1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Kingussie

KINGUSSIE, a town of Inverness-shire, Scotland. Pop. (1901), 987. It lies at a height of 750 ft. above sea-level, on the left bank of the Spey, here crossed by a bridge, 461/2 m. S. by S.E. of Inverness by the Highland railway. It was founded towards the end of the 18th century by the duke of Gordon, in the hope of its becoming a centre of woollen manufactures. This expectation, however, was not realized, but in time the place grew popular as a health resort, the scenery in every direction being remarkably picturesque. On the right bank of the river is Ruthven, where James Macpherson was born in 1736, and on the left bank, some 21/2 m. from Kingussie, is the house of Belleville (previously known as Raitts) which he acquired from Mackintosh of Borlum and where he died in 1796. The mansion, renamed Balavil by Macpherson’s great-grandson, was burned down in 1903, when the fine library (including some MSS. of Sir David Brewster, who had married the poet’s second daughter) was destroyed. Of Ruthven Castle, one of the residences of the Comyns of Badenoch, only the ruins of the walls remain. Here the Jacobites made an ineffectual rally under Lord George Murray after the battle of Culloden.