Home Page

  Inverness

The rates charged by the harbour authorities are 4p per ton on merchant ships, and 5p on pleasure boats. Rates for the most common imports are - petrol 23p per ton, wooden battens 11p per cu.ft., grain 10p per ton, salt 8p per ton and herrings 5p per cran.

The Harbour and Passengers

Passengers used the harbour’~ and in 1804 a smack went every three weeks to London. In 1815 it sailed from London to Burghead in 70 hours which was 34 hours less than the time the mail coach took to the journey on land, but the usual time for the sea trip was from 10 to 12 days.

In 1823 Joseph Mitchell sailed from Aberdeen to London, cabin class. He got four meals a day, the journey took six days, and cost only 1 guinea. This was due to a price war between two rival companies.

In 1840 a steamer “Northern Star” took passengers and cargo on every second Monday to London. “The Duke of Richmond”, another steamer, went every week to Leith and the “Maid of Morven” travelled twice a week to Little Ferry in Sutherland.

At low tide the steamers would moor at the Kessock Ferry Pier. The Kessock Ferry still runs every day at about half hourly intervals, linking Inverness to North Kessock and the Black Isle, although here too change is coming, as in 1978 work is to begin on a bridge which will replace the Ferry Boat.

Cromwell’s Citadel

The Citadel

In 1649 King Charles 1 was beheaded and Oliver Cromwell wanted to stop any uprisings from the Highlanders, so he built forts; thus the Citadel in Inverness, which was a fort came to be built by the river and near the sea at a cost of £80,000.

It was begun by Cromwell’s Commonwealth army in 1652 and took 5 years to build. It was shaped like a pentagon and surrounded by water, one side by the river and the other four had a ditch with dams to keep the water in, but a boat could sail in at high tide.

The fort had five corners with bastions and a centinel house. in each corner. It was three storeys high and had walls built of hewn stone, lined inside, and then a brick wall was built.

The main entry gate was on the north side with a strong drawbridge of oak with the Commonwealth Arms over the gateway, and the motto ‘Togam Tuentur Arma’. The bridge was drawn closed every night and a strong guard posted inside. In the centre of the fort was a large square building of three storeys. This held the granary, magazines and the church which had a steeple and four bells.

Outside the fort was an area enclosed by ramparts with buildings for quarters and stables as well as a woodyard. The fort held a garrison of 1000 men.

In 1661 an Act of Parliament said that all forts should be demolished, so the soldiers knocked the fort down. The stone was taken and used to build other things in the town. There was little of the fort left except the inside of the ramparts and the Clock Tower, which can still be seen in Cromwell Road today. The building has been re-roofed and a clock has been put in the tower.

The Post Office

The Old Post Office 1820

The mail came from Aberdeen by “foot post” in 1715 and later by horse. In 1836 a mail coach pulled by horses came from Perth to Inverness to deliver the letters to the post office.

When the mail arrived the post office would close until the letters were sorted out, then the people could collect their mail. A postwoman would stuff the letters down the front of her dress and deliver them, but she had to be paid  before she would hand over the letter.

In 1820 the post office moved to a building on the corner of Church Street and Bank Lane, where the letter—box was only 4 inches by ¼ inch as all letters were only one sheet of paper. The postage from 1820 to 1840 was expensive. A letter to London cost is 3½d, Edinburgh is 0½d, Aberdeen 10½d and Fort Augustus 9d. But in 1840 all letters cost 1d, it was called the “penny post”

At this post office there was one postmaster and one postman who delivered the letters on the east side of the river. On market days he took the letters to the Market Cross and called out the names and addresses for people to collect their post. He was paid 6/— a week. By 1839 there were two postmen, one on the east bank of the river and one on the west side.

The Victorian Post Office

When the “penny post” started in 1840 more letters were posted and the post office became much busier. Larger buildings were needed so the post office moved to its first new building in the High Street opposite Inglis Street. It was a three storey building and the postmaster lived on the top floor. The post office had sixty—three people working for it.

In 1883 parcels were first posted and then the post office needed more room so the top floor became part of the post office and a new post office was planned,. The new post office started to be built in Queensgate in 1888 and was finished in 1890. It was a two storey Victorian building decorated on the outside with columns, arches, balustrades and urns. By 1897 one hundred people worked in the post office and later one hundred and fifty.

The post office we see today is in the same place as the earlier one. It was built in the 1960’s and has the same number of windows and doors of the same height, but it is a very modern building.

