Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

BLACKLAW
Douglas of Fingland about 1700 was author of Annie
Laurie.
Blacklaw, a liill 92S feet high in the Perthshire sec-
tion of Lundie and Foulis parish, 8 miles WNW of
Dundee. It commands a very extensive and beautiful
view.
Blacklaw, a burn in Walston parish, Lanarkshire,
running to the Medwin.
Blacklaw or Mount Cameron, a small eminence in
East Kilbride parish, Lanarkshire, j mile SE of East
Kilbride village. A commodious dwelling-house on it
was the residence of Mrs Cameron, a high-born lady
who manifested such zeal for the cause of Jacobitism in
1745 as made her famous throughout Great Britain.
Two seams of coal, respectively 3 and 2 feet thick, un-
derlie the eminence.
Black Loch, a small lake in D umf ries parish, Dum-
friesshire, 1 mile NE of Dumfries town. It is a favourite
resort of curlers in times of hard frost.
Black Loch, a small lake in Penpont parish, Dum-
friesshire, near the summit of a hill-ridge, about 1 mile
S of Drumlanrig. It once was about 120 yards long
and 70 yards wide, but has been much reduced in size
by draining ; and, in pre-Eeformation days, it possessed
a high repute for healing virtue, insomuch as to be
esteemed a sort of perpetual Bethesda.
Black Loch, a small lake on the mutual border of
Dunfermline parish, Fife, and Cleish parish, Kinross-
shire, at the S foot of Cleish hills, 3 furlongs WNW of
Loch Glow.
Black Loch, a lake in Blairgowrie parish, Perthshire,
the first of a chain of three lakes, very near to one
another, and extending in a line from E to W. It is
mainly a morass or mossy pool, packed with aquatic
plants, and possessing little area of open water ; and
it receives no influx of rivulet or rill ; yet it contains
such powerful springs that it sends off to the next
lake a perennial stream voluminous enough to drive a
mill.
Black Loch, a lake in Mearns parish, Renfrewshire,
3j miles SW of Newton-Meams village. It lies at the
E foot of rTethereairn Hill, S71 feet high ; measures
about 4 mile in length and \ in width ; and contains
excellent trout.
Black Loch, a lake on the mutual border of Stirling
and Lanark shires, f mile N of the meeting-point with
Linlithgowshire, and 2 miles S by E of Slamannan
village. It has a somewhat circular outline, measures
about \ mile in diameter, and is a principal feeder of
the Auchingray reservoir for supplying the Monkland
Canal.
Black Loch, Little, a small lake in Slamannan parish,
Stirlingshire, 2 miles SE by S of Slamannan village.
Black Lochs, small mountain lakelets in Kirkmichael
parish, Banffshire, a little SE of Loch Aven. They
abound in trout, and afford good sport to the angler.
Blacklunans. See Persie and Alyth.
Blackmillbay, a small bay and a village in Luing
island, Kilbrandon parish, Argyllshire. The post-town
of the village is Easdale, under Oban.
Blaekmire, a strong chalybeate spring in Logie-Cold-
stone parish, Aberdeenshire, in a plantation W of the
House of Blelack. Its visitors have fallen off since the
opening of the Pannanich Wells.
Black Mount, a mountain on the mutual border of
Walston and Dolphinton parishes, E Lanarkshire. It
has a ridgy form, extending NB and SW, and it cul-
minates at 1689 feet above sea-level.
Blackmount, a deer forest in the Appin district of
Argyllshire, between the heads of Lochs Etive and
Laidon. The property of Lord Breadalbane, it affords
the finest shooting and stalking in Scotland, and in
1881 was sub-let for £4000.
