460 LOCH LUICHART-LOCH MAREE. The distance from Dingwall to Ullapool | excelled by anything in Scotland. is 46 miles. 1375. LOCH LUICHART extends 6 miles south-eastward; has pretty shores, enlivened with a handsome shooting lodge of Lord Ashburton ; is screened by rocky heights and massive braes; and contains great store of delicious trout, from half a pound to a pound in weight. A picturesque gorge beyond its head conducts the public road into Strathbran; and a stream there comes impetuously down 5 miles southeastward from Loch Fannich. This lake lies embosomed among mountains called Fannich Forest; has a length, east-southeastward, of 7 miles; and contains great plenty of trout, chiefly small, but some very large. 1376. STRATHBRAN is the upper reach of the vale of Conan, here called the Sheen, and extends about 14 miles from east to west. Its bottom is meadowy; its skirts display fine sweeps of natural terrace; its northern screens rise, in long green ascents, to the summits of Beneigen and Benfin, overhanging Loch Fannich; and its southern screens consist mainly of the mountain ridge of Scuir-Vullin, terminating in three rocky peaks, at an altitude of about 2500 feet above the level of the sea. Loch Hular, in the lower part of the strath, contains pike and large yellow trout; Loch Roshk, at its head, is a splendid fishing water, little frequented by anglers; and Loch Ledgowan, a little south-west of the head, on the road to Loch Carron, contains pike and trout of from 3 to 10 pounds. 1377. LOCH MAREE commençes 6 miles north-west of the head of Loch Roshk, and extends north-westward to within 1 mile of Poolewe. Its length is 18 miles; its breadth varies from 2 or 3 furlongs to 2 miles, and is greatest at the middle; and its depth, over the most part, is about 60 fathoms. Its scenery includes a thousand points of romantic brilliance, and presents a gallery of grandeur, force, savageness, and majesty un Soft features are awanting, even wood is scarce; but all the elements of power are multitudinous and strong. Twenty-four islets, low, rocky, and desolate, lie in the central reach. A chain of baylets, overhung by cliffs, runs along the right shore. A range of mountains rises sheer from the cliffs, and soars aloft like a rampart, bare and hard, to dissevered shoulders and a flowing summit-line, with altitudes apparently of from 3000 to 4000 feet above the level of the sea. A contracted reach, 23 miles long, forms the throat of the lake, with craggy, splintered, pinnacled, intricate, copse-clad shores, of similar character to the flanks of the Trosachs. A spacious sweep of mountains, in form of an amphitheatre, curves round all the left side, range behind range, with multitude of breaks and tops, in rich variety of shape and summit. Benfile, at the south-east end of this sweep, soars, from a stately base, into two sharp, lofty peaks of snow-white quartz, and makes a dazzling appearance under a play of sunshine. Slievegach, on the opposite shore, rises abruptly in stupendous mass, on one side from the water, on another from a profound, solitary, lateral glen; goes grandly up, in long ribs and a shattered roundish head, to the highest altitude over the lake; and commands a most imposing view over much of the Western Highlands and away to the Outer Hebrides. Benlair, on the same shore, near the foot, dips romantic skirts into the lake; ascends with broad, solid, graceful mass; and recedes toward the summit in a series of shell-shaped corries. One of the islets in the lake, called Ellan-Maree, contains a curious ancient burying-ground, and was the site either of a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary, or of a Culdee cell founded by Maree, or of both; and another, called Ellan-Rorymore, contains vestiges of a subterranean circular structure, similar to a Scandinavian dune, and was inhabited by John Roy, the ancestor of the Mackenzies of Gairloch The lake contains salmon, trout, and | Macleods, the scene of a murder which led char; and the river Ewe, which carries off to their expulsion by the Mackenzies. 1379. LOCH CARRON opens a little sheen; and contains a post office of the north of Kyle-Akin; goes 7 miles north-name of Loch Carron under Dingwall, a eastward, with a mean width of 3 miles; good inn, and about 520 inhabitants. A divides suddenly into two horns; then Scandinavian dune crowns a rising ground goes 8 miles further north-eastward, on behind the village; and Strome Castle, the southern horn, with a mean width of a ruined ancient fortalice of the Macless than a mile. Its appearance, from donells of Glengarry, stands 4 miles furmost points of view, is that of a fresh- ther down the loch. The road from water lake embosomed in hills, and hori- Janetown to Applecross goes westward, zoned half round by considerable moun- through a picturesque defile to Courthill, tains. Carron Water descends 14 miles at the head of the north horn of Loch south-westward to its head, along a glen | Carron; then ascends, by cork-screw traof some interest; and is well frequented with salmon and with large sea trout. Janetown village, on the north side of the loch, miles from the head, stands on the line of communication between Skye and Dingwall, 26 miles north-east 1380. APPLECROSS Bay laps a small of Kyle-Akin, 25 south-west of the juno- warm vale at the base of sandstone mountion with the Poolewe road at Auchna-tains upwards of 2000 feet high. The verses, a steep mountain corry to the height of about 1500 feet, overhung by stupendous precipices, and commanding a view of similar stern, savage, sublime character to that of Glencoe. 