The first telephone exchange was in Union Street but later moved to the

Victorian Post Office in 1922 with five hundred to six hundred telephones.

In 1961 it went to Friars Lane, where it is now, and in 1973 there were

over eight thousand people with telephones.

Inverness Hospitals

Dunbar’s Hospital

Provost Alexander Dunbar built the hospital,which was named after him, in 1668 with stone from Cromwell’s fort. The walls were 3’ wide and limed. The building had three -storeys, with crow—stepped gables, an arched doorway with Provost Dunbar’s Coat of Arms over it, and also the date, 1668.

There are six decorated dormer windows with inscriptions on them. The first has a poor old man on it and the words “This poor man cryed” 1681 Thereafter the captions read — “And the Lord heard him, and saved him out of his tyrel”, “A little that a righteous man hath is better nor the” “Richis of manye wicked men”, “He that giveth to the poor leneth to the”, “Lord, and He will paye them seaven tyms mor”.

The hospital was built as a poor house, but the downstairs room at the south end was used as a grammar school until the Academy was opened in 1792. The room at the north end was used as a weighhouse, while the upper floors were for the poor people.

In 1857 the ground floor had a female dormitory and a matron’s sitting room, bedroom and kitchen. The first floor had a male and female dormitory with a toilet in each, only boarded off in the room. Between these was a bath, but there was not enough room to use it, so they washed in a tub.

The second floor had one male and one female dormitory with a washroom, and the mortuary. There was not much room so the meals were eaten in the dormitory, and it was hard to clean people and their clothes when they arrived, thus dirt and disease spread. The hospital held between 60 and 70 people of all kinds, old people, young children and lunatics.

More and more people came to the hospital, but in 1860 it was closed as a hospital, and in later years the building was used for many purposes, to store the gallows, a fire engine store, a library, a school, stores for merchants, and so on until the present day when it is used as a rest centre and coffee room for elderly people.

Inverness Schools

The First Schools in Inverness

The Priory taught boys in the middle ages for the service of the church.

The Monastry school was the centre for education, run by the Black Friars in what is now Friars’ Lane until it was moved in 1547 to what now the site of the Courier Office in Bank Lane.

Grammar school was held in a room of Dunbar’s Hospital and other )me in the town were rented for the school to use. It was called

Grammar School because it taught Latin grammar and all lessons e taken in Latin. The main subjects were Latin, Greek and Religious instruction, but English reading, writing and maths must have been taught too.

The school would meet at 6.30 in the morning and start work at 7 until

then work from 10 to 12 and from 2 to 5 or 6 in the evening. They

would work all day Saturday and on a Sunday they went at 10am to church

and again at 2pm. During the services the pupils had to take notes

and they were tested(on what they had heard)afterwards. There were not many holidays. They had one to four weeks in the summer usually from  the 1st or 2nd week in June until the 1st or 2nd week in July. The boys would then be off to drink goat’s milk which was believed to good for body building, and was at its best then.

The Academy in Academy Street opened in 1792 and the Grammar School moved there, even the bell which called the boys to school was moved with them. There were three acres of grounds and a large playground behind the building. There was a large hall and library with six classrooms, where five masters taught English, Classics,French, Gaelic,History, Geography and Sciences and Maths. The 300 pupils were feepaying, 10/— a quarter for Latin, 7/6 for arithmetic and 15/— for Painting is an example of the charges.

The Academy had long hours too, but they did have two other holidays the year, these were Sacrament Fast Days when the school was closed for a week. The rules were still strict and they had to attend church services in this time; but there were other odd days for holidays too -the Fair Days and “Bent” day — this was when dried bent or rushes were put on the floors of the buildings and the children would have 3 or 4 days off in a year to collect these for school.  This custom did not continue for very long.

Later Schools in Inverness

Raining School at the top of Raining Stairs was opened in 1747. It was managed by the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge with a grant of £1000 from John Raining of Norwich. There were two teachers and 250 boys.

The Education (Scotland) Act of 1972 stated that all children from the ages of 5 to 13 years must attend school. Parish and Burgh Boards took over the running of the schools from the church and town councils, but money was scarce, so the children were taught only a little of reading, writing and arithmetic.

The High School was built in 1849, but after the Act of 1872 control of this school passed from the Free Church to the School Board. A new High School was built in 1880, and the school remained there until 1937. That building is now the Crown Primary School. The Raining School was joined with the High School in 1894 when they became the secondary school of the School Board.

