Inchmurrin

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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Inchmurrin, an island of Kilmaronock parish, Dumbartonshire, in Loch Lomond, 5 ½ furlongs WNW of the Kilmaronock shore of the lake, and terminating 2 ¼ miles N by W of Balloch pier. The largest and most southerly of the isles in Loch Lomond, it forms, with Inchtorr and Inchcailloch, a belt of islets from SW to NE, on a straight line across the broadest part of the lake; and measures 1 ½ mile in length by 3 2/3 furlongs in extreme breadth. Beautifully wooded, it has long been used by the Dukes of Montrose as a deer park; and has, at its SW end, in a grove of venerable oaks, the ruins of an ancient castle of the Earls of Lennox, where, after the execution of her father, husband, and two sons, Isabella, Duchess of Albany and Countess of Lennox, lived till her death about 1460. Inchmurrin was visited by James IV. in 1506, by James VI. in 1585 and 1617; on 24 Sept. 1439 it was the scene of the treacherous murder of Sir John Colquhoun and his attendants by a party of Western Islanders. Near the castle, so late as 1724, might be seen the ruins of the chapel of St Mirin, Paisley's patron saint, which gave the island its name.—Ord. Sur., shs. 30, 38, 1866-71. See Dr William Fraser's The Lennox (2 vols., Edinb., 1874).

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Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer