennies to purchase meal and other necessaries but the drove roads had no other use. The gradual establishment of law and order coupled with the construction of roads suitable for wheeled traffic, which took place early last century, brought both the necessary security and means of communication with the outside world. Cattle-lifting which in the past had been considered a congenial occupation became "Cattle stealing" for which the culprit was tried as a thief. The new roads brought in the visitors and sportsmen with money to spend. Mention should also be made of the Caledonian Canal, the construction of which made possible the export of timber in bulk from Glasgow and other industrial ports.

The first detailed Glenmoriston rental, covering the year 1802, lists 20 (see appendix A) agricultural holdings 16 of which were shared by two or more tenants, in some cases eight being involved. Some rented shares in two holdings. This state of affairs continued for another twenty years or so and was a relic of the runrig system which gave way to the "crofting". Under the older system, the arable was divided into strips of an acre or two with a share of the pasture and common grazing depending on the extent of the tenant's livestock numbers.

How did people exist under these conditions which it seems had prevailed for centuries? They each had one or two breeding cows with followers that were worth more to them than their dwellings largely constructed of turfs and thatched with heather or bracken. They also owned goats and a few native sheep, a breed now extinct, used for milking and their fleece spun for clothing. They had four to six horns and only weighed 15-20 lbs.

Field drainage was introduced around the end of the eighteenth century, in the form of large flat slabs of stone which are still in operation in many places. Before such drainage the cereal crops of oats or bere, a primitive form of barley, was grown in small patches on sloping ground which was cultivated by hand with implements mainly of wood. The livestock were put up onto the hill early in May and brought down again in late October – a considerably longer period than would be considered advisable in Glenmoriston today, but perhaps it was a matter of necessity in those days when man and beast were on very short rations. The mortality in cattle during the winter was one in five. Famines through failure of crops were not infrequent.

The diet was largely of dairy produce and meal which was bought to some extent from the proceeds of cattle sales, the local farmers or Inverness merchants being the source of supply. Potatoes were introduced towards the end of the eighteenth century and proved a great boon taking the place of meal to some extent in the staple diet. It is said that when Clanranald first made his people grow this new plant, they did so reluctantly and on lifting their crop told the Chief that while he could force them to grow such things he could not make them eat them. They must soon have changed their minds. The traces of this old pre-crofting way of life can still be seen on the Levishie deer forest in the form of the ruins of the shielings where the women made the cheese and butter while the lads attended to the cattle.The old head wall can also be seen, from Mlairadh burn running East almost to Achnaconneran. A relic of more recent times is the disused sheep fank, a monument to the animal that caused the first radical change in the way of life.

It should be mentioned that the Laird employed many of his tenants on timber extraction and bark-peeling of oak on a part time basis which would have helped them to make ends meet.

Sickness and poverty can often go hand in hand. A severe drought would be followed by a partial crop failure which in turn meant a shortage of winter feed so that the poor man and his family would be near starving by the Spring and his beasts in an even worse state, if still alive. Our Laird helped many such people in desperate straits, with milk, meal and firewood, and later coal as detailed in the old estate account books. There were of course families who could never make

"ends meet" and it is doubtful, even today, with all the Social benefits, if they would not still be in financial difficulties. The factor reported on one such family who were without anything to eat, their potatoes done and "they have no meal".  

The Poor Law Act was passed in 1845 but it was not until 1872 that a site was fixed near Torgoyle for a Paupers' House. The Dalcreichard crofters protested to the Laird asking him to find a site elsewhere as they felt its proximity would be a reflection on their township. Perhaps however there was more than this to it as in 1886, the year of the first Crofting Act, that the Laird received a respectful ultimatum from the same township asking that "no further plantations, cottages or gardens" should be allowed within their bounds. There were several applications around that period for the cottage stances from people in neighbouring glens who wanted to return. On first sight it seems rather hard that such applications were turned down but having erected their cottage, they would then have acquired the next necessity of life, a cow or perhaps two. No doubt the local crofting community would have jealously guarded their own and resented a newcomer's beasts.

From this brief account, the small man's life off the land may appear to be one of bare existence and a pretty miserable one at that but was he very much worse off than his brother or cousin who had gone to the industrial revolution in the urban areas?

