Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

APPLEBY
Caledonian times ; possesses some interesting mediaeval
antiquities ; and was the country of the Stewarts, or
Stuarts, long famed as ' the uneonquered foes of the
Campbell, ' but ultimately overmastered. Their history
may be read in The Stewarts of Appin (Edinb. 1880) by
John H. J. Stewart and Lieut. Col. Duncan Stewart ;
and Hogg, the Ettriek Shepherd, has celebrated their
fame in verse : —
' I sin j of a land that was famous of yore,
The land of green Appin, the ward of the flood ;
Where every grey cairn that broods over the shore,
Marks a grave of the royal, the valiant, or good ;
The land where the strains of grey Ossian were framed, —
The land of fair Selma and reign of Fingal, —
And late of a race, that with tears must be named,
The noble Clan Stuart, the bravest of all.
Oh-hon, an Rei ! and the Stuarts of Appin !
The gallant, devoted, old Stuarts of Appin !
Their glory is o'er,
For the clan is no more,
And the Sassenach sings on the hills of green Appin.'
Appleby, a place on the 1ST border of Glasserton parish,
Wigtownshire, 2J miles W by N of "Whithorn.
Applecross, a hamlet and a parish on the W coast of
Ross-shire. The hamlet lies at the head of a small bay
of its own name, opposite the central parts of Skye, 24
miles W by N of Strathcarron station on the Dingwall
and Skye railway, and 14 by water NE by E of Broad-
ford. It has a post office under Lochcarron, a stone
jetty, and a good inn. The name is commonly referred
either to an 18th century proprietor's having planted
five apple-trees crosswise in his garden, or to a monkish
tradition that apples grown here bore the sign of the
cross ; but Applecross is really a corruption of the
ancient Aporcrosan or Abercrossan, the most northerly
of all the Scottish abers. The church of Aporcrosan
was founded in 673 by St Maelrubha, who, coming over
from the Irish monastery of Bangor, made this his centre
for the evangelisation of all the western districts be-
tween Lochs Carron and Broom (Skene, Celt. Scot.,
ii. 169 and 411, 412). A relic, probably, of this Colum-
ban monastery is an upright slab in the churchyard, bear-
ing the figure of a collared cross. The reach of sea
before the hamlet, separating Eaasay and Bona islands
from the mainland, is known as Applecross Sound. A
stream, some 10 miles long, flows south-south-westward
from high mountains to Applecross Bay at the hamlet,
is very impetuous in its upper reaches, but becomes quiet
lower down, and abounds with salmon and trout. Apple-
cross House, a seat of Lord Middleton's, stands near the
hamlet, is a fine old chateau, and has a garden where
fuchsias, geraniums, and similar plants flourish out of
doors all the year round, and a park with magnificent
trees. The mainland approach to the hamlet is from
Jeantown ; and the road thence goes through a pic-
turesque defile to Courthill, at the head of the northern
horn of Loch Carron, and then ascends, by zigzag tra-
verses, a steep mountain corrie to the height of 1500
feet, overhung by stupendous precipices, and command-
ing a view wellnigh as savage and sublime as that of
Glencoe.
The parish, which, prior to 1726, formed part of Loch-
carron parish, comprises all the country between Lochs
Carron and Torridon, and from N to S has an extreme
length of 164 miles. The coast-line is very irregular —
not more than 45 miles in direct measurement, but fully
90 if one follows the bends and windings of every loch
and bay. The shores are in some places high and rocky, in
others lowand sandy, but almost everywhere monotonous.
The interior mainly consists of hills and mountains,
either altogether bare, or covered only with heath and
coarse grass ; among them are Beinn Garavegult (1602
feet), Beinn Clachan (2028), and Beinn Bhein (2397).
Valleys there are both beautiful and fertile ; but hardly
2000 acres are under cultivation, and they have generally
a soil neither deep nor loamy, but rather shallow,
and either sandy or gravelly. Two other rivulets be-
sides the Applecross stream, and likewise several lochs
(the largest, Lundie), contain trout and other fish ; the
sea-waters, too, abound in molluscs, are occasionally
ARASAIG
frequented by shoals of herring, and yield considerable
quantities of cod, ling, flounders, etc. The shootings
are extremely valuable, Lord Middleton's deer-forest
alone being rented at £3500. In 1875 the rainfall was
47 '89, and rain fell on 216 da}'s throughout that year.
