3rd September 1819, Letterfinlay, Loch Lochy, Inverlochy castle, Ben Nevis, new Caledonian Canal, Glengary Castle, Loch Oich

Friday 3rd September 1819

Sept 3rd The morning being sufficiently favourable for ascending Ben Nevis we started after breakfast for Letter Finly leaving on our left a short distance from Fort William the ruins of Inverlock Castle, we passed over 8 miles of a swept wild country catching fine views of the tremendous Ben Nevis on the north side of which

we saw a great quantity of snow which constantly remains Letter Finley Inn is situated on the side of Loch Lochy we took some refreshment’s there & proceeded to Fort Augustus passing in our way thither the new Caledonian Canal which is quite in an unfinished state & adopted for vessels navigating the North Sea to avoid the dangerous navigation of the Pentland Firth & north coast of Scotland & as a safe passage for shipping from the eastern coast of Britain. Glengary Castle is a picturesque ruin the ancient seat of the Macdonalds & situated on the banks of Loch Oich. Fort Augustus resembles in some degree Fort William situated a short distance from Loch Ness the Inn is very comfortable.

OBSERVATIONS & COMMENTS:

Letterfinlay is a small community midway along the length of Loch Lochy. http://www.maplandia.com/united-kingdom/scotland/scotland/highland/letterfinlay/

Inverlochy Castle originally dated back to the 13th century.

It last played a part in Scottish and English history during the Civil Wars of the 1640’s. In 1645 the royalist Earl of Montrose routed the roundhead forces of the Campbell Chief Duke of Argyll at the second Battle of Inverlochy. In 1654 the Castle was abandoned in favour of a large timber fort built nearby by Cromwell which in 1690 was then replaced by a stone fort named “Fort William” after King William III. https://www.inverlochycastle.co.uk/

2006: Inverlochy Castle near Fort William, by Jmb at English Wikipedia, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Inverlochy_Castle_PICT6929.jpg

Ben Nevis is the highest mountain in the British Isles. The first recorded ascent was made on 17 August 1771 by James Robertson, an Edinburgh botanist, who was in the region to collect botanical specimens. John Keats climbed the mountain in 1818, comparing the ascent to "mounting ten St. Pauls without the convenience of a staircase".

1836: Ben Nevis and Entrance to the Caledonian Canal, an engraving by S. Fisher after T. Allom. https://antique-prints-maps.com/acatalog/ref1.php?imagefile=../largeimages/SEBenNevisCalCanal12.jpg

In the year of Lucy’s visit (1819), William MacGillivray, who was later to become a distinguished naturalist, reached the summit only to find "fragments of earthen and glass ware, chicken bones, corks, and bits of paper". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Nevis

Letter Finley Inn (now “Kings House”, a holiday rental property) was built in 1735. History books say General Wade once stayed here and Prince Charlie rested at this former Inn after landing in Scotland. The property is decorated in a mix of Jacobean and contemporary styles. https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/VacationRentalReview-g1096487-d12481119-Historic_Kings_House-Letterfinlay_Scottish_Highlands_Scotland.html

Image from Trip Adviser https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/VacationRentalReview-g1096487-d12481119-Historic_Kings_House-Letterfinlay_Scottish_Highlands_Scotland.html

Loch Lochy is the third-deepest loch of Scotland. The River Lochy flows from its southwestern end while the Caledonian Canal links its north-eastern extent to Loch Oich. Folklore tales mention 'a supernatural being' called the River Horse which was said to emerge from the lake and assume a horse's shape before feeding on the loch's banks. The River Horse was also known as the Lord of The Lake and the Water King and would overturn boats and 'entice mares from their pastures'.

Another tradition was that of the River Bull, 'a gentle, harmless creature', who would 'emerge from the lake into the pasture of cows'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch_Lochy

Fort Augustus was originally a Gaelic settlement that was renamed Fort Augustus in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising in 1715. General Wade built a fort (taking from 1729 until 1742) which was named after the Duke of Cumberland. He had planned to build a town around the new barracks and call it Wadesburgh. The settlement grew, and eventually took the name of this fort.

The fort was captured by the Jacobites in March 1746, just prior to the Battle of Culloden. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Augustus

