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Columbia Sflnitier^ttp
iiitlieCitpofillmgork
LIBRARY
THK
TOPOGIUPIIIC AL, STATISTICA L,
HISTORICAL
GAZETTEER OF SCOTLAND;
A COMPLETE COUNTY-ATLAS FROM RECENT SURVEYS,
EXHIBITING ALL THE LINES OF ROAD, RAIL, AND CANAL COMMUNICATION;
AID AN APPENDIX,
CONTAINING THE RESULTS IN DETAIL OF THE CENSUS OF 1851.
VOLUME II
I-Z.
EDINBURGH, LONDON, AND DUBLIN
A,. FULLARTON AND CO.
1854.
THE
PARLIAMENTARY GAZETTEER
OF
SCOTLAND.
I-CO
INC
I-COLM-KILL. See Iona.
ILANMORE, an islet of the Hebrides, about a
mile in circuit, and lying half-a-mile north of Coll.
ILANROAN, and ILANTERACH, two of the
Hebrides, lying on the south and east of Oransay.
ILAY. See Islay.
ILLERAY, one of the Hebrides, about 4 miles
long, and 1 i broad, lying to the westward of North
Uist, and insulated only at high water. The soil is
partly sandy and partly black loam, yielding toler-
able crops of barley, and pasture for cattle.
ILK, a word of frequent occurrence in the sur-
names of Scottish families. The following explana-
tion of the word is given by the old Earl of Cromarty,
in his 'Account of Cowrie's Conspiracy.' "The
word Ilk, in our Scots language, denotes that either
the person has given his name to the land, or has
taken his name from the land : and this practice was
one of King Malcolm Canmore's wise inventions ;
who, finding that oneness in name was a cause of the
clubs and cabals called clans, in place of these old
patronymics, the king did encourage all on whom
he conferred any title of honour, as of earl, lord, or
baron, to take their denominations from the lands
erected into the lordship, or barony, so to divide,
and break the clans, by loosing the ligament of these
patronymic names ; and so, Divide et impera was
his project." Whatever, for political reasons as stat-
ed by his lordship, may have been the wise encour-
agement given by Malcolm Canmore to landed pro-
prietors, to induce them to take their surnames from
their estates, the doing so seems, however, originally
to have arisen naturally, and of itself, from the ne-
cessity of distinguishing one person from another.
IMERSAY, an islet on the south-west coast of
Islay.
INCH, an adjunct of frequent occurrence in Scot-
tish topography. It signifies 'an island,' and is de-
rived from the British Ynys, or the Gaelic Inis. It
is said that the word occurs, ^vith the same signifi-
cation, in some of the aboriginal languages of North
America. In Scotland, but more frequently in Ire-
land, the word is also used to denote level ground
near a river.
INCH, a parish in Inverness-shire, united to that
of Kingussie : which see.
INCH, a parish in the western division of Wig-
tonshire ; bounded on the north by Ayrshire ; on the
east by New Luce and Old Luce ; on the south by
Old Luce and Stoneykirk ; on the south-west by
Portpatrick ; and on the west by Leswalt, Stranraer,
and Lochryan. It approximates to the oblong form,
but has marked irregularities»of outline ; and mea-
sures in extreme length, from north to south, 10;|-
miles ; in extreme breadth 7| ; and in average breadth
45 or 4^. The southern division — comprising more
than one-third of the whole area — has a surface so
gently undulating, that, when viewed from the neigh-
bouring hills, it appears to be entirely level. All of
it forms part — and that the larger one — of an isthmus
between Lochryan and Luce bay, and is believed to
have been anciently covered by the sea; and it is
bored at intervals into curious hollows, called by the
peasantry " pots," which vary in measurement from
1,000 feet in circumference and 100 feet in depth, to
comparatively small dimensions, and are supposed to
have been scooped out by an eddying motion of the
retiring billows. North-eastward and northward
of the plain, the parish rises into ranges of beautiful
hills. The southern face of these is partly arable
land and partly green pasture ; their tops, and inte-
terior sides inland and toward the north, are rugged,
heathy, and incapable of culture ; and a declivity,
which they make toward the whole of the eastern
boundary, again becomes partly verdant and partly
subject to the plough. The soil, on the west side
of the plain, is a good loam ; in the rest of the plain,
and other arable parts, is light and sandy ; and, on
the hills, is to a great extent mossy. The cultivated
acres of the parish as compared with the uncultivated,
are nearly in the proportion of two to three. About
700 acres are under wood. Toward the end of the
last century the face of the country underwent an
entire and renovating change, under the enterprising
and skilful agricultural improvements and incentives
of the Earl of Stair. Main water comes down from
Carrick on the north, traces the eastern boundary for
5 miles, is joined by Luce water from the east at
Waterfoot, or opposite New Luce, and thence de-
putes to the new stream, with the aid of its own tri-
bute, to trace the eastern boundary-line, over a far-
ther distance of H mile. The stream is rapid in its
course, and trots along a rocky path, but yields an
abundant supply of salmon. The Piltanton comes
down from the north-west, within the Rinns of Gallo-
way, and, in a placid, and even sluggish course — during
part of which it abounds in tiny sinuosities — traces
the south-western and southern boundary, over a dis-
tance of 7 miles. No fewer than twelve lakes spread
out their little expanses of water in the parish, — most
oftheminitslevel, or southern division. They abound
in pike, perch, carp, tench, roach, and white and red
trout ; are frequented by wild ducks, teals, widgeons,
coots, and cormorants; and during the winter-months.