462 LOCH TORRIDON-LOCH BROOM. vale lies like an oasis in a desert; com- | to have at one time gone further inland, mands thrilling views of the mountain into fusion with Loch Maree. A pretty heights above it, and of the peaks of cultivated island, 13 mile long, lies in its Skye across the sea; and contains a pro- centre. Rocky shores go round it; and prietorial mansion, a small inn, and a bare, broken, longish ridges rise on its parish church. A Culdee cell was founded flanks. A beautiful little bay occurs at here in the 7th century, and gave an Altbea, near the middle of its north-east abbot to Bangor in Ireland; a Romish side; and a good road comes down to church succeeded it in the middle ages, this from Poolewe, and passes on to the and was long in repute as a sanctuary for head of Loch Greinord. See 1378. criminals; and a very ancient small obelisk, with curious sculptures, still stands in the church-yard. 1384. LOCH GREINORD measures 61 miles across the entrance, goes 7 miles to the south-south-east, and contracts slowly to a roundish head. Its upper part contains an inhabited island 1 mile long. Its shores display a picturesque series of baylets and small promontories. Its screens rise into numerous rocky hillocks. A stream comes 10 miles down to it, along a mountain glen, expanding at one part into a considerable lake, and is well frequented by salmon, grilse, and sea-trout. 1381. LOCH TORRIDON penetrates 13 miles to the east-south-east, and is 4 miles wide at the mouth, and 13 mile at the head, but forms three successive basins, separated from one another by narrow straits. Long low headlands flank its entrance; crags and shattered cliffs line its further shores; and prodigious acclivities, mural, shelving, and recessed, tier above tier, ascending in one part to an altitude of 3015 feet above 1385. LOCH BROOM, in a large sense, the level of the sea, stand around its includes Loch Greinord, measures 12 upper parts. The scenery possesses no miles across the entrance, goes 7 miles beauty, but displays immense force and east-south-eastward with very little disurpassing grandeur. Shieldag village, minution of width, and then forks into with a post office under Dingwall, a Little Loch Broom and Loch Broom small inn, a parish church, and about proper; the former penetrating 8 miles 200 inhabitants, stands beneath stupen-east-south-eastward, with a mean breadth dous cliffs, on the shore of the middle of about a mile; the latter penetrating basin; and Torridon House, at a point 15 miles in the same direction, first of road going into communication with with a mean width of 3 miles, next in the Poolewe and Dingwall road at Kin- a similar strip to Little Loch Broom. lochewe, stands at the head of the upper Its scenery is magnificent. Numerous basin. islands lie sprinkled on its bosom. Rocky promontories and sweeps of wood diversify its shores. Abrupt lofty mountains, with sharp features, sudden flexures, and bold arrangements, form its cincture. Benmore of Coigach, one of the most remarkable mountains in the Highlands, with peculiar tints and a very striking contour, occupies the cen 1382. GAIRLOCH is 4 miles long, and about 2 miles wide. A piece of ornate vale at its head, backed by a wooded cliff, and overlooked by loftier heights, contains a post office under Dingwall, a small inn, a parish church, and the mansion of Flowerdale, a seat of Sir Kenneth S. Mackenzie, Bart. Good roads go hence to Poolewe and to Ding-tral portion of the north flank. A fine wall. 1383. LOCHEWE penetrates 7 miles south-eastward to Poolewe, and has an extreme width of 3 miles. It appears wooded glen, traversed by a stream with beautiful cascades at Strone, and overhung on the north by Bendearig, 3551 feet high, goes off from the head. An other glen, with picturesque features, | the head, is a neat village, with a post and containing Lochs Achall and Damph, office under Dingwall, a good inn, two and the Marquis of Stafford's shooting places of worship, and about 780 inhablodge of Rhidoroch, goes eastward from itants; and it has communication by Ullapool. Inverlael House, Lochbroom steamer with Glasgow and Stornoway, Church, and Mr. D. Davidson's shoot- and is connected by good roads with ing lodge of Inverbroom, stand at the Poolewe, Dingwall, Bonar Bridge, and mouth of the former glen. Ullapool, on Lochinver. the north side of the loch, 7 miles from 464 CREICH. NINETEENTH DIVISION. SUTHERLAND AND CAITHNESS. THIS district, except for 30, miles from the head of the Dornoch Frith to the Atlantic, is all engirt by the sea. Three-fourths of it are mountainous, with probably a mean elevation of about 1500 feet above the level of the sea, but possessing numerous summits of from 2000 to 3431 feet of altitude; while the other fourth, in the north-east, constituting most of Caithness, is chiefly low, and either flat or but slightly undulated. Much of the interior, among the mountains, displays fine features of glen and lake; much of the western portion exhibits more intricacy of Alpine landscape, with sharp breaks of rock and water, than any other tract in the kingdom; and nearly all the coast, in much variety of style, but principally bold and romantic, is picturesque. CXIV. FROM BONAR BRIDGE TO WICK. Para graph craig, right; Berrie- Forse Castle, right; 1386. CREICH Church, 23 miles | into the frith, is crowned by a notable south-east of Bonar Bridge, is an edifice vitrified fort. Drinleah to the northof 1790. Dun-Creich Hill, in the south-west, near Bonar Bridge, was the scene, eastern vicinity of the church, projecting about the year 1100, of a great discom |