INVERLOCHY CASTLE.

"I heard the thuds and saw the cluds,

O' clans frae woods, in tartan duds,

Wha glaumed at kingdoms three, man."

BURNS.

[Tales of My Landlord, 3d Series, (A Legend of Montrose,) Vol. III. p. 269.

"While Montrose executed the counter-march, Argyle had, at the head of his gallant army, advanced up the southern side of Loch Eil, and reached the river Lochy, which combines that lake with Loch Lochy. The ancient castle of Inverlochy, once, as it is said, a royal fortress, and still, although dismantled, a place of some strength and consideration, offered convenient head-quarters, and there was ample room for Argyle's army to encamp around him in the valley, where the Lochy joins Loch Eil. Several barges had attended, loaded with provisions, so that they were in every respect as well accommodated as such an army wished or expected to be. Argyle, in council with Auchenbreck and Ardenvohr, expressed his full confidence that Montrose was now on the brink of destruction; that his troops must gradually diminish as he moved eastward through such uncouth paths; that if he went westward, he must encounter Urrie and Baillie; if north ward, fall into the hands of Seaforth; or should he choose any halting place, he would expose himself to be attacked by three armies at once.”

There is no fiction in the author's account of the gathering of the Campbells or the battle of Inverlochy, both have a real existence, and the only difference between the narrative of that event as found in a "A Legend of Montrose," and in more serious performances, is, that in the former there is more effect, greater enthusiasm given to facts and persons, higher interest attached by description to localities, and that Argyle is treated by the author of Waverley, as Æneas was by the Mantuan bard, much too leniently. Loch Lochy is situated at the south-western extremity of the great vale that traverses Inverness-shire like a cross-belt, and terminates the series of lakes converted, at the national expense, into a valuable line of inland navigation. Its solitude is striking, and probably made more remarkable by possessing but one object, the lonely little inn of Letter-Findlay, to break the stillness and desolation of the view. Near to the west end, but in a hollow retiring from the grand opening of the vale itself, Auchnacarrie house is seated, the residence of the gallant Lochiel before his ill-fated espousal of the exiled prince's cause

in 1745. The navigation called the Caledonian Canal descends from the level of Loch Lochy, by a series of locks called "Neptune's staircase," into the creek or estuary of Loch Eil. At this point the glen expands, and admits a greater variety into the prospect: the river Lochy, conveying the overflowings of the lake of the same name, here contributes its impetuous waters, to resist the tide-flood of Loch Eil; and beyond this debouche, or afflux, Ben Nevis, the loftiest point in Britain, rears his gigantic front over the deep vale of Glen Nevis, that seems retiring from his vast side into the solitudes of Lochaber. From this vicinity tourists usually commence the ascent of Ben Nevis, a height of 4375 feet above the sea, and a labour seldom accomplished, even by the most active and experienced, in less than the space of an entire summer's day.

The battle of Inverlochy was fought at the opening of Glen Nevis. The Campbells lay encamped in their fullest strength of numbers, on the plain in front of Inverlochy Castle; and Montrose, making forced marches during the night, came suddenly upon his foes in the morning, through the great pass of Glen Nevis. When Argyll became fully assured that Montrose conducted the attack in person, his courage forsook him, he yielded to the prudent advice of the most devoted of his adherents, and, withdrawing on board a galley which floated on Loch Eil, beheld from that secure position the slaughter of fifteen hundred of his dispirited clansmen.

Inverlochy Castle is a spacious and massive quadrangular building, enclosing a large court yard, now employed occasionally as the cattle bawn of a farmer. In early Scottish history it is spoken of as an important place; it is said that king Achaius here signed a treaty of friendship with Charlemagne. It was subsequently, according to the same authorities, the site of a flourishing maritime city.