Councillors’ drinking habits and fighting at a funeral were reported in the Inverness Courier 180 years ago this month during the year when the Ness Island paths were created
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The saga of wine-guzzling councillors and a dust-up at a prominent funeral were reported in the Inverness Courier 180 years ago this month – a year when paths were also created at Ness Islands.
The newspaper on December 23, 1840 began a series of articles on “Inverness in the Olden Times”, drawn from the burgh records.
Attention was focused on “the convivial habits of the city fathers”, the writer saying: “A royal birthday means the consumption of six dozen bottles of claret, but the Provost and Bailies shared their good cheer with other dignitaries and officials.”
That was generous of them!
Given there would be four Bailies and the Provost, if they invited seven others that works out at six bottles of wine apiece.
That December also saw the funeral at the age of 60 of Duncan George Forbes of Culloden, great-grandson and namesake of Scotland’s senior law officer.
When it came to transferring the body from Culloden House to the Chapel Yard cemetery Forbes’ tenants from Ferintosh claimed precedence and surrounded the hearse, taking over the guard.
But within half a mile his Culloden tenantry rushed out of a wood, bearing cudgels, and battled to drive off the Ferintosh fraternity.
A few defiant Ross-shire men held fast to the hearse until arriving at the graveyard where police had been summoned.
The Courier reported: “The gentlemen of the district and the respectable tenants on each side carried the coffin while the men from the country walked beside them. The whole surrounding walls, tombs and monuments of the churchyard were covered with spectators, forming a novel and impressive spectacle.”
Inverness High Church, now known as the Old High, reopened that December after refurbishment, including the insertion of pews to accommodate more worshippers. Heating from stoves was also introduced.
A public meeting agreed to approve a legal assessment for the support of the poor of Inverness, backed by the council and Kirk Session.
That same year the West Church opened in Huntly Street, on land donated by Mr Mackintosh of Raigmore. The church relocated to Inshes in 2003 and the former church building is now flats, although the original bell tower has been retained.
Author William Howitt wrote of visiting Culloden Battlefield – “one black waste of heath”, with the exception of the grassy mounds of the graves. He was shown round by William Mackenzie, whose family still lived in a hut at Stable Hollow they had occupied at the time of the battle. Mackenzie said the Hollow got its name from “a number of the English troopers after the fight putting up their horses in the shed while they went to strip the slain.”
Howitt visited the summer communion at Kilmorack and observed: “With the exception that hardly anyone had a bonnet on, the young women were not much to be distinguished from those of our smartest towns.”
He added: “Sturdy shepherds with sunburnt features and their plaids wrapped round them, and gay fellows in full Highland costume, mingled with the throng in a more English garb.”
The Islands footpath still known as Ladies Walk had been raised, levelled and embanked while “the lower islands had been dressed up and rendered more pleasing by the removal of whins and the formation of walks”. The islands were described as “beautiful but neglected”. They are far from neglected now!
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