Note 206 — Chapter III · THE MONASTIC CHURCH IN IONA.

It is usually stated in the local guide-books that Adamnan places King Brude’s palace ‘ad ostium Nesæ.’ No such expression, however, appears in Adamnan. The only indication he gives is, that it was near the river Nesa, but not on it. Dr. Reeves came to the conclusion that it must be identified with the vitrified fort of Craigphadrick, about two miles west of the river. It seems, however, unlikely that in the sixth century the royal palace should have been in a vitrified fort, on the top of a rocky hill nearly 500 feet high; and it is certainly inconsistent with the narrative that S. Columba should have had to ascend such an eminence to reach it. There is, however, about a mile south-west of Inverness, a gravelly ridge called Torvean. Part of this ridge is encircled with ditches and ramparts, as if it formed an ancient hill fort, and at its base, along which the Caledonian Canal has been carried, a massive silver chain was discovered in the year 1808, consisting of thirty-three circular double links, neatly channelled round with a prominent astragal, and terminating at either end in two rings larger than the others, which were about two inches in diameter, the whole weighing 104 ounces, and extending to 18 inches in length.—New Stat. Ac., vol. xiv. p. 14. Torvean seems to offer a more natural site if it is not to be sought for on the other side of the river, which may be inferred from the fact, that the only time Adamnan notices Columba going by land instead of sailing down Loch Ness, he went on the north side of the lake, and then he appears to have crossed the river (Adamnan, B. iii. c. 15; B. ii. c. 58); in which case it may have been on the eminence east of Inverness, called the Crown, where tradition places its oldest castle.