Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 5

MINGINISH
mnrchan peninsula, at the moutli of Loch Sunart,
looking along the Sound of Mull, and confronting the
north-western extremity of Mull island, 6 miles N by
W of Tobermory and 20 WSW of Salen. Crowning a
scarped rock, which rises 24 feet niurally from the
sea, it measures more than 200 feet in circumference ;
and has an irregular hexagonal outline, adapted to the
configuration of the ground, being broadest on the land-
ward side, where it is defended by a dry ditch. Its high,
strong, battlemented, outer wall is seemingly of ancient
construction, little fitted to resist artillery; but a
three-story house and some offices are said to have been
erected so late as the beginning of last century. An-
ciently the seat of the Maclans, a clan of Macdonalds,
descended from an early Lord of the Isles, it twice was oc-
cupied by James IV. — first in 1493, when he issued a
charter hence ; next in 1495, when he received the sub-
mission of the chieftains of the Isles. It was, partly at
least, demolished, in 1517, by the Knight of Lochalsh ;
sustained a siege, in 1588, by the Macleans, but was re-
lieved by a Governmeut force ; and was captured, in
1644, by Colkitto, who made it the prison of a small
body of Covenanters, including three ministers. Now,
though strictly a ruin, it is still in a state of tolerable
preservation.
Minginish. See Braoadale.
Minishant, a hamlet in Maybole parish, Ayrshire, 3J
miles NNE of Maybole town, under which it has a post
office.
Minnick Water, a rivulet of Sanquhar parish,
Dumfriesshire, rising at an altitude of 1740 feet, on
the north-western slope of Lowther Hill, close to the
Lanarkshire boundary, and 9 furlongs SSE of Wanlock-
lead. Thence it runs 6J miles west-south-westward,
receiving in its progress three tributaries, each nearly
equal to itself in volume, and falls into the Nith, just
below Minnock-Bridge village, 2 mUes SE of Sanquhar.
■Some wildly romantic spots, interesting both for their
■own scenery and for association with traditions of the
■Covenanters, are on its banks ; and a road goes up all
its vale to Wanlockhead, leading thence to Leadhills
'and Upper Strathclyde. — Ord. Sur., sh. 15, 1864.
Minnick, Water of. See Minnoch.
Minniehive. See Moniaive.
Minnigaff (Gael, monadh-dubh, ' dark mountainous
region '), a hamlet and a parish in the extreme W of
■Kirkcudbrightshire. The hamlet stands on a low piece
of ground at the influx of Penkill Burn to the Cree, f
mile N of the post-town, Newton-Stewart. Before that
town had come into existence this was a place of some
importance, for Symson describes it in 1684 as having ' a
very considerable market every Saturday, frequented by
the moormen of Carrick, Monnygaife, and other moor
places, who buy there great quantities of meal and malt.'
The parish, containing also Blaokckaig village and
the Creebridoe suburb of Newton-Stewart, is bounded
NW and N by Barr in Ayrshire, NE by Carsphairn and
Kells, SE by Girthon and Kirkmabreck, and SW by
Penninghame in Wigtownshire. Its utmost length,
from N to S, is 16| miles ; its utmost breadth, from E
to W, is 13g miles ; and its area is 139| square miles
or 89,451J acres, of which 1312 are water. Issuing
from Loch Moan (CJ x 3 furl. ; 675 feet), the Cree
■winds 30J miles south-westward and south-south-east-
ward along the Ayrshire and Wigtownshire border to
"within 2J miles of the head of Wigtown Bay. During
this course it is joined by the Water of Minnooh,
entering from Ayrshire, and running lOJ miles south-
ward ; Penkill Burn, rising at an altitude of 1970 feet,
and running S| miles south-south-westward ; and Pal-
nure Burn, rising at an altitude of 612 feet, and running
llj miles south-south-westward (for the last 1§ mile
along the Kirkmabreck boundary). The Water of Trooi,
flows If mile west-south-westward from wooded Loch
Trool (If mile x If furl. ; 250 feet) to the Water of
Minnoch ; and the Dee, issuing from lone Loch Dee
{7x4 furl. ; 750 feet), runs first J mUe north-eastward
through the interior, then 6| miles east-south-eastward
along the boundary with Kells. Lakes, other than
MINNIGATF
those already noticed, are Loch Grennoch (2 miles x 3
furl. ; 680 feet) at the Girthon boundary. Loch Enoch
(64 X 4J furl. ; 1650 feet) at the Ayrshire boundary, the
three Lochs of the Dungeon, Loch Neldricken, Loch
VaUey, etc. ; and streams and lakes alike afford capital
angling. The surface is everywhere hilly or mountainous,
chief elevations from S to N being Cairnsmore of
Fleet (2331 feet), Larg Hill (2216), Laraaehan Hill
(2349), Benyellary (2360), Merrick (2764), and Kirrie-
reoch Hill (2562), of which Merrick is the loftiest
summit S of the Grampians. The general landscape is
described by Dr A. Geikie as 'one wild expanse of
mountain and moorland, roughened with thousands of
heaps of glacial detritus, and dotted with lakes enclosed
among these rubbish mounds.' Indeed, with the excep-
tion of a warm nook of about 6 square miles in the
extreme S, and of some narrow strips of carse-land along
the principal streams in the W, the whole region is one
vast sheep-walk, where 'heath and moss, rocks and
stones without end, and jagged hills, with here and
there bright verdant patches on their rugged sides,
form 'the chief features of the scenery.' Large part of
this wild district at one time formed part of the far-
reaching Forest of Buchan — a name preserved in that
of Buchan farm, the house of which stands on the N
bank of Loch "Trool, and which to the shepherds is
known as the ' Four Nines, ' from its erroneously esti-
mated area of 9999 acres. The prevailing rocks are
clay slate and grejTvacke, of Upper Silurian age, with
intrusive masses and boulders of granite ; and nowhere
in the South of Scotland are the traces of glaciation to
be witnessed on a grander scale than in the Merrick
uplands. Veins of lead ore, from 2 to 5 feet thick,
occur on the estates of Machermore and Kirroughtree ;
and at East Blackcraig, on the former property, lead
and zinc still are mined, though in much less quantity
than formerly. The soil of the low grounds along the
Cree and Palnure Burn is mostly a tenacious clay, inter-
spersed with patches of moss ; on the other low grounds
is dry and gravelly, abounding with stones ; and else-
where is very various. Little more than one-fifteenth
of the entire area is in tillage ; some 600 acres are under
wood ; and the rest of the land is pastoral or waste.
The chief antiquities are Garlies Castle, three mote
hills, several sepulchral tumuli, a standing stone, and
some cairns. In 1806 Robert Bruce, with 300 followers,
is said to have routed 1500 English under the Earl of
Pembroke near the head of Loch Trool, at whose foot a
small party of Covenanters were surprised and slain by
a troop of dragoons on a winter Sabbath morning of
1685. Alexander Murray, D.D. (1775-1813), the self-
taught Orientalist, was the son of a Minnigaff shepherd ;
Lieut. -Gen. the Hon. Sir William Stewart, who served
in seventeen campaigns under Nelson and Wellington,
and died in 1827, resided for several years at Cumloden,
and is buried in the churchyard, along with John
Mackie, Esq. of Bargaly, and James, his son, both
Liberal M. P. 's for the county; and Lieut. -Col. Patrick
Stewart, C.B. (1832-65), was born at Cairnsmore.
Mansions, all noticed separately, are Bargaly, Cairns-
more, Cumloden, Kirroughtree, and Machermore ;
and the Earl of Galloway owns more than half of
the parish, 4 other proprietors holding each an annual
value of £500 and upwards, 2 of between £100 and
£500, 3 of from £50 to £100, and 9 of from £20 to
£50. Giving off a portion to Bargrennan quoad sacra
parish, Minnigaff is in the presbytery of Wigtown
and the synod of Galloway ; the living is worth £351.
The parish church, on a lovely spot overlooking Minni-
gaff hamlet, the town of Newton-Stewart, and the con-
fluence of the Cree and the Water of Minnoch, is a
good Gothic edifice of 1836, with tower, organ, three
fine memorial stained-glass windows, and 850 sittings.
Creebridge aud Stronord public schools, with respec
tive accommodation for 116 and 100 children, had
(1883) an average attendance of 76 and 65, and grants
of £72, 18s. and £69, 15s. 6d. Valuation (1860)
£12,097, (1884) £18,174, 5s. 7d. Pop. (1801) 1609,
(1S31) 1855, (1861) 1804, (1871) 1529, (1881) 1587, of
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