In 1918 the School Boards were replaced under a new Act of Parliament by the Education Authority which is still the governing body for schools in Scotland. Church schools disappeared and the 1945 Act of Parliament laid the foundation for the present system, whereby each child is given equal opportunity to benefit from the education offered in his or her area.

The Academy moved to the Crown area of the town in 1895 (it was still fee paying until 1945), eventually it will move once more to the south east of the town where the new Culduthel Academy opened in 1977 to serve along with Millburn Secondary School children who live on the east side of the river, while those who live on the west side of the river go at present to the High School.

The Early Houses

The first houses in Inverness were made of wattle and daub or clay and in the 7th Century we know they were frail and roofed with rushes. By the 12th Century they had turf and thatch on them like the houses that can still be seen in the Hebrides, some of these were still in use in the 16th Century, when even the church was thatched. There were a few better houses that had rough walls and thatched roofs.

At the beginning of the 18th Century Captain Burt an English officer said that parts of the town were made of the most miserable, low, dirty hovels faced and covered with turf, with a bottomless tub, or basket in the roof for a chimney. There were only a few houses built of stone and lime, but these would be very dark inside.

By 1730 there was a street or two of houses with windows. The top of the window was glass and the bottom was wood. The rest of the houses were only hovels.

Old Houses on the West Side of the River

Chisholm’s Close is off Duff Street on the west side of the river, these houses were of an older style belonging to the poorer people ( the photograph shows houses in Chisholm’s Close about 1900 ).

There is an old: thatched house with 8 wooden chimney and gables. The walls are of rough stone covered over with clay to give a smooth finish The roof is wood covered with thatch. Next to this is a wooden fence and gate, which probably led to a workman’s storage yard.

Further down the road is another house of this time — thatched but with a stone chimney, and it is joined to a house with a slate roof, that would have been altered to make it look modern, and less dangerous to the risk of fire.

This close off Duff Street would only lead to a few houses and so it would not have such a good road surface as the, main street. Chisholm’s Close is only made with stone pressed hard into the ground to make a flat surface.

INVERNESS HOUSES

Houses in Church Street

Church Street was one of the first streets in Inverness, and houses have been there from a very early date. The houses have changed a lot over the centuries, and at one time would have been lived in by import­ant people of the higher class. The working class people would have lived further away from the town centre. Their houses would have been smaller and cheaper.

These Church Street houses are quite large, probably with servants in the households, even in some cases living in the house. Typical of a lot of houses of this time were the steps leading up to the front door. This means that there was a basement, or a floor partly below street level. Also these houses had dormer windows in the roof, which shows that there are rooms in the attics, this means that there were really four different floors to the house.

A house of this type can still be seen in Church Street, by the High Church gates, and opposite to Dunbar’s Hospital which as we have already seen is one of the oldest buildings in Inverness.

Abertarff House

The houses used to be built in a close or alley so that the doors were not on the main street. The close would lead off the main street into a yard where the front doors were. Church Street had a number of such closes off it and Abertarff House was in one of them.

Abertarff House was built in 1593 and was a ‘Scots Domestic’ house of the Flemish style, which was often found in towns on the Moray Firth. Abertarff House can still be seen on Church Street, although the area round it has changed a lot since it was built.

The house has one end on Church Street, and a close led along the front of it to the front door and to the turnpike stairs. A turnpike staircase is a spiral staircase that goes up the outside of the house in a little tower.

The door in the tower opens on to the stairs that led straight upstairs to the living quarters of the house, thus this part could be easily protected by means of the narrow staircase if there was any street fighting. Although the downstairs rooms were usually used as a shop or warehouse this does not seem to have been the case with Abertarff House, as there is a fireplace in the room above which is the original ‘Marriage Lintel’ or ‘Marriage Stone’ and on which was carvedthe initials of the original owners of the house

THE CALEDONIAN CANAL

The Caledonian Canal

At the time of the Napoleonic Wars a safe route was needed between the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea for the Royal Navy, so the route which was to become the Caledonian Canal was surveyed by Thomas Telford in 1801 and the work began in 1804. It took a long time to build, and it was not until 1822 that the canal was opened, by which time the war was over. The canal cost over £1,200,000 to build, but in 12 years it was closed as it was not satisfactory. After alterations costing £150,000 the canal was reopened in 1847.

