Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

AWE
on Innishail, Innis-Fraoch, Innis-Chonkel, and
Innis-Errich. The depth of the lake, in one place, is
51 fathoms. Its waters contain salmon, salruo-ferox,
common trout, pike, perch, char, two or three species of
sea-trout, and some other kinds of fish. The salmon
ahound most in the NE- offset, toward the mouth of the
Orchy river, but are found also in sheltered baylets and
creeks. The salmo-ferox run from 6 to 20 lbs ; one of
39J lbs. was caught in 1866 in the upper pool of the
river Awe. The common trout abound more or less in
various parts, according to the situation of the feeding-
grounds, and average f lb. The pike are thought to be
of recent importation, and they have made great ravages
among the smaller and more delicate kinds of fish.
The char frequent the head of the lake, around the
place of its original outlet. The lake lies partly in Lorn,
partly in Argyll district ; and, from the influx of the
Avieh rivulet on its left side, about 9 miles from its
head, all downward to its foot, it forms the boundary
between these two districts. Its islands, shores, and
flanks were distributed, in the medieeval times, among
the clans Campbell, Macarthur, and Macgregor ; and its
basin gave to the Campbells their slogan or war-cry,
' It's a far call to Locho w ! ' inti mating derision of any
attempt of foes to reach or penetrate its powerful
fastnesses.
The river Awe runs from the extremity of the NW
offset of the lake, 5 miles north-westward to Loch Etive,
at Bunawe. It steals slowly and silently from the lake
into a narrow, deep, tremendous gorge, the Pass of
Brander ; rushes thence along a rocky bed, much ob-
structed by reefs and boulders ; and sometimes is slow
enough to form a pool or a ford, but generally careers
headlong in a succession of rapids and cataracts. Its
width averages about 45 yards ; and its depth varies
from 2 or 3 feet to 20. Its waters abound with trout
and salmon, and afford excellent sport in rod fishing ;
but they severely test the skill and hardihood of the
angler, and can scarcely anywhere be satisfactorily
fished without wading. Sea-trout ascend the river in
considerable numbers. The salmon plays in it with more
attraction than in almost any other river in Scotland ;
and the salmo-ferox ascends the streamlets falling
into it to spawn. The river's banks, in places terribly
savage and wildly romantic, in others are fair with
trees ; yet, for about three-fourths of their entire range,
from the commencement of the Pass of Brander down-
ward, they are properly not banks at all, but cliffs and
precipices. Their height and steepness, too, especially
along the Pass, are most imposing. The crags rise
often from the water like a wall along most of the
Pass, showing no space or level at their base, but de-
scending sheer to the river's brink. The height of them
at one place, measured from base to crest, is no less than
1308 feet. The Pass, indeed, through all its length, in
a gorge ; and, at its lower end, is almost blocked by
two confronting rocks, so as there to present an appear-
ance somewhat similar to that of the lock of a canal ;
and it formerly was overhung by entangling woods. It
always, nevertheless, was a point of transit or thorough-
fare between the regions of Glenorchy and West Lorn ;
and it is believed to have anciently had some sort of
rude bridge ; yet, even with aid of either bridge or boat
or other contrivance, it never could be traversed without
much danger, or by any but a sure-footed mountaineer ;
for it was barred by a mural ascent still called the
Ladder Rock, and long commanded by a fortalice on the
crown of the ascent. But now the Pass is crossed by a
substantial bridge on the line of public road from
Stirling and Dumbarton to Oban, and by a three-span
railway viaduct. The Pass was the scene in 1300 of an
exploit of Sir William AVallaco ; and in 1308 of a severe
skirmish between King Robert Bruce and Macdougal of
Lorn. A spot near the bridgo, too, is the scene of Sir
Walter Scott's Highland Widow. The most convenient
hotels for the angler are the Loch Awe, Dalmally, and
Port Sonachan hotels. See Dorothy Wordsworth's Tour
in Scotland, and P. G. Hamerton's A Painter's Camp in
the Highlands.— Ord. Bw., shs. 37, 45, 1876.
