Fort William

The remains of the Fort of Fort William stand in the town of the same name on the banks of Loch Linnhe in Lochaber, in the shadow of Ben Nevis. The first fort to occupy this site was a wooden construction built in 1654 on the orders of Oliver Cromwell in a bid to control the Highlanders. After William of Orange came to the throne, the fort was expanded, wood gave way to stone and the fort was named Fort William. The village that grew up around the fort was named Maryburgh after Queen Mary II. The growing town was renamed Gordonsburgh, then Duncansburgh before being finally renamed again Fort William after William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, after the Jacobite rising of 1745/6. Such was the paranoia of the British Government that the garrison remained here until 1864 when it was decommissioned, but the Officers' Mess remained until 1935.