The canal is 60 miles long and joins the Moray Firth at Inverness with Loch Linnhe at Fort William. It also goes through Loch Lochy, Loch Oich and Loch Ness, so the canal itself is only 22 miles long. There are 28 locks of 70 foot long and 40 foot wide with a rise or fall of water of about 8 foot.. The maximum height the canal reaches is 106 foot above high water mark at Inverness and Fort William, this is on Loch Oich.

Before the canal was completely open the part between Inverness and Fort Augustus was used to transport meat, coal and building materials. After the opening, salt herrings were carried from Wick to Ireland, Glasgow was linked to Aberdeen, Dundee and the Baltic. Sailing ships found it difficult in the Great Glen because of- the winds, and so the canal Commissioners provided steam tugs in the 1840’s. But iron hulled ships propelled by steam were too big for the canal, so it was used mainly by fishing boats, Baltic traders and passenger traffic.

In 1847, four steamers took passengers between Inverness and Glasgow taking two days for the journey. The cost was £l.10/— for a cabin, or 10/— steerage. Coaches and omnibuses collected the passengers, with carts for their baggage,at Muirtown to take them to Inverness. Three of the steamers were called “Staffs”, “Cygnet”, and “Plover”. Their rival was a screw steamer “Princess Beatrice” that ran between Inverness and Liverpool.

In the 1870’s the “Gondolier” and “Glengarry” ran a daily service from Muirtown to Banavie near the other end of the canal. Now there are short pleasure trips on the canal and it is used by ocean going yachts and motor cruisers, as well as by fishing boats.

Thomas Telford

Thomas Telford was born in 1757 at Eskdale in Dumfries shire₀ His father was a shepherd, and he began life as a stonemason. He then went to Edinburgh and later London and Portsmouth where he gained knowledge and experience.

He became the Surveyor of Public Works in Shropshire in 1787 and then he was the architect and engineer for the Ellesmere Canal which conn­ected the River Severn with the River Mersey. In the next year he became engineer for the Shrewsbury Canal.

Thomas Telford was the advisor to the British Fisheries Society for the harbour building at Wick, and in 1796 he became official engineer for the society. When a surveyor for the Highlands was needed to develop the fishing industry and roads in 1801, Thomas Telford was chosen. He built many harbours round the coast and surveyed and shaped roads.

The system of communications in the Highlands was very poor and the government decided that money should be spent to build roads and bridges in the Highlands, so irf 1803 the Commission for Roads and Bridges was set up in the area with Thomas Telford as engineer. By 1814 the commission had taken over the military roads and Telford built many more, mainly north and west of the Great Glen.

The Caledonian Canal was the idea of Thomas Telford and in 1804 his plans were approved and work started. It was a long and difficult job, with many problems. The workers on the canal lived in Telford Street, which was named after the engineer. It was while Telford was in Inverness that he encouraged Joseph Mitchell and his father in the engineering field.

Thomas Telford also built many bridges in the north, which carry traffic today that could never have been imagined by Telford. Some of - these bridges are — the Lovat Bridge over the River Beauly, which was built in 1811, but had to be restored after being severely damaged by floods, the bridge over the River Blackwater, the Contin Bridge.

During his life Thomas Telford did much practical engineering both at home and on the Continent. He built 1200 bridges, including the Bridge across the River Tweed at Kelso, the Broomilaw Bridge in Glasgow, the Dean Bridge in Edinburgh and the Bridge of Don in Aberdeen. He also built 1000 miles of roads in the Highlands, Lanarkshire and Dumfries— shire, In Sweden Telford reported on the joining of Lake Werner with the Baltic and superintended the work to the Gotta Canal. He also worked for the Russian Government.

Thomas Telford spent the last years of his life writing the autobiog­raphy of his engineering works. On his death in 1834 he was laid to rest underneath the nave in Westminster Abbey, and the inscription on his statue near the north door reads, “His noblest monuments are to be found amongst the great public works of this country”.

THE HIGHLAND RAILWAY

The Beginning of the Railway

In 1840 it was thought that Inverness should be joined to the south by rail. By 1845 the Great North of Scotland Railway at Aberdeen planned to build through Elgin and Nairn to Inverness, but another group thought of using a different route. Inverness wanted to be joined with Perth and not go the long way round by Aberdeen. This would mean taking the railway up steep hills through country where few people lived, and where there would not be much use for a railway.

However, in 1855 the Inverness and Nairn Railway Company opened the route from Inverness to Nairn at great trouble because all the materials and engines had to be brought up by sea.

In 1863 the Inverness and Perth Junction opened a line from Forres to Dunkeld, then over lines already laid to Perth. The Inverness and Ross-shire Railway opened the Inverness to Dingwall line in 1862, this was a big undertaking as the line needed bridges, including a swing bridge over the canal.

By 1853 the harbour branch was opened and in 1862 the Ness Viaduct was built for the railway. It was a single line from the Ness Viaduct Cabin and cost £13,410 with five arches of 73’ span, four of 20’ and two girder spans of cast iron.

The different Railway Companies joined together in 1865 to make the

Highland Railway. Then in 1892 they opened the route from Aviemore

to Carrbridge which was extended to Inverness and finally opened in

1898. This then completed the main routes to the south.

At Inverness station the lines part as soon as they leave the station and are joined on the third side of the triangle by part of the Harbour Branch which is now known as the Rose Street Curve.

The Overnight Sleepers

In 1878 the first sleepers were used. They had eight wheels and were 1st class sleeping cars, holding nine passengers. There were two single berth coupés at each end, and two larger compartments in the middle —one for gentlemen with two upper and two lower berths, the other for ladies with three berths on the same level. The side corridor ran the whole length of the coach. It cost 5/— per berth and the Inverness to Perth run was very popular but the Inverness to Wick was not so and it was discontinued.

The Pullman Car Company. made two special coaches in 1885 for sleeping cars. They held sixteen 1st class passengers with upper and lower berths. The cars were 33’3’’ long and weighing 16½ tons it orginally ran on six wheels, but were later put on to four bogie wheels. They had oil lamps and heaters burning coke fuel. The outside was dark brown with gilt lettering and lining. The coaches were named “Balmoral” and “Dunrobin”, but they were not used after 1907 because the Highland used its own coaches. These coaches were 50’ 1or~g and 9’ wide, run on four wheel bogies.

The lighting on the overnight sleepers came from oil gas. There were four single 1st class sleeping compartments joined in pairs, and four 3rd class compartments seating eight passengers plus one with only four passengers. There was also an attendant’s room next to the sleeping compartments and a lavatory at both ends.

The 0—4—4 Tank “Dunrobin” with the Duke of Sutherland’s saloon was built in 1899 at Wolverton to the design of C.A.Park who was the London and North Western Railway Carriage and Waggon superintendant. It  was used for the Royal Train of King Edward V1l.           The train was dark green with gold lined white upper panels. It was used for overnight journeys and is now in the Railway Museum at York.

The Rolling Stock

When the Inverness to Nairn and Nairn to Aberdeen lines were opened the railway carriages were the usual design of the time, that is a light construction with four wheels, flat roof and straight side. The carriage was cramped, but the 1st class was quite comfortable, while the 3rd class had wooden benches. There was no 2nd class.

In 1858 a Mail Van was used for the first time, it was 20’lon and weighed 9 tons. It was fitted ‘with wooden covered spring buffers. The passenger’s luggage was put on the roof with only iron railings to hold it on and no cover. In front was a seat for the guard with a handrail and footboards. Between 1860 and 1870 this arrangement was no longer used.

When the line to Wick was opened new coaches were needed. These were 27’6’’ long by 7’4’’ wide and weighed 9½ tons. The 3rd class coaches held 50 passengers in 5 narrow compartments with small windows. The 2nd and 1st class compartments were wider and more comfortable. These trains had the handles on the left of the door and the hinges on the right as you stood looking at the coach. This was different from most coaches, but they were used for more than 30 years.

Later coaches had six wheels and weighed 15 tons, the 1st class coaches had four compartments for 16 passengers, the inside ones had a lavatory. The 3rd class held 50 passengers in 5 compartments with no lavatory. All the lights were oil.

After bogie wheels were used most of the railway coaches and trucks were fitted with them. Gradually the rolling stock improved, as lavatories, gas lighting and steam heating became general. An alarm bell on the tender of the engine was introduced with a cord running along the eaves of the carriages, but this was later changed for the present communic­ation cord system.

Gradually a more comfortable form of travel was introduced. In 1902 a family saloon was brought into use. It was 48’8’’ long by 8’6’’ wide, it had a main saloon 27’ long with couches and easy chairs covered in velvet, a smoking saloon 8’ long with leather revolving arm chairs. There was an attendant’s compartment as well as a lavatory and a luggage locker next to the main room.

Finally there were new 3rd class compartments seating 50 in two sections and lit by electricity, not gas. There were also travelling Post Office Vans, open and covered wagons, goods trucks and some double decked wagons for the transporting of sheep.

