Monument record MHG4286 - Auchnahanate

(NN 2032 8143 and NN 2020 8110) Auchnahanate (NAT) (twice)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 1st ed., (1872)

A few generations before the early 17th century this was a small town, with many houses, called 'Achanathatinait' (OPS 1854), 'Achannathannait' (Macfarlane 1907), or 'Achanahannat' (Macfarlane 1907), which names indicate the existence of an Early Christian 'Annait.'
Mention is made of an old chapel which was regarded as a sanctuary and in which a fair appears to have been held, as is indicated by the neighbouring name 'Aonachan' - 'Fair-place' or 'Market Place'.
By the early 17th century, the town was 'waste and desolate' (possibly partially as a result of the Reformation ban on the desecration of holy places by the holding of such fairs) and by 1872 only a few thatched buildings remained.
Orig Paroch Scot 1854; W Macfarlane 1906-8; W J Watson 1926; Name Book 1872.

There is now no local tradition of a chapel site, and a perambulation of the area yielded no indication of where a chapel might possibly have been. Little survives to indicate the site of the township.
Visited by OS (J M) 29 August 1974.