Major Alpin Grant J.P., D.L. was the pioneer of the "big Sheep" farming in Glenmoriston. In the late eighteenth century he first had the grazing of Corriedho and later the Strone hill ground, between Invermoriston and Altsaigh. The Major afterwards moved to Borlum farm in Urquhart and then to Inverness where he set up a hemp factory. Grant Street in that town is named after him.

As in other parts of the Highlands the sheep population showed a steady increase and by 1853 were grazing Inverwick, Achlaine, Tomcrasky, Easter Dundreggan, Bhlairadh and Levishie, bringing £1130 of the total rental for the Laird of 1866. Although there were no "clearances" in Glenmoriston to make way for the sheep-walks, the small man, by then becoming known as the "crofter", lost a large part of his hill cattle grazings as a result of these inroads. Moreover the population, which, as mentioned earlier, had reached a low ebb after the Forty-Five Rebellion, was now on a steady increase accentuated by the return of the men who had been fighting on the Continent and elsewhere overseas. The Estate map of 1849 shows the individual crofts now rented to one family whereas on the old runrig system the same land would have been shared by as many as eight. The map also delineates the common grazings around 1200 acres which were allotted to each township.

As might be expected the open land with access to the pasture and hill grazings had always been chosen for habitation. This meant that the population in Lower Glenmoriston dwelt in small isolated clusters at Levishie, Bhlairadh and Dalcattaig, not forgetting Achnaconneran where a number of families seem to have dwelt for centuries despite its very exposed position and stony top-soil. Few lived at Invermoriston apart from the Laird' s family and his retinue.

The stretch of the Glen above the Alt Iaraidh, including Dundreggan, Inverwick, Dalcreichard and further west was known as the Braes of Glenmoriston. It was in this area that the bulk of the population dwelt. The Rev. Gair, writing in 1874 (see Appendix B) reported that there used to be 70 attending the Dalcreichard school, but in that year the number was down to 48. In 1975 it was down to 12 which included two of the writer's grandchildren who went up by bus from Invermoriston.

It is as well to mention these facts as though the sheep farming was mainly responsible for the distress that was to follow it seems that there were other contributory causes including over population. Such items as "Peter Grant, Balnacarn, arrears £11.10.0, in a present (written off ?) going to America Desperate" and "John Ferguson, Baldrom went to America, arrears unpaid" appear in the Estate rent book. Other tenants died leaving unpaid debts and old and poverty stricken relatives. The accounts show that the Laird helped many with gratuities, meal, groceries and firewood but that was not enough to remedy the situation. Commissioners were appointed to consider the plight of these poor people and in the year 1886 the first "Crofter's Act" was passed. Since then there have been numerous enactments to safeguard the interests of the crofter and financial aid offered to him in the form of grants for improvements, subsidies etc. but their number has dwindled to about half a dozen throughout the Glen. The writer has no liking for sheep but wonders if these animals have been blamed too much for the depopulation of the Highlands.

A local smithy was an essential to any agricultural community last century. In Glenmoriston a family of Macdonalds provided this service for several generations. The ruins of their first smithy can still be seen at the roadside at Laggan Bane but later when the crofting townships up the Glen declined, they were persuaded by the Laird to move down to Invermoriston, one of the inducements being four drills of potatoes from the Home Farm crop. They had of course to help in the "lifting" like others who enjoyed this perquisite. With the departure of the horse, their business suffered but they carried on until 1975 when the Smithy was converted into a pottery. It is sad and perhaps significant that the last generation of the Macdonald family consisting of two brothers and two sisters died unmarried. Of the Glen folk who have departed this life since the writer came home, at least two thirds were unmarried. The point of no return seems to have been passed early this century if not earlier and there are very few of the old Glen folk in the present population.

A meal mill for the Glen functioned until 1921. The shell of the building with its fine stone walls still stands at Dundreggan. It seems that a negligent tramp set fire to it one Sunday morning when the local folk were in church. The Lairds leased the mill to a branch of the family who lived at Dundreggaan, but took a cut off the profit for themselves. In fact there was a clause in all the agricultural leases stipulating that all grindable corn should be sent to this mill.