The rolling stock increased and by 1922 the Highland Railway had 797

coaching vehicles, 2718 goods wagons and 112 service vehicles. The

Inverness and Nairn Railway in 1855 had five passenger coaches and

26 goods wagons.

Early Trade

In Inverness from about the 16th century the only people who were allowed to buy and sell raw materials, and manufacture the items that every one needed were the burgesses, or guild brethern who were members of the Merchant’s Guilds. They were the only ones who could trade in leather,skins, hides, furs, fish, talow, or to dye,brew or distill in the Burgh. They had to bring their goods into Inverness to sell them.

To become a burgess they had to own a rood of land in the Burgh and pay the King 5d. a year for it, as well as live in the Burgh and help to keep watch in the town. On being admitted to the guild they had to swear to be faithful to the Crown and Burgh and to treat their fellow burgesses and brethren to a banquet of spice and wine as well as paying a fee of up to 20 merks to the town treasurer.

The burgesses were able to trade all over Inverness and-the Sheriffdom, which included the counties of Inverness, Ross & Cromarty, Sutherland, Caithness, and part of Argyil. They were also allowed to trade abroad, from where they imported wine, spices, salt and iron, and exported leather, skins, furs, beef, salmon, herring and other fish besides.

Other men would be licensed to set up stalls for the sale of merchandise and these were called Stallengers. Boothholders were a lower class of person, who paid for the right to manufacture and work in leather and make shoes. They too had to swear to be true to the King and Burgh and take duties in the town.

In 1582 William Dick was made a boothholder and he paid 10/— entry money and 8 merks for a banquet to the bailies and cordiners craft. Most of the tradesmen in the town were cordiners, these people worked mainly with leather and skins, and made themselves into a “craft”. In 1558 they set a price for their goods — men’s shoes could not be more than 18d. a pair, women’s shoes 14d, servants’ shoes 16d, and children’s shoes 12d. These prices were fixed every year by the court and in 1572 men’s shoes were 2/8, servant’s 2/6, women’s 2/4, and children’s 20d, l6d, and l4d.

These burgesses were very important, as they were the only people allowed to trade freely in the Burgh, Sheriffdom, or abroad.

TRADE AND INDUSTRIES

Shipbuilding

Wood was floated down the rivers to Inverness in early times. Oak came from the side of Loch Ness, fir from Glenmoriston and Strathglass by way of the River Beauly. this meant that the shipbuilding industry was important.

In 1249 the Earl of St. Pol and Blois had a ship built at Inverness to go on the Crusades to the Holy Land with the King of France. Another famous ship was the one built by Captain George Scot between 1643 and 1645. Scot took this war frigate to the Mediterranean Sea and served Venice, where he became e Vice—Admiral of the Venetian fleet, and was the terror of the Mohammedan sailors.

Ships were used a great deal for trading in the 16th century and so the shipbuilding continued along with repair work. The ships were built from the wood which grew around the town, but sometimes the iron ore and framework would come already made from the Continent. None of the ships were larger than 50 tons, but they travelled to all kinds of places — London, Cork, Leith, Holland, Norway, Denmark and the Baltic as well as the Mediterranean and the Adriatic Sea. In 1743 one ship arrived in Jamaica.

In October 1717 the “Alexander” built at Inverness sailed from the town with a cargo of herring for Cork, from where she was to proceed to Rochelle for wine and brandy. The master of the ship was ill, so Thomas Greig took his place, as the ship sailed along the east coast she was captured by a Swedish ship commanded by an Englishman — Norcross who headed for Gottenburg in Sweden, but landed in France, where he was captured and sent to England. His ship along with the ‘Alexander’ sailed on, but off the coast of Norway Greig and his crew attacked the Swedes, and set them adrift, sending them into a Norwegian harbour. A Danish warship took the ‘Alexander’ into a Norwegian port and then to Copenhagen. The ship, crew and cargo were released and in 1718 Greig returned to Inverness having sold his herring in the Baltic and not at Cork.

There were shipyards on both sides of the river until the 1870’s. On the Merkinch side beside the railway bridge was Munro’s ship—build­ing yard, near Thornbush shipway was MacGregor’s yard where the last schooner to be built was the ‘Sovereign’ in 1878. On the Shore Street side John Cook’s yard was where the sawmills are now and there was two yards also at Cromwell’s Fort.

Because of the ship building there were other industries such as sail making and rope making, and in the Merkinch and Shore Street areas people lived who were connected with ships and the sea — ships carpenters, blacksmiths sail and rope makers and sailors.

