Scottish Highlands Towns and Villages

Ballachulish, Once important as a ferry crossing for travellers going south from Inverness-shire into Argyll, this Highland village owed much to the slate industry which began in 1697 and lasted until 1955.

At the southern end of the modern bridge is the cairn of James of the Glens, accused of the murder of Colin Camp bell, the Red Fox, and tried by a jury of his Campbell enemies and hanged in 1755 at Ballachulish.

The story of the shooting is one of the themes used by Robert Louis Stevenson in his novel Kidnapped.

The road going south from Ballachulish runs along the eastern shore of Loch Linnhe and passes through the little village of Portnacroish which provides an excellent viewpoint for Castle Stalker.

It was built in the 13th century as one of a string of strongholds on the western shores of Argyll.

The castle sits on a small islet and is perhaps the best sited of all such structures in the area. It has had a rough and vigorous history, one episode in which is com­memorated in a granite stone on a crag in the graveyard of the Episcopal Church at Port­nacroish: a bloody battle fought in 1468.

The castle has been restored recently and can he visited by appointment between March and September.