II.
64610
INCH.
especially if the temperature he 1)elo\v tlie average,
Decome the resort of immigr.ant swans from Ireland.
Those of Soulseat and Castle-Kennedy are beautiful
sheets of water, and possess, in a marked degree, the
fjentler features of fine lake scenery. The loch of
Soulseat, f of a mile long, and 5- of a mile broad, was
formerly called the Green loch, and, during part of
tlie year, is sheetc
of substance, which gives an appearance of watery
verdure. " On a calm summer morning," says the
writer in the New Statistical Account, " the banks
of the loch of Soulseat present an appearance not a
little curious. What seem to be pillars of cloud, ap-
pear here and there, rising to a heigiit of 50 feet or
more. A stranger, viewing them at a distance, might
suppose them to consist of vapours of smoke ; but
on a nearer approach, they are found to consist of
living creatures, engaged in ceaseless action, perform-
ing tlie most graceful evolutions; and, on listening,
will be heard the rush of their little wings, and the
piping of their tiny voices. These flies have, I be-
lieve, their nativity in the water, from which they
emerge to an ephemeral existence in the region of air.
One species of them ^ through a very singular pro-
cess — throwing olf the skin. They fix themselves
to a tree or bush, or any resting-place, and literally
crawl out of their skin ; and, having left behind them
their exiivia, hie themselves off with freshened agi-
lity to their aerial dance. On remaining for a short
time by the water-edge, I have found myself covered
with the filmy skins of these gay ephemerte." The
loch is of the form of the arc of a circle, and has its
concavity or peninsula covered with wood ; and ap-
pears to have anciently had a deep fosse or trench
stretching like a chord between its projecting points.
In its vicinity stood an ancient abbey : See Soul-
seat Abbey. Castle-Keimedy loch is cut so very
deeply by injecting peninsuke, and is so slenderly
continuous by a connecting thread of waters, as some-
times to be reckoned rather two lakes than one. The
parts run parallel to each other, the one a mile, and
the other U mile in length, from north-west to
south-east, and are each about i a mile in breadth.
A peninsula f of a mile long, and :^ of a mile broad,
runs down between them on the north-west ; an-
other peninsula, of a half-moon form, about j of a
mile in radius, and | of a mile in length of chord,
sends up its convexity on the south-east; and be-
tween the peninsulte stretches the water-line, which,
in a sense, makes the two lakes one. In each sec-
tion of the lake is an islet ; resting on the bosom of
the waters, or skimming their surface, or playing
" in the lift" above them, are herons, sea-mews, and
numerous species of water-fowl; on their banks are
two rookeries ; and, above all, in the long north-
western peninsula, are the romantic edifice and de-
mesne of Castle- Kennedy, the property of the Earl
of Stair. Castle-Kennedy, in its original form, was
a spacious, stately, square edifice, built probably in
the reign of James VI. It belonged at first to the
Earls of Cassilis, who had extensive possessions in
Wigtonshire ; but, in the reign of Charles II., it
passed, with its adjacent property, into the hands of
Sir John Dalrymple, younger of Stair. The castle
was burnt by accident in 171.5, and, down to 1839,
continued, with walls 79 feet in height, to be unin-
habitable and ruinous. The grounds and plantations
around it were planned by Marshal Stair ; and, if
destitute of the graces which adorn more modish de-
mesnes, possess attractions nearly peculiar to them-
selves — Along Lochryan, the parish has a coast-line
of about 8 miles. This includes most of the south-
ern part, or bead of the loch, and the whole of its
west side, till Within 2.{ miles of its opening into the
^uii: See Lochrvan. In the northern part, the
shore is l)old and rocky, and is perforated with seve-
ral caves, which run 80 or 100 yards under ground ;
but elsewhere it is flat, and covered with sand or
gravel. The loch has an extensive fishery of sal-
mon, haddock, whiting, cod, flounders, herring, and
excellent oysters. A slate quarry is wrought on the
estate of Lochryan, the property of Sir Alexander
Wallace. Repeated but vain attempts have been
made to find coal. Granite occurs in detached blocks.