Bed and purple sandstones and conglomerates of Cam-
brian age are the prevailing rocks, to which the scenery
owes its peculiar character ; and copper has been worked
at Kishorn. Part of the civil parish is included in the
quoad sacra parish of Shieldaig ; the remainder forms
another quoad sacra parish in the presbytery of Loch-
carron and synod of Glenelg, its minister's income
amounting to £193. The parish church, built in 1817,
contains 600 sittings ; and there is also a Free church.
Seven public schools are those of Aligin, Applecross,
Arinacrinachd, Callakille, Kishorn, Shieldaig, and Torri-
don. With total accommodation for 430 children, these
had (1S79) an average attendance of 178, and grants of
£191, 19s. 3d. Valuation (1881) £4414, 17s. 2d. Pop.,
mostly Gaelic-speaking, of civil parish (1801) 1896, (1831)
2892, (1S61) 2544, (1871) 2470 ; of quoad sacra parish
(1861) 1064, (1871) 1129, (1SS1) 955.
Applegarth (Norse 'apple-yard,' — orchard), a parish
of Annandale, Dumfriesshire, whose western half is tra-
versed by the Caledonian, and contains the two stations
of Nethercleuch and Dinwoodie, 3 and 6 miles respectively
N by W of its post-town Lockerbie. Including since 1609
the ancient parish of Sibbaldbie, it is bounded N by Wam-
phray, NE and E by Hutton, S by Dryfesdale, and W by
Lochmaben and Johnstone. From N to S its greatest
length is 6f miles ; its breadth from E to W varies be-
tween 3 and 5 J miles ; and its area is 11,928| acres, of
which 59J are water. The Annan traces nearly all the
western boundary ; and a fertile alluvial valley, extend-
ing thence to a little beyond the railway, rarely in the
N exceeds 300, in the S 200, feet above the level of the
sea. Dryee Water runs south-south-eastward towards
the Annan through the uplands above this valley ; and
heights to the W of it — from N to S — are Dinwoodie
Hill (871 feet), Blaeberry Hill (635), Gayfield Type (714),
Sibbaldbieside (6S2), and Cleuch-heads (518) ; to the E
of it, Mid Hill (721), Adderlaw (822), Bowhill (813), and
Balgray Hill (770). About two-thirds of the entire area
are arable, and some 300 acres are under wood ; the
rocks are variously volcanic, Silurian, and Triassic. Jar-
dine Hall (Sir Alexander Jardine, seventh Bart, since
1672, and owner of 553S acres in the shire) lies If mile
NNW of Nethercleuch station, and is a good mansion,
built in 1814 ; other residences are Balgray, Hewk, Four-
merkland, and Dinwoodie Lodge ; and the landed pro-
perty is divided among six. A Boman road is thought
to have run through Applegarth, in which there are no
fewer than 3 camps and 14 hill-forts — 2 of the latter on
Dinwoodie Hill, where is also the graveyard of a chapel,
said to have belonged to the Knights Templars. At the
SW angle of the parish stood its old church, where, on 7
July 1300, Edward I., then marching to besiege Caer-
laverock, offered oblation at the altars of SS Nicholas
and Thomas & Becket. The site of Sibbaldbie church is
marked by Xirkcroft on the Diyfe's left bank, 2J miles
NE of Nethercleuch. Applegarth is in the presbytery
of Lochmaben and synod of Dumfries ; its minister's in-
come is £357. The present church (built 1760 ; repaired
1822) stands near where the old one stood, 2 miles SW
of Nethercleuch, and contains 380 sittings. Two public
schools, Sandyholm and Sibbaldbie, with respective ac-
commodation for 90 and 66 children, had (1879) an aver-
age attendance of 48 and 62, and grants of £38, 6s. and
£52, 14s. Valuation (18S1) £11,979, Is. Pop. (1831)
999, (1871) 902, (1881) 969.— Ord. Sur., sh. 10, 1864.
Appletree Hall, a hamlet in Wilton parish, Roxburgh-
shire, 2| miles NNW of Hawick.
Aquharaney, a mansion and estate in the W of Cruden
parish, Aberdeenshire, 8 miles NE of Ellon.
Aquhorthies. See Inverurie.
Arasaig or Arisaig, a village and a territorial district
in Ardnamurchan parish, on the W coast of Inverness-
shire. The village stands on a small sea-loch, nearly
opposite the N end of Eigg island, 22 miles NE of Ard-
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