The name of Inverness-shire, is certainly circuitously derived from the fall of Foyers. We have already stated, (see article FoYERs,) that eat, signifying a waterfall, loch an ess is the lake of the waterfall ; whence the names of the river, of the town, and lastly of the county. Inverness shire contains 31 parishes, eleven of which belong to the Hebrides. These parishes are scattered amongst five or six different presbyteries. The districts into which the county has been divided by public arbitrary usage, are, Lochaber, Moidart, Arasaig, South and North Morier, Knoidart, Glengarry, Glenelg, Glenmorriston, Urquhart, Strathglass, the Aitd, Inverness, Petty, Ardersier, Strathe ric, the Braes of Strath Nairn, the Braes of Strudearn, Badenoch, Rothiemurchus, and Strathspey; all of which are separately distinguished from one another. There are four sheriff-courts, one at Inverness, one at Fort NVilliam, one in Sky, and one in the Long Island. There are about 57 freeholders in the county, who return one member to represent it in parliament.
Druidical circles are numerous in the county, as well as those appearances denominated yin ified forts. (See Fours VITR I F IED.) At Glenelg, in the Aird, and at Dalchully, in Badenoch, arc the remains of very singular ancient buildings, composed of large stones, nicely adapted to each otln.r, without cement, supposed to have been Pic tish ur Danish alarm posts. The royal castle of Inver lochy, near Fort William, had once a thriving burgh attached to it, called, by some of the old historians, the em porium of Scotland. The castle, now in ruins, is a quad
rangular building, with round towers at the angles, the whole area included within the outer ditch being nearly an acre and an half. The league between Charles the Great of France, and Achaius king of Scots, is said to have been signed here about the end of the eighth century. Urqu hart castle, once a royal fort, capable of containing 600 men, but now a ruin, stands very picturesquely on a rocky point projecting into Loch Ness. It was reduced in 1303 by Edw. I. and, in 1334, Robert Lauder, the governor, maintained it against the English, then espousing the cause of Edward Baliol. The castle of Invergarry was burned in 1746; its ruins are situated on a bold rock, rising from the side of Loch Oich. Besides these, there are many other castles of inferior note. Loch NloiLlart, on the west coast, is !Imam, for having been the landing place of the young Pretender in 1745 ; and Culloden Moor, well known as the scene of his final defeat, on the 16th April, 1746, lies on the flat and lengthoied ridge of a hill about a mile from Inverness. The graves of the slain are distinguished by rising green limn amidst the brown heath. We are not disposed to class what are called the parallel roads of Glen Roy, under the head of antiquities, as we conceive them to owe their (nigh) to natural causes. (See•PARAL