Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

ALVES
one parish, but were separated prior to the middle of the
17th century. The eastern boundary of Alvah is partly
defined by the Deveron, partly by artificial lines east-
ward of that river, which has a course, within or along the
border of the parish, of 7 J miles. The surface is very diver-
sified, elevations from S to N being Brownside Hill (600
feet), Herod Hill (700), Newton Crofts (443), Cowie Hill
(605), the Hill of Ord (573), Muiry Hill (472), Green Law
(444), and the isolated Hill of Alvah (578), which serves as
a landmark to mariners. The scenery along the Deveron,
at some points soft and charming, at others is bold and
picturesque. The chasm of the Craigs of Alvah, about
£ mile from the church, contracts the river's waterway
between two rugged precipices to a width of but 27 feet,
occasions a pool there 56 feet deep, and, checking the
current in freshets, so throws it back as often to cause
great floods above. It is spanned, at a height of 55J
feet, by a Roman-looking bridge, with majestic arch,
erected in 1772 by the Earl of Fife. The scene around
this bridge is deeply impressive ; northward it opens
into a rocky amphitheatre, rising to a height of nearly
100 feet, and richly clothed with herbage, shrubs, and
trees. About 7000 acres of the area are under cultiva-
tion, 750 under wood, and 3500 waste or pasture land.
The rocks are chiefly greywacke and clay slate ; the
soils and subsoils mostly diluvial. A noted fountain,
called St Colme's Well, was not long ago converted into
a source of constant and copious supply of pure water to
the town of Banff. Other springs of pure water are
numerous ; and there are several chalybeate wells. An
ancient castle, said to have been built by an Earl of Buchan,
stood in a swamp, now a fertile field, near Mountblairy,
and a chapel crowned an adjoining eminence ; but both
have disappeared. A large tumulus and two small cairns
may still be seen ; but two ancient Caledonian stone
circles have been almost entirely destroyed. George
Chapman, LL.D. (1723-1803), a writer on education, was
a native. Mountblairy House and Dunlugas House are
the chief mansions ; four landowners hold each an
annual value of £500. Part of the parish, with 206 in-
habitants in 1S71, is annexed quoad sacra to Ord ; the
rest is in the presbytery of Turriff and synod of Aberdeen,
its minister's income amounting to £372. The church
stands near the northern border, was built in 1792, and
contains 600 sittings. Under the school-board are Alvah
school and girls' schools at Dunlugas and Linhead, which,
with respective accommodation for 100, 48, and SO chil-
dren, had (1879) an average attendance of 35, 38, and 72,
and grants of £24, 17s., £36, 15s., and £64, 7s. Valua-
tion (1882) £9910, 6s. lOd. Pop. (1831) 1278, (1861) 1467,
(1871) 1436, (1881) 1356.— Ord. Sur., shs. 86, 96, 1876.
Alves, a village and a coast parish of Elginshire. The
village stands J mile jSTE of a station of its own name on
the Great North of Scotland railway, at the junction of
the Bui-ghead branch, and 5£ miles W of Elgin, is small
and straggling, and has a post office under Forres.
The parish formerly included a large portion of what
is now Kinloss, but was curtailed in 1659 or 1660. It
is bounded Nff for 3J- furlongs by Burghead Bay, NE
by Duffus, E by Spynie, SE by Elgin, SW by Rafford,
and W^ by Kinloss. Its length, from N to S, is 64
miles ; its greatest breadth is 5i miles ; and its land
area is 9404 acres. Alves contains no stream of any
size ; and the conical Knock (335 feet), at the eastern
extremity of the parish, is the only noteworthy summit
in its upper half. This is crowned by the modern York
Tower, and claims, like several neighbouring localities,
to have been the meeting-place of Macbeth and the
Witches. The lower half of the parish consists entirely
of wooded uplands, that culminate in Eildon Hill (767
feet) on the SE border. A hard and very durable sand-
stone is quarried for building purposes, and a rock suit-
able for millstones is also worked. Aslisk Castle, 2 miles
SW of the village, is a ruined baronial fortalice ; and
near the old Military Road stood Moray's Cairn, thought
to commemorate a battle, but now destroyed. Near it
some Lochaber and Danish axes have been exhumed.