Until about the end of the last century, there was a weaver and a boat-maker in the Glen. There was also a tailor well into this century. The village shop at Invermoriston seems to have been a very modest affair early last century when no doubt most of the population were still to a large extent self supporting. Macdonald in his book tells us that; packmen, travelling tinkers and rag-merchants came round periodically exchanging their wares for money, rags, rabbit skins etc. They also brought news of the outside world.

In the eighteenth century a mineral surveyor wrote a very optimistic report on limestone and ironstone deposits in the area of Inverwick and Achlaine. Fortunately perhaps the Laird did not fall for it. In Glen Urquhart the Earls of Seafield had lost a packet looking for copper and there had been abortive attempts to mine lead in the vicinity of Inchnacardoch. Granite was however quarried for a short time below Craig Mhadaidh where the workings can still be seen. The granite column of the Glemnoriston War Memorial was manhandled from this spot, the writer's father taking part in this operation which was apparently a very thirsty one.                  

The village Inn at Invermoriston was built early last century since when it has been extended and is now the Glenmoriston Arms Hotel. It seems though that there had previously been an Inn of sorts in the vicinity of the old road, which went up the hill just west of the Farm Burn. Estate records show the present building in its original form was leased out with the croft of Easter Achnaconneran in 1834 for a rent of £35 per annum. In those days, it seems that innkeepers required some land to keep cows and most probably to provide feed for traveller's horses and ponies. By 1870, the rent allowing for improvements had been increased to £100 per annum, which seems rather a high figure for the days before the tourists. In 1890 guests were coming in the early spring and summer for the salmon angling on Loch Ness, for which the inn was allowed several boats for hire with ghillies.

Near the Fasagh field there is a stone tablet with an inscription in memory of a gentleman from the south and his ghillie who were drowned nearby. There were six different innkeepers during the century and in 1876, the tenant gave up because he reckoned that the building of the railway to Skye, by which he must have meant Mallaig or Kyle, had exhausted the traffic via the Great Glen. Possibly there were other reasons and it appears that, once again, the Laird was afraid of an adverse effect on the sporting value if tourism was h1lowed to develop.

Appendix D shows the account against Burgess, the Factor who sometimes spent the night at the Invermoriston Hotel when over for rent collection or on other business. It will be noted that two bottles of whisky were required for the collections. The writer found half a bottle sufficient for the needs of the tenants in the 1950s but this cost about three times as much while few of their rents had been increased within the last hundred years.

Up the Glen, there used to be an Inn on the old drove road, at Aonach just west of Achlaine. Samuel Johnson and his friend Boswell spent the night there on their way to the Western Isles in 1773. In his Journal Johnson records "We came to Aonach, a village in Glenmoriston of three huts, one of which is distinguished by a chimney. We were conducted through the first room that had the chimney into another lighted by a small glass window”. The host's name was Macqueen who spoke English and apparently was not pleased when Johnson praised him for the propriety of his language. The daughter who had been to Inverness "to gain the common female qualifications" had, like her father "the English pronunciation" Samuel Johnson presented her with a copy of Cooker's Arithmetic which he had purchased in Inverness. It seems likely that this establishment was closed down when the present road to the west was constructed early last century as a .new Inn was built at Torgoyle close to the bridge. Donald Macdonell was the first tenant, in 1834, and a licence to sell spirits was obtained but withdrawn in 1885. At the time the late Laird wrote to his factor to say that his mother thought it a good idea if the Inn could be turned into a coffee shop and so to do away with some of the whisky drinking. In his own view, the cattle drovers and travellers must be provided with some sort of accommodation and refreshment to their taste. The present Torgoyle Lodge was built some years later. Translated from Gaelic Torgoyle means "the knoll of the stranger or Lowlander".

There is an old Glen story about an English trooper who was put to sleep in the stable at Aonach. Next morning all that remained were his top boots so that the presumption was that he had been eaten by the horse with which he had shared the stable.