96
AYR
Aylort, a sea-loch in the Inverness-shire section of
Ardnamurchan parish. It strikes from the SE side of
Loch Na-Nua ; penetrates the land about 5 miles east-
ward ; forms part of the boundary between Moidart and
Arasaig ; is generally less than J mile wide ; terminates
at Kinchregan ; and receives there a short stream from
an isleted freshwater lake, Loch Ailt or Rannoch.
Aylort Kinloch. See Kinloch Aylort.
Ayr, a river which, traversing Ayrshire through its
broadest part, cuts the county into two nearly equal
portions. The Vindogara of Ptolemy, it is supposed to
have got its modern name from the Gaelic a-reidh
( ' smooth water ') ; it bore the name originally in the
form of Are, afterwards in the forms of Air and Ayr,
and it obviously gives its name to the town and county
of Ayr. It is formed in Muirkirk parish, close to the
Lanarkshire border, by head-streams that rise at an alti-
tude of from 1200 to 1500 feet above sea-level ; and
thence it runs about 38 miles, in the direction of W
by S, but with many a bend, to the Firth of Clyde at
the town of Ayr. Its course, for a few miles, lies
through bleak moors and upland meadows ; but after-
wards traverses a fertile champaign country, chiefly
along a deep, narrow, bosky dell or chasm. Its princi-
pal tributaries are the Garpol, the Greenock, the Lugar,
and the Coyle. It traverses or bounds the parishes of
Muirkirk, Sorn, Auchinleck, Mauchline, Tarbolton,
Stair, Ayr, and St Quivox, and passes by Muirkirk,
Wellwood, Limmerhaugh, Holhouse, Sorn, Catrine,
Ballochmyle, Barskimming, Failford, Stair, Auchincruive,
and Whitletts ; while places near it are Airdsmoss,
Auchinleck, Mauchline, Tarbolton, Coylton, and St
Quivox. Many reaches of it are richly picturesque ;
many abound with striking close scenes ; and not a few
are touched graphically, or worked into strong associa-
tions, in the poems of Burns. Its waters contain yellow
trout, and formerly were rich in salmon, but now have
a very diminished repute among anglers. Its volume,
in the winter months, is subject to heavy floods ; and
then, as Burns says, designating Ayr harbour by the
old name of Ratton Key, —
' From Glenbuck down to the Ratton Key,
Auld Ayr is just one lengthened tumbling sea.
Ayr, the capital of Ayrshire, is a seaport, a seat of
manufacture, and a royal and parliamentary burgh. It
stands on the river Ayr, at its influx to the Bay of Ayr,
and at a convergence of railways southward, south-west-
ward, and northward. By sea it is 23 miles SSE of
Garroch Head in Bute, 14£ SSE of Ardrossan, 16J E of
Arran, 25 NE of Ailsa Craig, and 59 ENE of Torcar
Point in Antrim, Ireland ; by rail it is 15J SSW of
Kilmarnock, 33 SSW of Paisley, 40J SW by W of
Glasgow (34 by road), 50J WSW of Carstairs, 78 SW
by W of Edinburgh, 60 NW by W of Dumfries, 93 NW
by W of Carlisle, and 66J NNE of Portpatrick. Its
site is low ground, on the lip or sea-margin of a cham-
paign, about 4 or 5 miles broad, screened all round by
gently-rising heights, which form a groat natural amphi-
theatre. Its outskirts and environs, and many of its
streets and houses, command a magnificent view over a
large expanse of the Firth of Clyde, to Ailsa Craig, the
alps of Arran, the Cumbrae isles, the hills of Bute, the
mountains of Argyll, and the hanging plains of Cunning-
ham. Its own outlines, as seen with the great amphi-
theatre around it for a background, particularly from
the brow of Brown Carrick Hill (9'10 feet), which
overhangs the left bank of the river Doon, 4J miles to
the SSW, form a singularly brilliant and imposing pic-
ture. The general view from Brown Carrick Hill, in-
deed, away across Kyle and Cunningham, and over the
Firth of Clydo, is so extensive, and all so brilliant and
exquisite as to dwarf the town and its environs into only
one small feature of the wholo ; but that one feature,
nevertheless, is very striking. Suburban villas and
blocks of buildings, all more or less shaded by planta-
tions are seen on the hither Bide ; the Gothic mass oi
Wallace Tower, and the lofty tapering spire of the
Town's Buildings soar from the centre ; the chimney