Isle of Moy (3)
This is the Isle of Moy - the southern half of it anyway.  According to the Canmore website:- <i>&quot;The Statistical Account describes the remains of a house containing four firerooms </i>(whatever they were - rooms with fireplaces I guess?), <i>where the Lairds of Mackintosh resided in times of trouble, at the south end of the Isle of Moy.  An inscription above the gate indicated that it was built in 1665 by Lachlan, the 20th Laird of Mackintosh.  The remains of a street, the whole length of the island with the foundations of houses on each side, were also clearly visible.&quot;</i>

There is good reason to believe that the first residence on the Isle of Moy was built in the early middle ages as the country seat of the Bishops of Moray.  Nothing of it now remains, as it was almost certainly of timber construction; its site may have been the mound where Sir Aeneas Mackintosh's obelisk now stands.  

Various charters and other documents dated at the Isle of Moy between 1593 and 1664 show that by that time Moy was becoming the principal residence of The Mackintosh. It is most probable that his residence was still a timber building at that period, because the island gave sufficient protection and because of the problem of transporting masonry.  Not much information is available about this early building, but it possibly occupied the site of the Bishop of Moray's hunting-seat. It was superseded in 1665.

The 1665 residence of the lairds of Mackintosh, according to the maps, was very close to the centre of this photo, but despite a reported gable standing to a height of 9 feet in 1972, I saw nothing.  Maybe there was something under the trees.
dji062425stitch scotland 2022 lochmoy isleofmoy invernessshire mackintoshormackintosh