The coming of the sheep from the south early last century already has been mentioned. They were followd by the sportsmen. Our rental of 1832 is the first record of a sporting lease: "House of Dundreggan with liberty of shooting and certain accommodation £50 rent". In 1835 Captain John Dixon paid £250 for the Glenmoriston shootings and in the same year the Knockie rent went up to £195. These pioneers were followed by the nobility and the "big business" of those days. Seven peers of the realm and several members of Parliament are in our rentals and it is not surprising in such circumstances that by 1870 the sporting rents amounted to £3060, about three quarters of the total. In 1872 seven keepers were on the Glenmoriston payroll, their total wage bill amounting to £238 for the year. Most of them were also provided with a piece of land to graze a cow or two and no doubt they received handsome tips from the "toffs". The local crofting community also benefitted considerably from those wealthy summer visitors, the men as ghillies and their families working in the shooting lodges. In fact the men from Glenmoriston who were -called to give evidence at the hearing before the Royal Commission, when visiting Drumnadrochit in 1892, almost all stated that they depended on the income from the sporting tenants for their livelihood as much as from the crofts. Nevertheless a great deal of scorn has been poured upon the sporting interests of the "idle rich" who kept the Highlands alive for about a century. The sporting bonanza continued until about 1911 when it reached its peak, but there were anxious times such as occurred around 1878 when the Trustees had both Ceanacroc forest and the Invermoriston shootings on their hands unlet resulting in a drop of £2950 in the rental. However by 1880, things had looked up again. Lord Waveney took Knockie, Lord Manners Invermoriston and Henry Bruce Meux of Daintry House Wilts was at Ceanacroc Lodge paying a rent of £2,000. At that time it was reckoned that 85 stags could be taken off Ceanacroc and sixty off the Glenmoriston Forests.

While the demand for sporting leases had been very welcome there soon arose a clash with the sheep grazing interests. Even today it is probably accepted by all concerned that "deer and sheep do not mix". The sporting tenants, some of whom inclined to be autocratic, took exception to any possible interference to their activities, whether it came from timber operations, crofters cutting peat or sheep. It might be said that the sheep farmers also took a poor view when their straying flocks were liable to be impounded. In 1875, for instance, Sir George Middleton Bart., at Ceanacroc held some 600 sheep, mainly from the Ivergarry side, demanding a fine for trespass. Sinclair, the Glenmoriston Factor, urged both sides to settle out of court, as he feared that legal proceedings by Sir George would inflame the whole country.

It was about this time that a very wealthy American named Winans, London address, No. 19 Kensington Palace Gardens, who rented a large area of deer forest, brought a test case against a Glenshiel crofter named Macrae whose lamb had strayed onto forbidden land. The case received considerable publicity in the press and has been known since as "Winan's Lamb", Contributions towards Macrae's costs were poured in from fellow Scots from all over the world and it seems that he ended up quite "well-to-do". The writer does not know what happened over the test case but it showed that even in those days, the "small man" had to be treated with due respect. Incidentally Winans had a correspondence with Glenmoriston over a possible lease. He reckoned that on the 170,000 acres of forest which he rented in Inverness-shire and Ross-shire he paid at the rate of 1/6 to 2/- per acre on land cleared of sheep and 4d to 6d per acre for land under sheep.

The only solution to the deer versus sheep problem seemed to be wire fencing which was then a comparatively new invention. There was some difference of opinion as to who should bear the initial cost. The Glenmoriston march with Guisachan stretched for six miles and Sir Dudley Marjorie-Banks, later Lord Tweedmouth, the owners of that property maintained that the fence was mutual, that is each side paid half. Mr. Ogilvie, who ran a sheep stock on Corriemony, estimated that the cost of a stockproof fence with iron standards at f42 per mile which seems a very low figure, even for those days. The Glenmoriston Trustees reckoned this figure should be £50. It seems that our first march fence on the Inverwick side from fir posts was cut locally but these would have had a very short life under such extreme weather conditions on the crest of the watershed. Within some twenty year a perimeter march fence had been erected around our whole estate, with the exception of the Blamacaan forest, owned by the Earl of Seafield who perhaps had more sense than some others. The remains of these fences with iron standards can still be seen. It must have been a laborious job sinking them into the outcrops of rock and where these did not exist, bringing in large boulders for their foundations. Such work with contract labour would have required close supervision and correspondence shows that in the ease of the Glengarry march

fence, the work has been skimped. While there was a good deal of argument about the initial cost it seems that not much consideration was given to the question of maintenance. No doubt the sporting tenants from the south would not have been much interested in this aspect but the landowner found his maintenance bill rising steadily and towards the end of the century the Guisachan fence was repaired with birch posts which suggests that proper maintenance was no longer considered worth while.