Caledonian Canal: In 1620, a Highland prophet called the Brahan Seer predicted that full-rigged ships would one day be sailing round the back of Tomnahurick, near Inverness, at a time when the only navigable route near the location was the River Ness, on the other side of Tomnahurick. The Commissioners of Forfeited Estates had originally been set up to handle the seizure and sale of land previously owned by those who had been convicted of treason following the Jacobite rising of 1715. By 1773, they had turned their attention to helping the fishing industry, and commissioned the inventor and mechanical engineer James Watt to make a survey of the route. His report in 1774, emphasised the benefits to the fishing industry, of a shorter and safer route from the east to the west coast of Scotland, and the potential for supplying the population with cheaper corn. In 1785 John Knox expounded the benefits of it relieving distress in the Highlands, and preventing ships having to navigate the dangerous Pentland Firth between the Orkney Islands and Caithness. William Fraser, when proposing his own scheme for a canal in 1793, announced that "nature had finished more than half of it already". At the time, much of the Highlands were depressed as a result of the Highland Clearances, which had deprived many of their homes and jobs. Laws had been introduced which sought to eradicate the local culture, including bans on wearing tartan, playing the bagpipes, and speaking Scottish Gaelic. Many emigrated to Canada or elsewhere, or moved to the Scottish Lowlands. The engineer Thomas Telford was asked to investigate the problem of emigration in 1801, and in 1802 published his report, which suggested that the problem was caused by landowners who had previously kept cattle creating vast sheep-farms. Realising that direct government action to tackle the issue would be seen as interference, he therefore suggested that a programme of public works, involving roads, bridges and canals, would be a way to provide jobs for people who had been displaced by the sheep farming, and to stimulate industry, fishery and agriculture. Telford consulted widely with shipowners, who favoured a canal . An additional benefit would be the protection that the canal offered to shipping from attacks by French privateers.

In 1803, an Act of Parliament was passed to authorise the project and enable the work to start. A second Act of Parliament granted £50,000 per year of government money, payable in two instalments, to fund the ongoing work and provision was made for private investors to buy shares in the scheme, for any amount over £50. The canal was expected to take seven years to complete, and to cost £474,000, to be funded by the Government, but both estimates were inadequate. There were also problems with the labour force, with high levels of absence, particularly during and after the potato harvest and the peat cutting season. This led to Telford bringing in Irish navvies to manage the shortfall, which led to further criticism, since one of the main aims of the project was to reduce unemployment in the Highlands. The canal finally opened in 1822, having taken an extra 12 years to complete, and cost £910,000. Over 3,000 local people had been employed in its construction, but the draught had been reduced from 20 feet to 15 feet, in an effort to save costs.

In the meantime, shipbuilding had advanced, with the introduction of steam-powered iron-hulled ships, many of which were now too big to use the canal. The Royal Navy did not need to use the canal either, as Napoleon had been defeated at Waterloo in 1815, and the perceived threat to shipping when the canal was started was now gone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caledonian_Canal - LUCY NOTES ITS UNFINISHED STATE

2011: Caledonian Canal, Fort Augustus, Scotland. By Leandro Neumann Ciuffo, Eclusas do canal Caledonia. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eclusas_do_canal_Caledo… — 2011: Caledonian Canal, Fort Augustus, Scotland. By Leandro Neumann Ciuffo, Eclusas do canal Caledonia. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eclusas_do_canal_Caledonia_(6194580521).jpg

Glengary Castle: During the Jacobite risings of 1745 to 1746, Prince Charles Edward Stuart – "Bonnie Prince Charlie" – visited the Castle shortly after the raising of the Royal Standard at Glenfinnan and is said to have rested there after his defeat at the Battle of Culloden, in 1746. In the aftermath of Culloden it was sacked and partially blown up by troops under Duke of Cumberland as part of his systematic suppression of the Highlands.

2009: Invergarry Old Castle Invergarry Castle by Astrid Horn. This image was taken from the Geograph project collection. The copyright on this image is owned by Astrid Horn and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike … — 2009: Invergarry Old Castle Invergarry Castle by Astrid Horn. This image was taken from the Geograph project collection. The copyright on this image is owned by Astrid Horn and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Invergarry_Old_Castle_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1515750.jpg

However the stout walls refused to yield and have survived the centuries to serve as a reminder to their history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invergarry_Castle

Loch Oich forms part of the Caledonian Canal, of which it is the highest point. Thomas Telford artificially raised the level of the loch by many feet to provide a navigable channel for the Caledonian Canal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch_Oich

2005: Loch Oich, the highest loch in the Great Glen geological fault, by Claire Pegrum. This image was taken from the Geograph project collection. The copyright on this image is owned by Claire Pegrum and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Com… — 2005: Loch Oich, the highest loch in the Great Glen geological fault, by Claire Pegrum. This image was taken from the Geograph project collection. The copyright on this image is owned by Claire Pegrum and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Loch_Oich.jpg

The Kings Inn, built in 1705 during the construction of General Wade's roads, is reputedly the oldest surviving building in Fort Augustus. The original inn, now separated into three dwellings, has had several famous guests in the past including: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Boswell and Dr Johnson. https://www.britainexpress.com/scotland/Highlands/bb/BE48421.htm

From the Kings Inn entry in Logitravel https://www.logitravel.co.uk/hotels/united-kingdom/loch-ness/kings-inn-b-b--hotel-1875394

Can you help us?

Old Regency Prints, Pictures an Coaching maps: Do you have access to any prints or pictures showing what town and country would have looked like when Lucy travelled through? Any illustrations of what she would have seen in 1819 will enliven our research.

New Pictures: Do you have any modern pictures of the streets, buildings, gardens and views that would enable us to see the changes that two centuries have wrought?

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