BILL MCALLISTER: Land of warrior and wolf has a venerable tale to be told as the Kinmylies area of Inverness is older than we thought
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To many minds, Kinmylies is a relatively new part of Inverness, having become a major focus for housebuilding from the 1970s when a new community sprung up on what had long been farmland. This, however, is the 990th anniversary of the first recorded mention of what is actually a venerable name and area.
Sweeping down from Craig Phadrig on Inverness’s western flank to the Caledonian Canal, Kinmylies has been open land for most of its history until the rapid expansion half a century ago which, in turn, led to the 1978 opening of Charleston Academy.
King Alexander of Scotland, who reigned for 35 years until dying in 1249, churned out any number of royal charters but in 1232 he put his signature to a local one which included mention of ‘Kinmylie’.
An account in 1572 refers to ‘Kinmyleis’.
The origin of the name is open to debate, but Charles Fraser Mackintosh, the MP and archivist, reckoned in 1875: “There was a church and burying ground in Kinmylies, formerly Kilmylies, and it may have been dedicated to the Virgin Mary, or a female saint Maillie or Marion.”
Certainly, there appears to have been a medieval chapel in the area. Patrick Grant, sheriff clerk of Inverness-shire, owned Kinmylies House, a handsome two-storey building, and an account in 1868 tells how he engaged workmen to trench out his garden.
They discovered thick walls, “not evidently those of a common building”, and around the perimeter of these walls were large quantities of human bones, “betokening the former existence of a burial place”.
The report added that “ancient charters are said to exist”, attesting to a pre-Reformation chapel. The Abbot of Arbroath once owned church land adjoining Kinmylies House and this was the site of the chapel. Mr Grant consulted Sir Cosmo Innes, the distinguished 19th century Scottish advocate and antiquarian, who had been Sheriff of Elginshire and whose books include Scotland in the Middle Ages. Innes told Grant that he had seen charters dated by an ancient Bishop of Moray and Ross from “his manse at Kilmillies” and it was “very probable” that this uncovered chapel was the location.
The chapel was noted in the 1938 Ordnance Survey map. In 1987, a geophysical survey detected several resistance and magnetic anomalies. Three years later, as work was due to begin on housing development in what had been the garden of the recently-demolished Kinmylies House, archaeologists saw an opportunity.
However, funds only allowed for three days of trial trenching on the site, and no medieval evidence was recovered.
Roddy MacLean, the local Gaelic author, in his impressively researched Place Names of Inverness and Surrounding Area (2021), attributes the Gaelic version of Kinmylies as meaning “headland of the warrior/soldier”. MacLean also, however, flags up an alternative which has been suggested – that the name was the original form of Mile End, a farm which long existed in the area.
The hillside was also at one time a hiding place for wolves – and tradition states that, in the 17th century, the last wolf killed in the parish of Inverness was slain “not far from the house of Kinmylies”.
Kinmylies Estate was a local parcel of farms and open land which in 1774 was bought by Bristol-based Evan Baillie of Dochfour, who had been enriched via West Indies plantations.
The area was excavated to be the canal bed and there was a shipbuilding industry in Kinmylies, with vessels built there in the 16th and 17th centuries.
As housing need grew, planners identified Kinmylies as an ideal spot for larger-scale development. The Scottish Special Housing Association, building homes for incoming “key workers”, helped transform the area into a significant housing venue from the 1970s, with the council and private developers also kicking in. Now with a church, clinic, some shops and a primary school as well as the Academy, Kinmylies is part of the changing face of Inverness – the land of warrior and wolf now hosts a modern and growing community.
• Sponsored by Ness Castle Lodges.
