Imagining Inverness Scotland

Station Square would have looked very much like this when my pre-teen grandfather traveled alone to the New Mexico Territories in the United States to be indentured to his uncle McTavish for seven years. I often wonder how much history he was aware of growing up in Inverness: his family descended from Norman invaders that became lords and fought for Scottish independence; Sir Alexander Fraser married the sister of King Robert the Bruce; many Frasers worked in the North American fur trade and the Hudson's Bay Company; Clan Fraser's McTavish relatives were early investors in the rival North West Company and rose to run the company; Canadian explorer and fur trader Simon Fraser charted much of what is now the Canadian province of British Columbia. I don't remember my grandfather ever speaking of Scotland or his family history. After finishing his indenture, his uncle set him up in his own mercantile and he married the daughter of a local cowboy and homesteader. Grandad collected and only told stories of the old west.

"The City of Inverness stands at the mouth of the River Ness on the Moray Firth coast.  While the modern town is centered on the medieval Royal Burgh, established in the 12^th century, elements of earlier prehistoric settlements are known in various locations around the city. Together, these excavations help to build a picture of late prehistoric Inverness."

"This storymap shows the locations of the major late prehistoric (Bronze and Iron Age) settlements that have been excavated around Inverness. There were likely many other areas of settlement and activity that either no longer survive or haven't been found yet."