KILMONIVAIG, or Kilmanivaig, a parish, in the
county of Inverness, 10 miles (N. N. E.) from Fort-
William; containing 2*91 inhabitants. It is situated
towards the western extremity of the county, in the district
of Lochaber, and was the territory of Bancho,
thane of Lochaber, and ancestor of the royal house of
Stuart. That chief, as well as other thanes of Lochaber,
is supposed to have occupied either the castle of Inverlochy,
now in ruins, or a more ancient structure standing
on the site; and their fortress was the most conspicuous
feature in the once thriving burgh of Inverlochy,
which some of the old historians call " the emporium of
the west of Scotland". The castle is traditionally reported
to have been originally a royal residence; and it
is said that the celebrated league between Charlemagne,
and Achaius, King of the Scots, was signed here about
the end of the eighth century. Near this spot, a fierce
encounter took place in 1431 between Donald Ballael,
cousin of Alexander, Lord of the Isles, then a state prisoner
in Tantallan Castle, and the Earls of Caithness
and Mar, the king's lieutenants: in this battle the royal
forces were defeated, the Earl of Caithness was slain,
and the Earl of Mar escaped with difficulty with his life.
Again, in 1645, an encounter took place in the same
vicinity between Montrose and Argyll, in which, after a
severe contest, the latter was entirely routed. In a field
named Dail-ruairi, at the east end of Loch Lochy, a
battle was fought on the 3rd of July, 1544, between the
Macdonalds and the Erasers: the slaughter was great
on both sides; Lord Lovat, with 300 of his name, fell,
and his eldest son was mortally wounded. Near Keppoch,
also in the parish, is a place called Mulroy, the
scene of the last feudal battle which was fought by clans
in Scotland, when, after a sanguinary engagement between
the Macintoshes and the Mc Ronalds, the former
were completely routed, and their chief taken prisoner.
Kilmonivaig, and part of the adjacent country, have been
denominated " the cradle of the rebellion" of 1*45. The
Young Pretender, in that year, erected his standard in
this dreary and mountainous district, and was joined by
the famous Cameron of Locheil; and the first act of rebellion
was an attack on the ro}'al troops by the Macdonalds
of Keppoch. After the suppression of the rebellion,
Prince Charles Edward availed himself of the secluded
glens of this district as a convenient refuge.
The PARISH is divided into the two districts of
Lochaber and Glengarry. At one time it was united to
Kilmalie, the two together being called the parish of
Lochaber; but it was separated by the authority of the
Church courts, about the beginning of the eighteenth
century. It is said to be the most wild and mountainous
district in the kingdom, measuring about sixty miles in
length from north to south, and twenty-five miles at its
greatest i)rea(lth,and comprising 300,000 acres, of which
a small portion is under natural wood and in plantations,
a much smaller ])art under tillage, and the remainder
natural pasture. Glenspean, forming the chief part of
the parish, is bounded on the south by Ben-Nevis, and
its subordinate range, which stretches towards the east;
and on the north by a series of elevations which, though
lofty, reach a far less altitude than those on the opposite
boundary. It commences near Ben-Nevis, and contracts
in width gradually towards the middle until, a little
above Keppoch, its whole breadth is occupied by the
rapid stream of the Spean, a river issuing from Loch
Laggan, and augmented by the Treig from the southwest,
and several other tributaries. After this, the glen
expands again, and extends to the west end of Loch
Laggan. It is joined near the centre by Glenroy; and
in the parish is also a part of the great Caledonian glen,
extending from the west end of Locli Lochy to the east
end of Loch Oich, a distance of nearly fifteen miles:
between these two lakes a portion of the Caledonian
canal is cut. The Spean empties itself into the river
Lochy, which runs into Loch Eil, a branch of the Atlantic,
at Fort- William.
The SOIL in some places is excellent, especially in
Glenspean; but very little has been done in the way of
husbandry, the hills and glens affording superior pasture,
and being;ippropriated to sheep and black-cattle, which
engross the chief attention. Upwards of 100,000 sheep
are reared in the parish every year. Two of the sheepfarms
exceed 100 square miles in extent; and the stock
reared supplies large quantities of valuable wool, purchased
by staplers from England, and from Glasgow and
Aberdeen. Very few agricultural improvements have
been attempted; but the large number of acres of superior
land in Glenspean alone, capable of the highest cultivation,
offers a temptation to wealthy proprietors, and
might make an ample return for an outlay of capital.
The annual value of real property in the parish is
£12,745. The substrata consist chiefly of gneiss and
mica-slate, and occasionally enormous masses are to
be seen of protruding granite and of compact felspar
rocks. There is a plumbago-mine in Glengarry, but it
is not in operation. The only mansion of importance
is Glengarry House, the seat of Lord Ward, beautifully
situated on the margin of Loch Oich, erected shortly
after the demolition of the ancient castle of the same
name by order of the Duke of Cumberland. The roads
to Inverness and Edinburgh pass through the parish;
and at High-Bridge is a fine bridge of three arches over
the Spean, built by General Wade. The chief traffic
consists in sheep, black-cattle, and wool, mostly disposed
of at the southern markets and in England; and there
are salmon-fishings on the Garry, on Loch Oich, and on
the Lochy river. There are five annual fairs for the sale
of black-cattle and sheep, or for general business, respectively
held in June, July, September, October, and November.
Ecclesiastically the parish is in the presbytery of
Abertarff, synod of Glenelg, and in the patronage of John
Walker, Esq., of Lochtrieg: the minister's stipend is
£289, with an allowance of £70 per annum in lieu of
manse and glebe. Kilmonivaig church is a very plain
edifice, built about the year 1814. There are two missionaries
in connexion with the Establishment, supported
by the Royal Bounty; one officiates in the district of
Brae Lochaber, and in a district of the parish of Kilmalie,
alternately, and the other at three preaching stations in
the district of Glengarry. There is a chapel at Brae
Lochaber for Roman Catholics, who make about half of
the population of the parish. The parochial school
affords instruction in the usual branches; the master
has a salary of £34, with £20 fees. There is also an
Assembly's school at Bunroy, another in Glengarry, and
a Society's school at Invergarry. The antiquities comprise
the ruin of Inverlochy Castle, and a vitrified fort.
The parallel roads of Glenroy are highly celebrated, and
have exercised the ingenuity of antiquaries in the attempt
to account for their formation. They are situated in
Glenroy, a tract eleven miles in length and one mile in
breadth, skirted with tolerably steep banks, on which
are the terraces or roads, three in number on each side
of the glen, and composed of gravel and clay. The
roads are quite level, and exactly parallel with each
other, varying from sixty to seventy feet in breadth, and
accommodating themselves, throughout the whole extent
of the glen, to the curvatures and windings of the mountains
on each side. Imperfect terraces of a similar kind
have been traced in some of the neighbouring glens.
The prevailing opinion with regard to the origin of the
Glenroy roads is, that they are deposits from the adjacent
heights, brought down at three different periods, when
the valley was a lake. It is thought that the loose materials
carried down by floods met with a check when
they reached the waters, and thus formed the highest
road; that the lake afterwards was partially drained,
which allowed of the formation of the second road; and
that the third was subsequently made, in a similar manner.
Ian Lom, the Jacobite Gaelic poet, well known in
the era of the rebellion, resided in the parish.