1326. LEWIS extends 42 miles south-in news-room, public library, masonic south-westward from the Butt to an lodge, and assembly room. Its populaisthmus between Lochs Seaforth and tion in 1851 was 2391. Macleod's Castle, Resort. Its breadth is small in the on the beach, now a fragmentary ruin, vicinity of the Butt, but increases gra- was dismantled by the troops of Cromdually to 27 miles in the vicinity of the well. Stornoway Castle, separated from isthmus. About one-fourth of it is the town by only a narrow arm of the bleak, high upland, and most of the re- bay, the seat of Sir James Matheson, mainder is a mixture of moors, mosses, Bart., on the site of the old mansion of the swamps, and lakes. The Butt is a bold, Mackenzies of Seaforth, is a superb, recent rugged promontory, about 70 feet high. edifice, in the Tudor style, with façades The south-western peninsula, at Loch 153 and 170 feet long, and two towers 95 Resort, contains the highest ground, with and 102 feet high. Improvements of many an altitude of 1885 feet above the level kinds have been made in Stornoway, and of the sea. A cavern near Gress, 7 throughout the nearer parts of Lewis, by miles north of Stornoway, is upwards of Sir James Matheson, at an expense, it is 600 feet long, partially hung with stalac- understood, of about £200,000. tites, and was formerly a great haunt of seals. Numerous hills and islets are crowned with Scandinavian dunes; and Bernera Island, in Loch Roag, on the west coast, contains the largest Druidical circle in Britain, looking at some distance like a crowd of tombstones in a cemetery. Lewis belonged for ages to the Mackenzies of Seaforth, but was purchased, not very many years ago, by Sir James Matheson, Bart., for £190,000. Its population in 1851 was 19,711.

1327. STORNOWAY stands at the head of a fine bay 65 miles north by west of Portree. It comprises nine or ten streets, and several small suburbs; and has a key post office, a banking office, a good harbour, four places of worship, two chief inns—the Commercial, and the Crown, and an elegant edifice disposed

1328. HARRIS connects with Lewis by an isthmus of 7 miles, but is almost cut in two, through the middle, by Lochs East and West Tarbert. Its length is 21 miles; its breadth nearly 7. Its surface includes very little arable land, but is chiefly upland, of a ridgy character, with summits along the centre of trom 1000 to 2000 feet high. Deer abound among its hills; grouse on its moors; geese, plovers, and pigeons, on its low grounds and swamps; and fish of many kinds in its waters. Three of its streams, Lacksta, Scunt, and Obbe, teem with trout and salmon; and some sea-grounds near its shores, with lobsters and oysters. An Augustinian monastery, on the site of a Culdee cell, was founded at Rowadill, on the south-east point of the island, at an early period, by Macleod of Harris,

and had a number of subordinate chapels | ness half swamped in the ocean, Benthroughout the northern parts of the becula had once a nunnery, still has Outer Hebrides; but only some uninter- remains of an old baronial castle, and esting ruins of its church remain. Nu- supports about 1720 inhabitants. merous islands lie around Harris, particularly on the south and on the west, but only a few of them are inhabited. The population of all, with Harris itself, in 1851 was 4250.

1331. SOUTH UIST extends 21 miles from north to south, and 8, at the broadest part, from east to west. Three groups of uplands fill most of its east side, separated from one another by deep sea-lochs; and Mount Hecla, the highest and most northerly, attains an altitude of 2940 feet above the level of the sea. ▲ light-house on the seaward skirt of Mount Hecla shows a fixed red light, visible at the distance of 18 nautical miles; and a cave at Corodale, in the vicinity, called the Prince's Cave, was the abode of Prince Charles Edward for some days in the summer of 1746. A labyrinth of bog and water forms most of the west side of the island; and the mixture of marsh and mountain, inland solitude and engirdling sea, draws a wondrous variety of the feathered creation. The population in 1851 was 4006. Eriskay island, mile south of South Uist, and about miles long, was the first Scottish ground on which Prince Charles Edward set foot in 1745, and contains the ruin of an old fortalice called Castle Stalker, of picturesque appearance, and serving as a landmark to mariners.

1329. NORTH UIST measures 13 miles from north to south, and 163 from east to west. Its surface is an intricate assemblage of hill, sea-loch, moor, lake, marsh, and plain. Lochmaddy, in the northern part of its east side, possesses a water area of not more than 9 miles; has an aggregate coast line, round isles and peninsulas, of about 200 miles; and forms quite a series of fine, safe, natural harbours. Two isolated rocks, of columnar basalt, near its mouth, rise to the height of about 100 feet, and serve as guides to mariners. A village of its own name, on one of its harbours, contains a key post office, an inn, and a court house. A sea cavern at Tighary Point, a short 1 distance from the parish church, called 3 Sloch-a-Chorry, or, "The Cave of the Kettle," has a vertical opening about 12 feet wide, and during the prevalence of a storm, discharges from this a stupendous jet d'eau, sometimes to the height of 200 feet. Another cavern, on the farm of Scolpeg, 3 miles from Tighary, possesses larger capacity and imposing grandeur. The island contains many tumuli, and many remains of Scandinavian forts. Its population in 1851 was 3302.