Rope and Sail Works

In 1765 a site by Cromwell’s Fort was used to set up a Rope and Coarse Cloth Manufactury. The hemp was grown locally at first, but later it came from the Baltic. The sail cloth manufacture was one of the main industries of the town far a long time as this tour of the works in the 1900’s shows.

Around us is a veritable hive of industry — an up to date sail and rope factory, presided over by the genial proprietor Mr MacKintosh, who is one of the most energetic men in the north. We will first enter the sailmaking department of the factory and have a chat with Mr Junor the overseer of that particular branch of the establishment. he is a most intelligent man, and is I understand his employer’s right-hand man, much of the business of the establishment being carried on by him. The men are busily at work, you will observe, and the discordant sound of the looms reminds us of the great factories further south. These two men you observe by their looms are Andrew Fraser and J.Cameron, two of the most expert sailmakera in the north. They go about their work with machine—like regularity, and by them many a young sailmaker has been taught his trade.. These girls you see are busily engaged filling pirns for the weavers, and seem to be adepta at the business, judging from the deft movements they make while engaged in their work.

As you will see from the piles of work before them at present there is a rush on, and some heavy orders are being executed. We will now pass along to the ropemaking department, which is under the supervision of Mr Duncan Maclennan, who is assisted by Mr John Campbell. There is a large staff of workmen, including a number of boys,and they are busily engaged in the arduous task of rope—spinning. The boys, as you will notice, seem to be as expert as the adults. All kinds of “rope” are manufactured here, from fine twine to the stoutest cable necessary -for mooring purposes.

There are generally about 90 hands employed in the factory,where the average earnings of the journeymen range from l2s to 14s per week, the boys getting 2s but by dint of sheer industry and considerable overtime they sometimes succeed in earning 2s 6d, while the girls have to be satisfied with less. The hours are sixty per week — ten hours a day.

 They are however a contented lot of people.

Tanning

Due to the area round Inverness, there was a large trade in hides and skins of animals, from which was made leather goods. This means that there was a lot of tanneries in the town of Inverness.

The quality of the leather depends on the tanning more than anything else. The tanner has to make the skin last and stop it from rotting with long use. This is done by soaking the skins in a liquid with tannic acid or tannin in it. This tannin is found in the bark of oak trees and there was a great number of this tree growing around Inverness.

The hides arrive at the tannery and the hair has to be removed. This is done by soaking them in lime and water and then scraping with a large two handled knife. The flesh side is then turned up and the fleshy parts cut off. The hides then have the grease taken off and they are softened by being beaten for a while.

The hides are then ready to be soaked in the liquid solution of water and ground oak bark. They start of in a weak solution for about 4 to 6 months before being moved around into a stronger liquid. Then the hides are spread out with a layer of oak bark between them, covered with the strong bark liquid. There they lie for four months i1 they are light in  eight and six months if they are of a heavier quality.

At Inverness we are going for a walk along Huntly Street and Huntly Place about  1900 when we are told... “We are now in the vicinity of the tanyard, or tannery, and judging from the exterior of the erection, it appears to have been built before the days of architecture, for it is one of the most ugly structures that ever cast its shadow on any locality. That group of men which you can see up to their knees in the river are the skinners, who are preparing their skins for further operations. There in the doorway is Mr Alexander MacDonald the senior partner in the firm of Messrs MacDonald and Chisholm”.

INVERNESS PEOPLE

Characters in Inverness

There were many local characters and eccentrics that were often seen around Inverness not so long ago.

“Cappy Eppie” always wore a man’s cap,or a battered straw hat as she wandered round with her melodeon. She couldn’t actually play it, but she loved the noise it made as she pushed the bellows in and out. One day”Cappy Eppie”(or Euphemia with the cap as I suppose she could be called) went into a dance hall in Elgin while a fancy dress ball was on and she was given the first prize for being dressed as “Cappy Eppie”.

“Rory the Bird” was an inmate of the Poorhouse, now the Hilton Hospital and he was known to all in the town. He shuffled round the town all day greeting everyone and asking after them.

“Feeto Cher” was another character, he walked with his feet at a quarter to three and stood,An front of all women of any age saying “Now here’s a beautiful gyurl.

There was also an elderly man who walked up and down the High Street, usually on the side of the Town Hall. He was always smiling and was well dressed in a black coat and hat. He would thrust 2 sweets into the hands of young and old as he passed them. He must have spent pounds on sweets during his lifetime.