Blackness, a seaport village m the E of Camden
parish, Linli thgowshire, on a small bay of its own name
on the Eirth of Forth, 3 J miles ESE of Borrowstounness,
and 3| NE of Linlithgow station. Anciently the port
of Linlithgow, and a place of extensive commerce, it also
took consequence from a castle near it, which is supposed
BLACKSHIEL3
by some antiquaries to mark the eastern extremity of
Antoninus' Wall, and was long one of the most import-
ant fortresses in the S of Scotland ; it was, in main
degree, superseded as a port, in 1680, by Borrowstoun-
ness, which, on account of possessing higher advantages
of situation, was then made the port for Linlithgow ;
and since that time, it has sunk into almost total deca-
dence, insomuch that its harbour went to ruin, its cus-
tom house was converted into lodgings, and its only
commerce became a trivial exportation of bricks and
tiles, and as trivial an importation of lime and manure.
Blackness House, formerly a seat of the baronet family
of Wedderburn, stands adjacent to the W side of the
village. Blackness Burn runs about \\ mile on the
boundary between Carriden and Abercorn to the Firth,
and passes the eastern vicinity of the village. Blackness
Castle stands on a rocky promontory between the bay and
the burn's mouth, in the north-eastern vicinity of the
village ; dates from some remote period unknown to
record ; was burned in 1443-44, amid the conflicts of the
Douglases, Livingstons, Crichtons, and Forresters ; was
burned again, in 1481, by an English fleet ; was the
meeting place, in 148S, of James III. and his rebellious
nobles for effecting a pacification ; witnessed, in 1547,
the burning or capture, by an English admiral, of ten
vessels which had anchored near it for protection ; was
garrisoned, in 1548, during the regency of the Earl of
Arran, by a French force under D'Esse ; underwent re-
peated vicissitudes of occupancy till 1572 ; served, like
the Bass, as a State prison for confining distinguished
Covenanters in the time of the persecution ; was one of
the chief forts of Scotland guaranteed by the Act of
Union to be maintained permanently as a national
strength ; is, nevertheless, a structure more characteris-
tic of the warfare of rude ages than adapted to the
modern improvements in the military art ; became
eventually of no practical use whatever, held, as a fort,
by only one man ; and in 1870-74, was transmuted into
the nucleus of extensive works to serve as the central
ammunition depot of Scotland. These works were
constructed at a cost of considerably more than £10,000,
and they comprise a powder magazine, with two com-
partments, each about 42 feet by 18, a light iron-girder
pier, a sea wall 1000 feet long, storage places for heavy
guns and other munitions of war, barracks 124 feet long,
for 30 soldiers, and a two-story building in the Scottish
Baronial style for military officers.
Blackpots, a hamlet on the coast of Boyndie parish,
Banffshire, 2J miles W by N of Banff. A manufacture
of bricks and tiles, and a considerable salmon-fishery, are
carried on.
Black Quarter, the territory now forming Portpatrick
parish, Wigtownshire. It belonged anciently to Soul-
seat Abbey, and till 1628 formed part of Inch parish.
Blackridge, a village on the SW border of Torphichen
parish, Linlithgowshire, on Barbauchlaw Burn, i>\ miles
WSW of Bathgate. It has a post office under Armadale,
a Free Church preaching station, and a public school.
Blacksboat, a place on the river Spey and on the
Strathspey railway, at the boundary between Elgin and
Banff shires, immediately above the mouth of the river
Aven, 8| miles SSW of Aberlour. It has a ferry on
the river, a station on the railway, and a post office
under Craigellachie.
Blackshaw, a village in Caerlaverock parish, Dum-
friesshire, near the Solway Firth and the river Lochar,
8 miles SSE of Dumfries. An expanse of foreshore ad-
jacent to it, between the Nith and the Lochar, and
between the beach and the Solway channel, measuring
7 miles in extreme length from E to W, and fully
5 miles in extreme breadth from N to S, is called Black-
shaw Bank.
Blackshiels, a village in what was formerly the de-
tached part of Humbie parish, Haddingtonshire, but
which was transferred in 1891 by the Boundary Com-
missioners to the Edinburghshire parish of Fala and
Soutra. It is 16 miles SE of Edinburgh, and has a post
office, with money order, savings bank, and telegraph
departments.
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