1330. BENBECULA has a roundish outline, and measures about 26 miles in circumference. It is all a net-work of land and water,-a low, flat labyrinth of peninsulas, bay's, pastures, inlets, moors, lakes, fields, and marshes. "The sea here," says Dr. Macculloch, "is all islands, and the land all lakes. That which is not rock is sand; that which is not mud is bog; that which is not bog is lake; and that which is not lake is sea." Yet, though little better than a bit of wilder

1332. BARRA is 9 miles long, and 53 miles broad. Its west side is fenced by huge, cavernous, fissured rocks; and its interior rises into roundish hills, pastoral to the top. The island has belonged from time immemorial to the Macneils. Barra Castle, at Eoligary, is a commodious mansion, built by the late proprietor. Kismull Castle, on a small rock in the middle of Kismull Bay, the ancient residence of the Macneils, all encompassed with deep water, is a kind of fort, with strong enclosing walls 60 feet high, and a strong, enclosed, overtopping keep. Upwards of twenty islands, nine of them inhabited, lie adjacent to Barra, or over 12 miles to the south; and both they and it contain numerous watch

ST. KILDA.

448

THE BEAUY FRITH.

EIGHTEENTH DIVISION.

ROSS AND CROMARTY.

THE eastern portion of this district, to the extent of 28 miles by 12, is a Lowland tract, diversified by the Beauly Frith, the Mullbuy, the Cromarty Frith, and the Hill of Nigg. All the other portions, with trivial exceptions, are a Highland territory, on a mean basis of about 1500 feet of elevation above the level of the sea; their mountains rather in masses than in ranges, often of great bulk and altitude; their glens much occupied with lakes of high note for both scenery and sport.

1334. THE BEAULY FRITH, the, with gradual expansion, 22 miles, to a estuary of Beauly Water, extends 7 line between Burghhead and Tarbatmiles eastward, has an extreme width of 2 miles, and contracts at Kessock Ferry to a width of three quarters of a mile. The collision of currents at the ferry causes periodically an agitation of waters, which looks to be dangerous, but is really safe. The Moray Frith commences at the ferry; goes 7 miles northeastward to Chanonry Point, with an extreme width of 4 miles; contracts at Chanonry Point to 1 mile; proceeds thence, in the same direction as before,

ness; has there a width of 16 miles; opens thence into great gulf, filling all the north-east corner of Scotland, to a line between Kinnaird Head at Fraserburgh, and Duncansby Head at the entrance of the Pentland Frith; and has a final width along that line of nearly 80 miles. Beauly Water is formed by the confluence of the Farrar and the Glass; runs 10 miles north-eastward to the head of the Beauly Frith; makes splendid falls at Kilmorack; and

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449

abounds, below the falls, with sea-trout, | It forms the backbone of the peninsular

grilse, and salmon. Kessock Ferry, besides being on the line of route to Cromarty, is on the line of the shortest route to Dingwall; and an inn at its north side supplies saddle-horses, gigs, and carriages. The view on the ferry along the two friths, between the wooded crags of Craig-phadric on the one hand, and the wooded crags of Ord Hill on the other, over rich, low country, to overhanging hills and distant mountains, is very fine.

district between the friths, called the Black Isle, and commands extensive views. The highest point of it has an elevation of 793 feet above the level of the sea.

1338. MUNLOCHY village stands at the head of a picturesque inlet of the Moray Frith, 2 miles long, and has a post office under Inverness. Belmaduthy House, in the southern vicinity, the seat of Sir Evan Mackenzie, Bart., is a splendid mansion. General Mackenzie, who fought and fell at Talavera, was connected with Belmaduthy. Rosehaugh House, north-east of Munlochy,

1335. KILLEARNAN Church, on the Beauly Frith, 4 miles west of Kessock Ferry, is an ancient, cruciform edifice, repeatedly altered and repaired. Red-the-seat of Sir James J. R. Mackenzie, castle, a little east of it, the seat of Bart., is a pleasing residence. Henry J. Baillie, Esq., is an old structure, once a royal castle, and visited by Queen Mary, and now modernized. Allangrange House, still further east, stands near the site of an ancient chapel of the Knights Templars. Kilcoy Castle, a little west of Killearnan Church, the property of Sir Evan Mackenzie, Bart., is an old, ruinous, castellated mansion. A cairn, behind Kilcoy, encompassed with circles of standing-stones, is one of the largest antiquities of its class in the north of Scotland.

1336. ORD HILL, a high, roundtopped eminence, immediately east of Kessock Ferry, is crowned by a strong, old, vitrified fort. A ridgy spur from its north side, called Drùmderfit, now strewn with cairns, was the scene, about the year 1400, of the destruction of an army of the Lord of the Isles. Their destroyers were the men of Inverness, who first made them drunk by smuggling ardent spirits into their camp, and then fell upon them stealthily under night with the sword.

1337. THE MULLBUY, a broad-based, softly outlined ridge of hill, extends 16 miles north-eastward, from the upper part of the Beauly Frith, in the vicinity of Kilcoy, to the lower part of the Cromarty Frith, in the vicinity of Cromarty.

1339. AVOCH village stands on a small bay, with a charming view, and has a good pier, a post office under Inverness, an inn, three places of worship, and about 750 inhabitants. Avoch House, the seat of Alexander G. Mackenzie, Esq., and vestiges of three old fortalices, are in the neighbourhood. One of the fortalices, Avoch Castle, stood on a rocky mound at the shore, was the death-place of the Regent Sir Andrew de Moravia, belonged afterwards to the Earls of Ross, and passed eventually to the Crown.

The burgh

1340. FORTROSE, a sea-port, watering-place, and royal burgh, stands on the Moray Frith, nearly opposite Fort George. A tongue of land runs out from it into the frith, and bears on the extremity a ferry station and a light-house. The adjacent beaches, the environs, and the views are delightful. comprises the two towns of Rosemarkie and Chanonry, which are about half a mile asunder, and were politically united in 1444. Rosemarkie was itself a royal burgh so early as the time of Alexander II. Chanonry was the seat of the bishopric of Ross, and long a place of high note and beauty. The castle or palace of the bishops and the greater part of the cathedral were destroyed by Cromwell, to furnish material for his fort at Inver