“jack the cabbie” would hang round the cabmen’s shelter on the riverside while Mackay Loch na Sonis would go round with his pony and cart coll­ecting pig’s swill. By the river, near the bridge was often seen a pavement artist with his dog. The artist would draw in chalk on the pavement and collect money from passers by.

Another character of the town was “Forty Pockets”.. He wore layers of jackets and coats, and that was how he got his name.

Entertainers

Let us now move to Waterloo Place, which was formerly known as Wellington Street, but possibly in honour of the many Waterloo veterans in the town the~name has been changed. Over to the right is the large space known as the Maggot Green.. You will see a small booth there and several of the equine tribe around it. The younger people are gathered around with much interest.. The tall kindly looking old fellow patting one of the horses is John Orde, the famous equestrian, while the younger looking chap is Delaney. They have just arrived in the town. They are well known throughout Scotland, and as their performances are in the open air, they never fail to draw large crowds of spectators. The crowd is growing, the performance is about to begin, and after the performance two gold watches, three silver ones, a boll of meal and a young pig will be raffled. Mr Urde announces the fact that there will be an indoor performance in Lyon’s Hall in the evening, when the play will be the ever—green Scotch drama of “Wandering Steenie”. By the tardy use of the whip the ring is enlarged, the sale of raffle tickets goes on, the stage manager Mr Fisher is exhibiting the gold watch on the end of a stick, while his assistants are displaying sundry articles which are to be sacrificed. Let us hope that the opening scene will be “Dick Turpin’s ride to York”, but no il\is “Billy Button the Tailor’s Equestr­ian Adventures” we are going to see.The younger members of the troupe are very short, but their tumbling performance is excellent.

All eyes are turned on the veteran who has just made his appearance.  There he is dressed as an old farmer, and he apparently has great difficulty in mounting his favourite’horse “Crornarty”. He has now succeeded, you will observe, and has become marvellously expert, he has even managed to get his feet on the saddle, while “Cromarty”, at a brisk pace canters round the ring to a lively tune played by the entire orchestra, consisting of a fiddle and trombone. Now off goes the farmer’s togs, and we see a jolly Jack Tar, then a drunken Hussar, and a New Haven Fishwife, all equally expert riders. Now he has thrown off the fishwife’s garb and finally appears as Rob Roy, the great Scottish Freebooter. The lottery tickets are now pretty well disposed of, and Delaney is engaged in his famous ladder performance. While the fireworks are being prepared and before the crowd begins to separate we will take our departure.

From “Reminiscences of Inverness”

by John Fraser.

Fiddlers of Inverness

Over 100 years ago there were a lot of fiddlers in Inverness. They were employed for 3 or 4 nights of the week for most of the year. The public houses were open to all hours and some of them open all night if there was enough trade. The fiddlers would play at penny reels, penny weddings, balls and footings for people to dance to until the early hours, often they would go on to dawn... Whisky was cheap — a gill ( 3 large dram glasses) was 3d and a bottle of the best malt was is.

Aberfoyle was a lame fiddler who broke his leg between the pier and Kessock Ferry after playing at a wedding party on the Black Isle. John Fowler would play at “penny reels” when everyone who went paid a penny for the dance. Blind Willie would also play for those “penny reels”. One day in the interval he left his fiddle and bow on the chair to take some refreshment. While away his bow was soaped very carefully, as he was blind he was unable to see what had happened to his bow, and although he tried to play no sound came out.

“Corn in Egypt” was another fiddler whose real name was John MacRae. The boys called him by his nickname, which made him so angry that he would chase them. Corn was always accompanied by his daughter on the “boss” fiddle.

Corn did sometimes play for a raffle, where there would be an item such as a watch and everyone would pay 6d to have so many throws of the dice. The person with the highest score would win. These raffles were held to help friends or a widow in need, and would begin about 8pm after about two hours of drinking and dice throwing. Corn would play for dancing, and the throwing would continue until the required money was raised.

Another Inverness fiddler was Jocky Cumming who was in the Inverness Militia, but he joined the band and played in orchestras, especially at the Northern Meeting Balls. He was also a composer of reels and Strathspeys. Once he had an invitation to play at Buckingham Palace, and set off for London by sea, but there he got mixed up with bad characters, who took everything worth any money from him. He wandered around London for weeks until he met someone from Inverness, who paid for his return. He lived only for four weeks after his return, probably through lack of food and exposure while in London.