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. Footnote 207: Adamnan, B. ii. c. 36. Footnote 208: _Vit. S. Comgalli_, c. 44. Comgall is said in his life to have visited Britain in the seventh year after the foundation of the monastery of Bangor, and, as it was founded in the year 559, this brings us to the year 565. Footnote 209: Adamnan, B. ii. c. 36. Footnote 210: In octavo anno regni ejus baptizatus est sancto a Columba.—_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 7. Footnote 211: The visit of Columcille to Brude, and this incident which follows, is contained in the Advocates’ Library MS. only. Footnote 212: Whitley Stokes’s _Gaedelica_, 2d edit., p. 131. The word _Tuath_ is left untranslated, as it means both a territory and a tribe, as well as the people generally. Footnote 213: Dr. Todd’s _Life of Saint Patrick_, p. 451. _Book of Armagh_, in Betham’s _Antiquarian Researches_, vol. ii. p. xxvii. Footnote 214: Petrie, _Hist. Ant. of Tara Hill_, p. 34. Footnote 215: _Ib._ p. 169. Footnote 216: O’Curry’s _Lectures_, vol. ii. p. 198. Footnote 217: Stokes’s _Gaedelica_, p. 133. Footnote 218: Stokes’s _Gaedelica_, p. 131. Footnote 219: