Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 6

SMALL
conspicuous landmark to direct vessels to Berwick.'
The lands of Smailholm -were held by the Pringles
from 1408 until the first quarter of the 17th century,
when they went to the Scotts of Hakden, so that their
present owner is Lord Polwarth. The Earl of Hadding-
ton is chief proprietor in the eastern half of the parish ;
and two lesser landowners hold each an annual value of
between £100 and £500, and 2 of from £20 to £100.
Smailholm is in the presbytery of Earlston and the
synod of Merse and Teviotdale ; the living is worth
£370. The ivy-mantled church, supposed to have been
built in 1632, contains 282 sittings. The public school,
with accommodation for 122 children, had (1884) an
average attendance of 76, and a grant of £57, 13s.
Valuation (1864) £5492, 3s. lid., (1884) £5785, 2s.
Pop. (1801) 446, (1831) 62S, (1861) 554, (1871) 534,
(1881) 446.— Ord. Sur., sh. 25, 1865.
Small or Sma' Glen. See Glenalmond.
Smailholm. See Lochmaben.
Small Isles, a Hebridean parish of Argyll and Inver-
ness shires, detached from Sleat parish in 1726, and
successively known as Eigg, Short Isles, and Small
Isles. Besides a few uninhabited islets, it comprises
the islands of Canna, Muck, Rum, Sanday, and Eigg,
the first four belonging to Argyllshire, the fifth to
Inverness-shire, and all described in separate articles.
Its total area is 62* square miles or 39,945| acres, of
which 32,039^ belong to Argyll and 7906 J to Inverness
shire, whilst 200SJ are foreshore and 184| water. The
post-town is Oban. Small Isles parish is in the pres-
bytery of Skye and the synod of Glenelg ; the living is
worth £208. Two public schools, Canna and Eigg, with
respective accommodation for 25 and 60 children, had
(1884) an average attendance of 17 and 24, and grants
of £30, 16s. Id. and £50, 5s. 3d. Valuation (1SS4)
£3678, of which £2659 was for the Argyllshire islands.
Pop. (1811) 1547, (1881) 1005, (1861) 567, (1871) 522,
(1881) 550, of whom 482 were Gaelic-speaking, and 291
were in Eigg.
Smeaton, a mansion of 1790, in Prestonkirk parish,
Haddingtonshire, 1J mile N of East Linton. It is
interesting as containing several relics of Mary Queen
of Scots— viz., an autograph letter, an altar cloth of her
embroidering, a comb, a black satin body, etc. In 1538
Sir Patrick Hepburn of Wauchton gave half the lands
of Smeaton and all Smeaton-Crux to his second son,
Adam, whose last male descendant was succeeded in
1764 by his nephew, George Buchan of Letham. He
was created a baronet in 1815 ; and his grandson, Sir
Thomas Buchan Hepburn, third Bart. (b. 1804 ; sue.
1833), holds 2772 acres in the shire, valued at £8513
per annum.— Ord. Sur., sh. 33, 1863. See J. Small's
Castles and Mansions of the LotJiians (Edinb. 1883).
Smeaton, a railway station on the S border of Inveresk
parish, Edinburghshire, on the Macmerry railway, 4 miles
SE of Portohello.
Smithston. See Greenock.
Smithstone, an estate, with a mansion, in Tarholton
parish, Ayrshire, If mile WSW of Mauchline.
Smithton, a village in Cumbernauld parish, Dum-
bartonshire, near the Edinburgh and Glasgow railway,
2£ miles WSW of Cumbernauld town. Pop. (1871) 446,
(1881) 420.
Smoo Cave, a limestone cavern, with three compart-
ments m Durness parish, Sutherland, at the head of
a small sea-inlet If mile E of Durness church. Its
entrance is 53 feet high, and resembles a Gothic arch
with high entablature and spreading pillars ; its first
compartment is 200 feet long and 110 wide, and has a
vaulted roof with vertical aperture to the open air ; its
second compartment is 70 feet long and 30 wide, has
also a high arched roof with vertical aperture, contains
a deep pool, and receives a waterfall of 80 feet in leap ;
and the third compartment is 120 feet long, 8 wide, and
from 12 to 40 high, and cannot be seen without an
artificial light. A small harbour is adjacent to the
cavern, but serves only for boats.— Ord. Sur., sh. 114,
1880.
Smyllum, See Lanark.
