Wily Inverness provost defeated his warlike enemies with a strategic carry-out
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THE earliest reference in ancient documents to a Provost of Inverness was to a Provost Junor, 621 years ago.
The formal list of civic chiefs only starts in the 16th century, with George Cuthbert of Auld Castlehill 475 years ago.
Junor’s place in history, however, is safeguarded by the fact he was a hero in saving the town from being ransacked.
Drumderfit now is a quiet wooded hill near North Kessock, looking down on a side road to Munlochy. It is a long hog’s back ridge dotted with cairns and the site of a former Pictish Castle. Its Gaelic name translates as “Ridge of Tears”, derived from a violent affray led by Junor.
The Lords of the Isles frequently rampaged through Inverness and beyond from the Western Isles, seeing themselves as an independent kingdom. They descended from Somerled – with somerledi, or “summer sailors”, the name given to the Vikings who traditionally raided at that time.
Some accounts reckon Somerled was a Celtic chief but modern historians judge he was actually a Norseman and his wife was certainly a Viking noble’s daughter. At any rate he was the first Lord of the Isles and his forces had reached the Firth of Clyde before a battle at Renfrew in 1164 saw the army of the Scottish king, David I, triumph, with Somerled killed and his men retreating back across the Minch.
His successors continued to forage south, with Inverness often in the line of fire. It was in 1400 that Donald, Lord of the Isles, gathered a formidable army and advanced through Easter Ross into the Black Isle, eventually camping on the fateful ridge, where they could see across the water to Inverness.
Donald sent a messenger threatening to put the burgh to “fire and sword” if a ransom was not paid. This caused great alarm, particularly as the Town Council considered the ransom exorbitant.
Provost Junor’s spies, however, whispered the Macdonalds were weary after their long journey and had a shortage of food and alcohol.
The wily Provost managed to have a copious amount of strong spirits deposited on the hill. The unwary isles men pounced on this cargo and supped well but not wisely, drinking themselves into a stupor.
Meanwhile, Junor had gathered an Inverness force which advanced stealthily on the ridge. They were outnumbered, but Donald’s exhausted army was sleeping off a collective hangover. Donald was not present when Junor’s group reached the hilltop and attacked in darkness.
It was a massacre, with only a few isles men escaping and the remains of those killed buried on the hillside.
Inverness figured again in the Lord of the Isles saga. In 1368 John, the chief, refused to attend the Scottish Parliament to submit to the laws of the realm. King David II was irate and travelled to Inverness where his army’s might forced him to submit in person.
John’s grandson Alexander, however, threatened further unrest and in 1424 King James I summoned the Highland chieftains to meet him at Inverness where the more mutinous were arrested, some executed immediately. Alexander and his mother, the Countess of Ross, were briefly imprisoned.
On his release a furious Alexander headed north, gathered an army and returned to Inverness, burning it to the ground. He and his mother were later jailed for a year.
Provost Junor was, as we shall see next week, to figure in another grisly incident of Inverness history. Being civic chief is much less hazardous nowadays…
n Sponsored by Ness Castle Lodges.
