Inverness Field Club

'In 1875, Mr William Jolly, H. M. Inspector of Schools, was the first President and some words from his first address to the Club bear repeating. "Many good men are deterred from joining any Scientific Society by the idea that great erudition, much scientific knowledge and elaborate papers are asked for and are necessary to constitute efficient membership. Our objects, as a local association, are very much less ambitious and much more human and sensible. We are all learners."

'The founding of the Inverness Field Club can be traced back to the series of annual lectures by specialists in their field, funded by the bequest of Miss Mary Ettles. It was an Ettles Lecture on geology given by Professor Young of the University of Glasgow in November 1875 which stimulated the audience to ask the professor to lead an excursion to the Abriachan quarry in "a persistent rainfall, with a shroud of mist enveloping the valley and a steady depression of the barometer". The Inverness Courier subsequently published a letter from Dr Thomas Aitken, medical superintendent of the District Asylum, suggesting that a local society be formed, devoted to science and "the chief natural phenomena of the neighbourhood". Meetings and lectures, he said, could be held in winter, and the society could be run in conjunction with a field club which would arrange excursions in the summer.

'The Inverness Scientific Society and Field Club was duly founded on 8 December 1875, with William Jolly as its first President, at a time when 'Science' meant 'Knowledge'. Today its meaning is so much more limited that in 1973 the title was officially changed to the Inverness Field Club, which had been its accepted name for some time.'