Sepulchral cairns are very numerous in the uplands
of the parish ; on the average, about GO feet in dia-
meter, and 7 feet in height ; having a considerable
cavity in the interior, in which — as has been proved
by the exploration of several — are deposited urns en-
closing ashes and burnt bones ; and consisting of
stones which, in the case of many, must have been
fetched from a distance of several miles. On a moor-
land farm, called Cairnarran, are 9 of these rairns
within the range of a Scottish mile. Burrows or
tumuli occur in the lowlands, of exactly similar cha-
racter to the cairns, except that they are formed of
earth instead of stones ; and they have the same in-
terior cavity and sepulchral contents, and are sup-
posed, in common with the cairns, to be monuments
of the British tribes who inhabited Galloway during
the early centuries of the Christian era. On the
farm of Innermessan, on Lochryan, 2^ miles north-
west of Stranraer, stood the ancient Rerigonium, a
town of the Novantes, and in more modern times, the
town and castle of Innermessan. Symson, in his
' Description of Galloway,' says " Innermessan was
the greatest town thereabouts till Stranraer was
built." Only faint vestiges of it, however, now re-
main, — such as cannot be detected except with the
aid of a cicerone. In its vicinity rises a beautiful
moat, 336 feet in circumference at the base, CO feet
in perpendicular elevation, 78 feet in sloping ascent,
with a fosse encincturing its base, and an esplanade
shaving off its summit, and commanding a fine view
of the expanse and shores of Lochryan. " On the
24th November, 1834," says the Rev. James Fergus-
son, the minister of the parish, in his report in the
New Statistical Account, " I caused a hole 3 feet
deep to be dug in the centre of the plain on the top.
After passing through a fine rich mould, we came to
a stratum consisting of ashes, charred wood, and
fragments of bone. In the days of the ancient No-
vantes, this was probably the public cemetery of
the adjacent town, Rerigonium." On the farm of
Larg, near Main water, are remains of an old cas-
tle, once the property and seat of the Lyns of Larg.
The Castle of Craigcaffei, formerly the seat of the
extinct family of the Nelsons of Craigcaffei, is still
entire, and has been transmuted into a farm-house.
The only village is Cairn, or Cairnryan: which see
The monthly Stranraer cattle-market, held from
April to October, has for its arena a spot within the
western limits of Inch. The parish is traversed along
the whole of its western border by the mail-road be-
tween Glasgow and Portpatrick, and across its south-
ern division, by the mail-road between Dumfries and
Stranraer ; and, in its lowlands, it has abundant ra-
mifications of subordinate roads, but, in its uplands,
offers hardly an ingress to a wheeled vehicle. Sir
John Ross, the celebrated arctic navigator, is a native
of the parish, and adopts it, at his residence of North
West Castle, as the home of his advanced yea.s.
Population, in 1801, 1,577; in 1831, 2,521. Houses
481. Assessed property, in 1815, £1 1,275 Inch is
in the presbytery of Stranraer, and synod of Gallo-
way. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £263 J 5s. 7d. ;
glebe £15 15s. The parish-church was built about 74
or 84 years ago, and has never been much altered.
Sittings 400. A preaching-station connected with
the Establishment was commenced in 183G at Cairn-
INC
3
INC
ryan. According to an ecclesiastical survey in 1836,
the populatioii then consisted of 965 Cliiirchmcn,
302 members of vi.e United Secession, 139 Roman
Catholics, 132 Cameronians, 87 members of the Re-
lief, 29 Episcopalians, and 30 persons not known to
belong to any religious body, — in all, 2,084:. The
dissenters are all, except the Episcopalians, connected
with congregations in Stranraer. The present parish
comprehends most of the ancient parisli of Inch, and
all the ancient parish of Soulseat. On the island or
" inch" in Castle- Kennedy loch, opposite the present
parish-church, is supposed to have stood the earliest
place of worship in the district ; and from this cir-
cumstance the parish seems to have derived its name.
Before the Reformation, the church of Inch belonged
to the bishops of Galloway, and was served by a cu-
rate ; by the aiuiexation act of 1587, it was vested in
the king; in 1588, it was granted for life to Mr.
