Fort William

Fort William, a police-burgh of Inverness-shire, near the head of salt-water Loch Linnhe, the west base of Ben Nevis, and the south end of the Caledonian Canal, 66 miles SSW. of Inverness. A fort, built by Monk in 1655, and rebuilt in 1690, was vainly besieged by the Jacobites in 1746, about 1860 dismantled, and in 1890 demolished to make way for a railway station. Fort William, long one of the keys of the Highlands, is now a tourist centre. Its four churches are all modern (1868-89). Here was erected in 1889 a meteorological observatory near sea-level, in connection with the high-level station on the summit of Ben Nevis. Pop. (1841) 1026; (1881) 1594; (1891) 1870.