Four landowners hold each an annual value of £500 and
upwards, 3 of between £100 and £500, and 1 of from
ALVIE
£50 to £100. Alves is in the presbytery of Elgin and
synod of Moray ; its minister's income is £351. The
church is a long, narrow building, erected in 1760, and
containing 590 sittings. There is also a Free church,
rebuilt in 1S78 at a cost of £1000, which measures 50 by
42 feet, seats 500, and has a spire 53 feet high. A board
school, with accommodation for 200 children, had (1879)
an average attendance of 90, and a grant of £100, 5s.
Pop. (1831) 945, (1871) 1018, (1881) 1117.— Ord. Sur.,
shs. 85, 95, 1876.
Alvie, a parish of Badenoch, SE Inverness-shire, tra-
versed for 10 miles from its south-western to its north-
eastern border by the Spey, Wade's military road, and
the Highland railway, with the central station on the
last of Kincraig, 18J miles SSW of Grantown. It is
bounded NE and E by Duthil, SE by Aberdeenshire, S
by Perthshire, W by Kingussie, and NW by Moy ; its
greatest length from N to S being 21 h miles, its breadth
from 3 to 11 miles, and its land area 86,618 acres or 135
square miles. Most of this area is occupied by moun-
tains, those to the left of the Spey forming part of the
Monadhliath range ; those to its right, of the Grampians.
The former culminate in Cam na h'Easgainn (2656 feet)
on the western boundary beyond the Dulnan river,
and, between the Didnan and Spey, in Geal Charn Mor
(2702 feet) and Beinn Bhreac (2618). These heights are
surpassed by those of the SE or Glen Fishie portion,
where an outskirt of Braeriaeh rises upon the eastern
border to 4149 feet, while lesser elevations are Sgoran
Dubh (3658 feet), Cam Ban (3443), Meall Dubh-achaidh
(326S), and Monadh Mor (3651). There are in the
whole parish 27 summits exceeding 2000 feet above sea-
level or 1279 above Loch Insh, the lake into which
the Spey expands, and the western shore of which
belongs to Alvie. Loch Alvie, in the NE, the only
other lake of any size, measures 1 by J mile, and com-
municates with the Spey, which has a width here of 150
feet, and which, 3 miles higher up, receives the Fishie.
The latter stream, rising in the extreme south of the
parish, winds 23 miles northward ; its glen was the ob-
ject of the ' delightful, successful expedition ' made by
the Queen and Prince Consort, 4 Sept. 1860. ' The
Fishie,' Her Majesty writes, 'is a fine rapid river, full
of stones. As you approach the glen, which is very
narrow, the scenery becomes very fine, particularly after
fording the Eidart [a considerable affluent]. . . . The
rapid river is overhung by rocks, with trees, birch and
fir ; the hills rise very steeply on both sides, with rich
rocks and corries — while the path winds along, rising
graduaBy higher and higher. It is quite magnificent '
(Leaves from the Journal of our Life in the Highlands,
ed. 1877, pp. 140-144). The Journal goes on to relate
how the royal party came upon ' a most lovely spot, the
scene of all Landseer's glory,' and 7 miles lower down
emerged in Strathspey, where they saw the cairn at
which Argyll halted before the battle of Glenlivet (1594),
and passed by Kinrara. This lodge belongs to the Duke
of Richmond and Gordon, and gives him since 1876 the
title of Earl of Kinrara, but at present is tenanted by the
Earl of Stamford. It stands between Loch Alvie and the
Spey, on a rocky knoll embosomed in continuous beech-
forest ; was visited by Prince Leopold (afterwards King
of the Belgians) in 1821 ; and was the summer residence
of the ' sprightly ' Duchess of Gordon (1746-1812), whose
grave in the valley below, at a spot she had chosen her-
self, is marked by a beautiful monument. Above on
Tor Alvie are a granite column, 90 feet high, to her son,
the fifth Duke (1770-1836), and a cairn to the officers
of the 42d and 92d slain at Waterloo, the 92d Gordon
Highlanders having been raised in Strathspey in 1794.
Belleville House, 2| miles SW of Loch Insh, stands
where Raits Castle, the Coinyns' ancient stronghold,
stood ; and, built by ' Ossian Macpherson ' (173S-96),
was the scene of his literary labours and death. A
marble obelisk, J mile distant, is sculptured with the
Bard of Morven's bust ; and a pond in a meadow before
the house is the ' Lochandhu ' of Sir Thomas Dick
Lauder's romance (1825), a birch-grove that once
surrounded it having formed the retreat of the bandit
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