97
SNIZORT
Snaigow, a modern English Baronial mansion in
Caputh parish, Perthshire, 4 miles E by N of Dunkeld.
The estate was purchased in 1874, and has since been
greatly improved, by William Cox, Esq., a partner in
the great Lochee firm. — Ord. Sur., sh. 48, 1868.
Snar Water. See Crawfordjohn.
Snizort, a parish in the N of Skye, Inverness-shire,
whose church stands towards the head of Loch Snizort
Beag, 6g miles NNW of Portree, under which there is
a post office of Snizort. Containing also the post office
villages of Skeabost and Uig, it is bounded N by Kil-
muir, E by the Sound of Raasay, SE by Portree, SW by
Bracadale, and W by Duirinish and Loch Snizort. Its
utmost length, from N to S, is 15 miles ; its utmost
width, from E to W, is 8J miles ; and its area is 84-J
square miles or 54,285§ acres, of which 789J are fore-
shore, 177J water, and 38J tidal water. The E coast
measures 5| miles, and the W coast no less than 23,
following all the ins and outs of Uig Bay and Loch
Snizort Beag ; and both are generally bold and rocky.
Loch Leathan (7x4 furl. ; 436 feet), on the Portree
boundary, is much the largest of four fresh-water lakes ;
and the principal streams are the Snizort, the Haul tin, the
Romesdal, the Hinnisdal, and the Conon, all running to
Loch Snizort Beag or Loch Snizort. The surface is every-
where hilly or mountainous, chief elevations from N
to S being Biodha Buidhe (1523 feet), Beinn Edra (2003),
Baca Ruadh (2091), theStorr (2360), Beinn a Chearcaill
(1817), and Beinn Grasco (768). Of these the huge and
lofty ridge that bears the name of the Storr sends up a
chief cluster of torn and precipitous summits, which,
rising to a height of several hundred feet above the
adjacent masses, shoot up from the bosom of a fog like
a series of air-borne spires, towers, and walls — a far-
away city on the clouds. Much of the parish is irre-
claimable waste, 47,439 acres being ranked as moorland
by the Ordnance Survey ; but much of this moorland is
occupied in the rearing of black cattle. The rocks are
principally traps, partly overly ing stratified formations ;
and the soil of the arable grounds, though various, is
principally a gravelly loam on a cold clay. On an islet
formed by the river Snizort, and now used as a
cemetery, are the ruins of an old cruciform church,
which probably was once the parent church of Skye.
In various localities are cairns, tumuli, and vestiges of
stone-circles. The Old Man of Storr is a natural
obelisk of uncommon magnitude, measuring 360 feet
around the base, swelling below the middle to a larger
girth, and thence tapering away to nearly a sharp point
at an altitude of 160 feet. On the boundary with
Portree is a beautiful cascade over a precipice about 90
feet high. Beneath it, and nearly opposite its middle,
an arched hollow path passes across the rock, so broad
that five or six persons may occupy it abreast, and so
situated that they are secure from the body of water
which rolls over them, and looks like a thick curved
pillar of smoke. Kingsburgh House, near the E shore
of Loch Snizort Beag, 2| miles NNW of the parish
church, is gone ; but some venerable plane trees mark
the site of its garden. Hither, disguised as ' Betty
Burke,' Miss Flora Macdonald's muckle Irish maid,
came Prince Charles Edward, on 28 June 1746 ; here he
made a hearty supper, drank a bumper of brandy,
smoked a pipe, and enjoyed, for the first time for many
weeks, the luxury of a good bed. Hither, too, in 1773,
came Dr Johnson. ' To see,' says Boswell, ' Dr Samuel
Johnson in Prince Charles's bed, in the Isle of Skye, in
the house of Miss Flora Macdonald, struck me with such
a group of ideas as it is not easy for words to describe.
He smiled and said, ' ' I have had no ambitious thoughts
in it. " ' Lord Macdonald is chief proprietor, but 4 others
hold each an annual value of more than £500. Snizort
is in the presbytery of Skye and the synod of Glenelg ;
the living is worth £158. The parish church, built in
1805, and enlarged in 1839, contains 750 sittings. There
is a Free church of Snizort ; and five schools — Bernisdale,
Glenhinnisdal, Kensaleyre, Uig, and the Macdiarmid
foundation — with respective accommodation for 120, 33,
60, 134, and 64 children, had (1884) an average attend-
365