A brief history of Fort Augustus and Inveroich House

The old name of Fort Augustus - "the most centrical point of the habitable part of the Highlands " - was Cill Chuimein, named after Cummein, Abbot of Iona, who established a church here in the 6th Century. After the 1715 rebellion, General Wade built the first fort as part of chain of military control between Inverness and Inverlochy (Fort William). Work on a new, much more powerful and better sited fort on the banks of Loch Ness began in 1729, and in this year Wade changed the old name of the village in honour of the young Prince William Augustus - later to be known as "Butcher Cumberland" - son of George II.

Inveroich House, reputed to be the oldest in Fort Augustus, is at Inveroich Point, and was once inhabited by the commandant of the galley which plied up and down Loch Ness. In these early days, there were several houses at the point, but apparently three of them have been joined together to form a single building, now known as Inveroich House. The middle portion is said to have been a brewery, used only for private distilling.

These buildings all belonged to the War Department at one time, and of interest is the step at the back door of Inveroich House with an arrow head and WD 1857 carved on it. The Canal Company bought the houses from the War Department along with the land for the construction of the canal and gradually they fell into private ownership. Incidentally, the old main road crosses the Oich a little way from Inveroich House, although the bridge (half of wood and half of stone) is now unsafe. Most of this bridge was carried away in the flood of 1849, which caused much damage in the North at the time.

Shown here are a collection of old postcards and photographs relating to Inveroich House and Fort Augustus.

Inveroich House Fort Augustus Loch Ness Inverness-shire PH32 4DJ
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