However in 1879 the hill sheep farmers seemed to have suffered a severe set-back probably due to the greatly increased imports from Australia. By 1890 it was reckoned that there were one hundred million sheep "down under". The Glenmoriston sheep farmers were the first to feel the pinch as our hill is for the most part reckoned to be poor and therefore most prone to the evils of overstocking. The writer must admit his ignorance and dislike of sheep on the hill where more acceptable forms of life seem to suffer from their presence while the bracken flourishes. The Aonach sheep farm account for the year 1879 shows an income of £1,058 from sale of wedders and wool against the outlay of £1,601. The latter figure not only includes "wintering £210 and wages £110 but also the education of 7 children, clothing and groceries which the tax Inspector of today might not regard as 'allowable expenses'

With most of the sheep gone, sport in the form of deer stalking and the grouse shooting became of major importance to the Estate. It might be said now that more attention should have been paid to the afforestation but the sporting tenant was the "Bird in the Hand" who must not be upset by anything that might disturb the deer. Likewise measures were taken to exterminate all forma of vermin. Details of such measures taken on a neighbouring estate are quoted in appendix C and make shocking reading in this day and age. In Glenmoriston until quite recently the keepers were paid on a bonus system on the number of fox tails and other such evidence of vermin trapped and shot during the year. The Pine Martin was considered a rare species in the period before the last war so much so that the Laird stuffed one that was caught in a wild cat trap. No doubt the great increase in conifer woodlands is largely responsible for their revival. Peter Macmillan once told the writer that he had been, not many years back reprimanded by a gentleman for shooting a buzzard, at the time an uncommon if not rare bird in Glenmoriston. At the same time a Golden Eagle could be seen any day on the hill and the Peregrine nested every year on Stron-a- muic cliff face.  

The sheep farmers are probably as much if not more to blame for the noticeable reduction in the eagle population than the keeper. The hoodie crow seems to be the one species that has flourished through all adversities. Who knows? It may be the war against other forms of so-called vermin that is responsible for their increase in numbers. While on the subject it is interesting to read that in the year 1879 the Glenmoriston forester when reporting on squirrel damage in a young plantation, stated that these animals had first appeared in the Glen some forty years back having spread in from the Beaufort direction, He must surely have been referring to the grey squirrel which was certainly introduced into Scotland some time last century but his mention of Beaufort may have been due to his antipathy to Lovat whose tenants, on the other side of the river, he refused to employ in the Glenmoriston woods. It is noticeable how these newcomers seem to flourish. The mink has now become a menace and even the Japanese deer brought into Aldourie not so many years back has spread round Loch Ness and is now causing concern to both foresters and keepers.

The real pest to both farmers and foresters, and even the domestic gardener has been the rabbit introduced into Britain in Norman times times. Myxamotosis was said to have been brought to Glenmoriston by the Achlaine farmer who was most unpopular with his neighbours for other reasons but if he was responsible for the initial outbreak of the disease he deserves some thanks. Strangely enough the Estate records of the last century contain few complaints regarding damage to crops from rabbits and perhaps the crofter regarded them as a worthwhile part of his diet. During the two world wars when meat was scarce there was a good demand and price for rabbit carcasses and even in peace time the proceeds of such sales seem to have justified the employment of local rabbit trappers. Oddly enough the Scottish rabbit pelts were preferred to others for the making of bowler hats which seem to have declined in number even more than the animal itself. When the writer came home in 1951, the rabbit had become a scourge. It was a waste of time and money to plant trees or even a vegetable patch without rabbit netting. A holly bush in front of Creagnaneun was ring barked in a hard winter while every corn crop was extensively damaged. Trapping, gassing and snaring by keepers seemed to have little effect on their numbers while the professional trapper just skimmed the cream and returned the following year for another batch. It may be that the planting of extensive areas in World War I had some complex effect on the rabbit habitat and it may just be coincidence that since the introduction of myxamotosis that there has been a marked increase in the growth of birch and gorse on open ground.