William Melville, the commendator of Tongueland ;
in 1613, it was returned to the bishop of Gallo\yay ;
in 1641, it was transferred to the University of Glas-
gow; in 1601, it was again restored to the bishop
of Galloway ; and in 1089, it finally reverted to the
Crown. In the old parish of Inch there were two
chapels. St. .Tohii's chapel stood at the bead of
liOchryan and the east end of Stranraer ; and, though
in ruins in 1084, when Symson wrote his ' Large
Description of Galloway,' it was commemorated in
the names of various olijects in its vicinity. A mo-
dern castle, or large building near its site, was called
" the castle of the chapel ;" a piece of land which bad
belonged to the chapel, was called St. John's croft;
the part of Stranraer lying east of the rivulet which
intersects the town, was popularly called the chapel;
and a copious spring of water, which rises within
Hood-mark, is still called St. John's well. All these
objects were detached from Inch, and included in the
modern parish and burgh of Stranraer. A second
chapel, dedicated to St. Patrick, and giving name to
the modern town of Portpatrick, stood on the west
coast on the site of that town, and served the south-
west division of the old parish, which was popularly
called the Black quarter of Inch. This district was
detached in 1028, and erected into the separate par-
ish of Portpatrick. What the old parish lost by this
disseverment, was afterwards compensated by the
annexation to it of the parish of Soulseat. The
church of Soulseat belonged, before the Reformation,
to the monks of its abbey. When vested, by the act
of annexation, in the Crown, a portion of the revenues
was settled as a stipend on its minister ; and in 1631,
the remainder was granted by Charles I. to the min-
ister of Portpatrick. The manse and glebe of the
modern parish of Inch are in Soulseat, 1 ^ mile distant
from the present church.
INCH. See Insch.
INCH-ABER, a small island of Loch-Lomond, |
of a mile south-west of the mouth of the river End-
rick.
INCHaFFREY, an ancient abbey on the banks
of Pow, or Powaffray water, in the parish of Mad-
derty, Perthshire. The name is said to mean ' the
Island of masses' — the island where masses were said ;
and certainly is written in Latin, Insula missarum.
Its site is a small rising ground, which seems to have
been insulated by the Pow. The abbey was founded
in 1200, by Gilbert, Earl of Strathearn, and his (.Coun-
tess Matilda, and dedicated to God, the Virgin jMary,
and John the Apostle; and it was endowed with
many privileges and immunities by David and Alex-
ander, kings of Scotland. The ruins have been nearly
all carried away, as materials for modern houses and
roads in the vicinity. A small adjacent territory,
formerly attached to the abbey, belongs to the Earl
cf Kinnoul, and constitutes him patron of about 12
parishes, over which the abbots anciently had right.
Mauritius, one of the abbots, attended Robert Bruce
at the battle of Bannockburn, and carried with him,
in the infatuatedly superstitious spirit of the times,
an arm of St. Fillan. The abbey furnished the first
of two titles of nobility, which were conferred on its
commendator. James Drummond, a younger son of
David, Lord Drummond, was first styled Lord Inch
affrey, and afterwards, in 1607, was created Lord
Madderty. He married Jean, daughter of Sir James
Chisholme of Cromlicks, and with her got the lands
of Innerpeffray, she being heiress, through her mo-
ther, of Sir John Drummond, the owner of that pro-
perty. From the first lady Madderty sprang two
sons, John, Lord Madderty, and Sir James, the first
Laird of Machony. Innerpeifray lies on the banks
of the Earn, in the parish of Trinity-Gask, 4 miles
south-west of the ancient abbey of Inchaffrey.
INCH ARD (Loch), an arm of the sea on the west
coast of Sutherlandshire, projected into the northern
part of the parish of Edderachylis. MaccuUoch says
that this loch is not absolutely wanting in picturesque
beauty, but that the head of it is very desolate and
bare.
INCH-BRAYOCK, or Rossie Island, a low flat
islet of about 34 acres superficial area, in the strait
or channel of the South Esk, between Montrose
basin and the German ocean. It belongs to the par-
ish of Craig, but was included by the boundary-bill
within the burgh of jMontrose, and is rapidly becom-
ing the site of a suburban appendage to that town.
