Down Memory Lane by Bill McAllister: Sad ending in what is now Stratherrick Road in Inverness for a Provost who crossed the wrong woman

Borlum Castle, which was located in the Ness Castle area of Inverness, was home to the Mackintoshes who had seized their land by use of the claymore and held it for 300 years, until the mid-18th century.

It was there, in the 1500s, a plot was laid to murder the Provost of Inverness.

This column told last week of Provost Junor’s victory over the forces who had threatened Inverness from Drumderfit hill, the “Ridge of Tears”. There were to be many tears shed, however, in the Highland capital when the Borlum laird’s wife determined the highly-respected Junor should die.

Her husband enjoyed the protection of the Earl of Huntly, then Governor of Inverness Castle, who would often be his guest when hunting at Drumashie forest. This influence allowed Mackintosh the scope to blackmail neighbouring lairds.

The murder stemmed from an embarrassing episode when Lady Borlum, walking in to Inverness, made an alfresco toilet stop and the hapless Junor, then nearing 70, came across her in an indelicate position. “Oh, fie, fie Lady Borlum,” he rebuked her.

Lady Borlum warned:”You shall pay dearly for this.”

She related the story to her husband and said only Junor’s death could avenge the insult. Mackintosh agreed and it was decided their two sons would next day be given the mission of surprising the Provost on his usual evening stroll.

Junor, reputedly a man of great good humour, was a merchant who bought and sold animal skins, and spent the next day attending to that as well as taking his gold mounted staff to go about his affairs as a magistrate.

Shortly after 8pm he left home to walk from the town centre along what is now Ladies Walk to what is now Stratherrick Road but was then rough ground called Campfield, used for militia training.

His stroll was cruelly interrupted as the Borlum brothers sprang from hiding. He was stabbed to death.

Mrs Junor was concerned when her husband did not return home and next morning contacted other councillors when there was still no sign of him. The Provost being missing caused a sensation and the council held an emergency meeting.

They launched a search party and his body was found under a whin bush, his hat and staff some distance away. The corpse was carried back to the sound of weeping.

Within a couple of days information suggested strongly that the assassins were from Borlum Castle. The council held several meetings, keen to punish the killers but finally accepted the Earl of Huntly would not allow his ally’s arrest.

Instead, the council passed a motion that no member of the Borlum family should ever be eligible for a seat on the council as all they felt able to do.

That, however, was not the end of it. A female servant at Borlum was known as “Ipac Bheag na Breacaig”, or “little Isabel of the Bannocks”, because her main job was to bake the bread.

She in fact had been a stunned eye witness to the Provost’s slaying and eventually confided in a fellow servant who betrayed her to his Lordship.

Poor Ipac was despatched on a fake message to Bona Ferry, two miles west of Borlum Castle, and was intercepted and murdered.

It is said that for decades her ghost would be seen on the banks of the Ness near the castle and shepherds hearing her cries would return home with their animals.

The Borlum family remained unpunished for either murder.

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