Prior to last century there were no roads suitable for wheeled traffic in the North-West Highlands. The inhabitants being to a large extent self- supporting, did not of course leave their glens except on special business. Even today some of the old folk in Glenmoriston will tell us that it is many years since they visited Inverness. For those moving from one glen to another there were well known tracks over the hills but any stranger to the district was well advised to employ a guide. Hill ponies were much in use. Apart from the absence of roads, there were no bridges in the rural areas which explains why most of the hill tracks converged on points where rivers could be forded. Those on pony-back trusted in their mounts to carry them across while those on foot used the "follow- my-leader” formation, placing their hands on each other’s shoulders. As can be imagined there were many cases of drowning when rivers were in spate. It is true that there were ferry boats on certain rivers where the crossing was deep and dangerous. Captain Burt, in his letters mentions that one such boat "had so many marks of antiquity" that he enquired as to its age and was told by the ferryman that it was above sixty years having belonged to his father.

In days of old the travellers bound for Inverness from Fort Augustus direction forded the Moriston at the river mouth. The building of the Caledonian Canal raised the level of Loch Ness by several feet so the river estuary would have been shallower before this happening. Once across the track continued up the west side of the farm burn and over the hill on the flat east of Achnaconneran, continuing an the high ground and then descending into Glen Urquhart in the vicinity of Clunemore. This was the route by the cattle lifters from Lochaber in days of old but, in more recent times, by the Glenmorieton folk who put their own beasts to the annual sales at the Muir of Ord Mart.

In the writer's youth, a boat was kept at the Pool of Twenty (Linne-nam-Fichead) on the river a little upsteam from Bhlairaid and it seems likely that this was a recognised crossing place though history is not very clear as to the circumstances in which the twenty men were drowned there.A track went up the hill an the west side of the Bhlairaid burn crossing over the watershed at the east end of Loch Chreach.

Further up the Glen there was a coffin road which came over the hill from Glengarry to Achlaine where there must have been some means of crossing the river to the old graveyard at Balintombuie on the north bank. However the track probably in most use came over the Corriearrack Pass from Laggan to Fort Augustus then up over the hill to Torgoyle and on to Tomich, along the east side of Loch Beinne a Bane. There must surely have been a ferry at Torgoyle before a bridge was erected last century. The drove road along which the cattle from Skye and the west via Glenelg ran from the north-east side of Loch Cluanie and over the hill to Aonach west of Achlaine, joining up with the aforementioned Fort Augustus/Torgoyle track just west of the Inverwick burn in the vicinity of Dun Dyke. Incidentally this so-called dyke which the 'locals' have in the past believed to be man-made is shown by aerial photographs to be a relic of the glacial period, such photographs showing several other parallel banks not discernable from the ground.

Having dealt with the old hill tracks, mention should be made of General Wade's network of military roads linking the forts and barracks at strategic points throughout the Highlands. Although the work on these roads was commenced in the year 1726, it appears from records that the stretch from Fort Augustus to the Bernera Barracks in Glenelg was not constructed till after the 45 Rebellion. The line of this road seems to have followed that of the old drove road from Glenelg: probably because there was no alternative route. However it can be said that the General made the first attempt at road 'construction' in the Highlands. Captain Burt who was a Government Agent – some say a spy – described in his letters to a friend in the south how the military blasted the rock for bottoming and filled with smaller stones and gravel. In places where the rock was not easily available tree trunks were used with a covering of gravel. Ditches were dug on each side and retaining wall where necessary. Captain Burt sums up by stating that "the roads on these moors are now as smooth as Constitution Hill, and I have galloped on some of them for miles together in great tranquility, which was heightened by reflection on my former fatigue when, for a great part of the way I had been obliged to quit my horse, it being too dangerous and impracticable to ride and even hazardous to pass on foot." It seems that the bogs were regarded by such travellers from the south as the worst hazard, but provided they kept to the hill tracks, with the help of a guide one would have thought that the river crossings and the squalor of the hostelries would have been the most unpleasant feature of Highland travel in those times.