At its east end is a dry-dock The currents which
pass along its sides, owing to the narrowness of their
channels compared with the expanse of Montrose
basin, which is filled and emptied at every tide, are
very rapid, and almost impetuous. Till the latter
part of the last century, the great North road along
the east coast of Scotland was continued across the
South Esk only by the incommodious expedient of a
ferry below Inch-brayock, at Ferryden ; but now, by
means of connecting bridges, it is carried across the
island, and cuts it into two nearly equal parts. The
bridge on the south side — where the channel has
greatly less breadth than that on the north side — is a
work of solid and massive stone masonry. The ori-
ginal bridge on the north side, was one of timber, —
a great work of its kind, but constantly needing re-
pair, and too fragile to resist fully the careering tide ,
and about 1 1 years ago, it was substituted by a sus-
pension-bi'idge, which, if it want the intrinsic magni-
ficence, and the circumjacent splendour of scenery
which distinguish the famous Welsh bridge across the
Menai, is at least one of the most interesting public
works in the lowlands of Britain. See Montrose.
The population of the island, in 1835, was about 120.
— Inch-brayock, comprehending some adjacent terri-
tory, was anciently a separate parish, and in the year
1618, was united with that of St. Skeoch or Dunni-
nald, to form the parish of Craig. The ancient
church and cemetery were on the island ; and the
latter continues to be in use for the united parish.
Inch-brayock, or Inis-Breic, means 'the Church or
chapel island. '
INCH-CAILLIACH, 'the Island of old women,*
an islet in Loch-Lomond, ^ of a mile north-west of the
mouth of the river Endrick, and ^ of a mile from the
eastern shore of the lake, in the parish of Buchanan,
Stirlingshire. The islet is 7 furlongs in length, from
north-east to south-west, and nearly 3^ furlongs in
breadth near its north-east end, but contracts at first
slowly, and afterwards rapidly, to a point at its oppo-
site extremity. Amidst the green and the golden
islands of a landscape unsurpassed in its beauties by
the most fairy districts of Scotland, Inch-cailliach is
one of the most beautiful. It is the property of the
INC
INC
Duke of Montrose, exquisitely wooded, and tiirnef'.
to some account in husbandry. In ancient times it
was the site of a nunnery, whose inmates are alluded
to in its name ; and down to a more modern period,
it gave name to the parish which now wears the
usurped title of Buchanan, and was the site of the
parish-church and cemetery.
INCH-CLAIR, or Clair-Inch, an islet in Loch-
Lomond, ^ a mile from the eastern bank, in the parish
of Buchanan, Stirlingshire. It is ^ of a mile long
from north-east to south-west, and runs parallel with
Inch-Cailliach, about ;f of a mile distant from it on
its south-east side. The islet is finely wooded, and
resembles in general appearance the larger and very
beautiful islet in its vicinity.
INCHCOLM, an island in the frith of Forth,
forming part of the parish of Dalgetty. It lies about
2 miles to the south of Aberdour ; 6 miles west of
Inch- Keith ; and within about 4i miles of Queens-
ferry. It is scarcely a mile in length, and is of a
bleak appearance, though partly arable. " A consi-
derable portion of this island is composed of green-
stone, exhibiting either the earthy, syenitic, or com-
mon appearance, and which, by the felspar being re-
placed by steatite, frequently passes into an imper-
fect serpentine. On the south side of the island, a
variety of greenstone occurs containing numerous
scales of pinchbeck-brown mica ; it is traversed by
a number of contemporaneous veins of greenstone,
which frequently passes into steatite ; this mineral
occurs also in minute strings without exhibiting any
such transition, and in them sometimes there may be
observed threads of amianthus. On the south of the
island, where a junction of the trap and the sand-
stone is exposed, the latter dips to the north at 52° ;
while the greenstone, as it approaches the sandstone,
passes into a compact yellowish- white claystone, a
vein of which occurs running parallel with tiie strata.
With the exception of a body of sandstone, which is
enveloped in the greenstone, the western half of the
island is entirely composed of trap, having in some
places a slightly columnar disposition." [Cunning-
ham's ' Geology of the Lothians,' p. 76.] — Though
destitute of beauty, this island is rich in historical
and antiquarian associations, and exhibits the ruins of
one of the most extensive monastic establishments in
this part of Scotland. The ancient name of the
island was ^mona, which in Celtic means ' the
Island of Druids,' and from which it would appear
that before the introduction of Christianity the Druids
had had a place of worship here. After Christianity
had been introduced, this island seems to have been
taken possession of by some of the followers of St.
Columba, who here erected a small chapel dedicated
to that saint, and from which circuro.stance the pre-
sent name of the island is derived. The origin of the
religious house of which the ruins still remain, is thus
related by Fordun : — " About the year 1123, Alex-
ander I. having some business of state which obliged
him to cross over at the Queen's ferry, was overtaken
by a terrible tempest blowing from the south-west,
which obliged the sailors to make for this island,
which they reached with the greatest difficulty.
Here they found a poor hermit, who lived a religious
life according to the rules of St. Columba, and per-