Topographical dictionary of Scotland > Volume 2

KIRK
KIRK
extremity of the latter, on the west side of the river
called Black Water, nearly semicircular in form, and
two miles in diameter. The whole comprises 51, ITS
acres, of which 4419 are cultivated, 1460 undivided
common, 683 wood, and the remainder in a natural
state. At the head of Glenshee is a hill called Beinn-
Ghulbhuinn, celebrated as the scene of a hunt in which
Diarmid, one of the Fingalian heroes, lost his life ; and
his grave is still shown here, with the den of the wild
boar that was the object of the chase. Another hill
is Mount Blair, separating this parish from Glenisla ;
and the chief lochs are Sheshernich and Loch-nanean
which are situated among the hills, and afford good
trout-angling. Strathardle is watered by the Ardle.
Near that river the soil is thin and dry, on a sandy
bed, and yields in general light crops ; on the higher
grounds, as well as in Glenshee and the district of the
Black-water, it is wet and spongy, and requires a dry
and warm season for the maturity of the crops. In the
lower parts the most improved system of husbandry is
followed ; and lime has been extensively and success-
fully applied to the land recovered from waste, amount-
ing, within a few years, to 400 acres. The huts on
most of the farms have been replaced by neat and com-
fortable houses, and the interests of agriculture much
promoted by the construction of good roads. The rate-
able annual value of Kirkmichael is now £7993. The
parish contains the mansion-houses of Ashintully and
Woodhill, and the small village of Kirkmichael. The
inhabitants are all engaged in husbandry : some years
ago a few were employed at a distillery. An important
addition has been made to the facilities of communica-
tion by the erection of a handsome bridge of two arches,
in 1840, over the Ardle, at a cost of £500, raised by
subscription. A cattle-fair is held on the Thursday
before the October Falkirk tryst, and another on the
Thursday before the May Amulrie fair : the farmers
usually dispose of their ordinary marketable produce at
Blairgowrie. The parish is in the presbytery of Dun-
keld and synod of Perth and Stirling, and in the patron-
age of Mr. Farquharson, of Invercauld : the minister's
stipend is £158, of which two-thirds are received from
the exchequer, with a manse, and a glebe of six and a
half acres, valued at £10 per annum. The members
of the Free Church have two places of worship. There
are two parochial schools, affording instruction in the
usual branches : the master of the one situated in the
village has a salary of £34, with a house, enlarged in
1821, and about £20 fees; the other master, in Glen-
shee, receives a salary of £15, with £12 fees. The poor
in Glenshee enjoy the benefit of a bequest of £200 ; and
there are two other bequests, one amounting to £17
yearly for educating poor children in the parish of the
name of Stewart, and the other of £20 per annum for
bursaries in any of the Scotch universities, for natives
of the parish, or, in case of failure, for those of the
neighbouring parish of Moulin. On a large moor is a
cairn, once ninety yards in circumference and twenty-
five feet high ; and at some distance is a Druidical
rocking-stone, besides numerous concentric circles.
KIRKMICHAEL and CULLICUDDEN, a parish,
in the county of Ross and Cromarty, 7 miles (N. N.
W.) from Fortrose ; containing, with the village of
Jemimaville, and the hamlets of Balblair and Gordon-
Mills, 1549 inhabitants, of whom 1410 are in the rural
IIS
districts of the parish. This place, in some public docu-
ments called Resolis, a term implying "a sunny in-
clined plain," derives its name of Kirkmichael from the
dedication of its church to St. Michael. It includes the
extinct parishes of St. Martin and Cullicudden, which,
after their union, were both annexed, under the deno-
mination of Cullicudden, to the parish of Kirkmichael
towards the close of the 17th century. Few particulars
of the early history of this place, which appears to be
of some antiquity, are recorded ; but on account of the
greater number of camps once to be found here than in
almost any other parish in the north, it must have been
of no inconsiderable importance. From their form,
these intrenchments are supposed to have been of
Danish origin ; and owing to their situation partly
on an eminence near the shore, commanding prospects
in every direction, the invading forces stationed here
could easily, upon the approach of the natives in supe-
rior numbers, return to their vessels, and land again on
some other part of the coast. On the summit of a pre-
cipitous rock near the shore of Cromarty Frith are the
ruins of Castle-Craig, said to have been originally built
by the Urquharts, barons of Cromarty, one of whose
descendants having incurred the censure of the Pope,
the castle and the lands attached to it fell to the church,
and were bestowed upon the bishops of Ross. The
castle continued to be the chief episcopal residence of
that see till after the Reformation, when the property
came into the possession of the Williamsons, by whom
it was sold to the Roses, of Kilraveck, owners of a con-
siderable portion of the Black Isle. It subsequently
passed to the Gordons, of Newhall, and now forms
part of the estate of J. A. S. Mc Kenzie, Esq., the princi-
pal proprietor of the parish. Of the castle, five stories
in height, nearly one-half is still entire ; the walls are
of great strength, and the various apartments have
vaulted roofs of stone, and were ascended by a spiral
staircase which has within the last few years been re-
moved. The roof is in a perfect state ; and the eastern
gable is defended on each side by a bastion crowned with
a turret.
The parish extends along the southern shore of
Cromarty Frith for about eight miles, from east to
west, and varies from three to four miles in breadth,
comprising, exclusively of an extensive tract of common,
14,000 acres, of which nearly 4000 are arable, 1500
meadow and pasture, 350 woodland and plantations,
and the remainder moor and waste. The surface rises
gradually from the Frith for almost a mile towards
the south, and as gradually subsides into a fertile valley
including very much of the arable land in the parish,
beyond which the ground ascends abruptly to a height
of 800 feet above the level of the sea, terminating
in the summit of Maole-Buidhe, the southern boundary
of the parish. The only stream of any importance is
the burn of Resolis, which, issuing from a small lake
near the western extremity of the parish, flows eastward
through its whole extent, driving several mills, and,
after receiving in its course a few tributaries, falls into
the Frith at the hamlet of Gordon-Mills. There are
several copious springs of excellent water in the south
district ; but scarcely any are found in the northern
parts, the inhabitants of which are supplied from wells
dug at their own individual expense. Of one of these,
dug by the incumbent in 1836, the water, both in smell