Around the beginning of the last century, the first road suitable for wheeled traffic was constructed from Inverness to Fort Augustus by the Commissioners of Roads and Bridges for the Highlands. The old bridge at Invermoriston was part of this scheme. A few years later the -road up the Glen took the place of the old track which can still be seen in places. The stretch of the new road from Invernmoriston to Ceannacroc cost £4,434, towards which the Laird, wider the relevant Act was obliged to pay £1,817 but entitled to recover this from his tenants over a period of seven years. There are traces of seven old tracks down the south side of the river used for the most part for dragging out the timber from the Inverwick and Dalcattaig woods.

It seems rather strange that there is little or no mention of transport by water before the opening of the Caledonian Canal. The passage under sail to and from Inverness can of course be slow and difficult, as yachtsmen of today will confirm, and it seems that most of the traffic in the old days was across the Loch. As mentioned elsewhere the timber was floated down to Inverness. The opening of the Caledonian Canal in 1822 coupled with the advent of steam vessels brought great benefit to the Loch Ness area, at least for a century. Glasgow merchants could offer Scottish coal at 14/9 per ton delivered at Invermoriston Pier – the best English coal was priced at 22/6 a ton, delivered into cart. Timber, as mentioned elsewhere could be shipped in bulk to industrial area ports such as Glasgow and Liverpool. Cattle and sheep no longer had to be driven on the hoof to the Marts at Inverness and Beauly when there was a daily steamer service available. It is said that on one occasion a number of Highland cattle from off the hill were gathered at the Pier awaiting the steamer. The approaching vessel with its long red funnel was some thing that the beasts had never seen before and when the skipper blew three blasts when reversing to come alongside the Highlanders made a hasty retreat up the Glen.

Although perhaps not of direct benefit to Glenmoriston, the Canal attracted a large number of tourists during the Summer months when there were two and sometimes three passenger steamers passing through the Loch each day. It seems rather a sad reflection on both private and public enterprise to see today the derelict piers and the Canal itself closed for several months on account of neglected maintenance work. No doubt it is cheaper to transport loads of up to forty tons by diesel lorry from point of extraction to the Fort William pulp mill or elsewhere but our roads were not built for such heavy traffic.

In the year 1882 a bill was put before Parliament covering a project initiated by the Scottish North Western Railway Co. to extend their line from Fort Willaim to Inverness. This scheme involved the erection of a viaduct across the mouth of the river Moriston. As might be expected the landowners concerned lodged objections but were equally worried when an alternative route up Stratherrick was suggested, Eventually the line was brought up to Fort Augustus but closed down some years back. It is interesting to speculate what the effect would have been if such a railway service had been in operation at Invermoriston, if only for half a century.

The post office at Invermoriston was opened around the middle of the last century. Previously a postman travelled two or three days a week between Fort Augustus and Inverness. In earlier times the Laird employed a message boy. It was not until 1874 that a money order office, Savings Bank service and telegraph machine were installed at the Post Office. The telephone came much later so for many years there was a stream of telegrams in and out of the Estate office.

On one occasion an S.O.S. was sent to the Invermoriston Ironworks when the boiler of Invermoriston House blew up. This was followed a few days later by another telegram. "Plumber arrived on steamer drunk as a piper". It appears that there was often considerable conviviality on the incoming steamer and the writer well remembers when spending his school holidays at Levishie, the Christmas mail delivered one evening had the unmistakable smell. It must have been the same year, 1916, that the mail steamer Glengarry was burnt out on New Year's night after a berthing at Fort Augustus. The local sage, one John Mcleod, declared it to be a case of "incendarising by the Germans.”

Reverting to the Post Office, in 1891 the Postmistress left for America and at the Laird's request, Frances Fullerton from up the Glen took her place.

It was not until 1899 that a telegraph office was established at Dalcriechard largely due to the pressure brought to bear on the reluctant authority by Mr. Orr-Ewing who had Ceannacroc on a long lease and was a Member of Parliament. It was he in fact who rebuilt the shooting lodge which went up in flames not so long back.

Chapter 10