Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

TOUR
its area is 7112& acres, of which 4 are water. The drain-
age is carried northward towards the Don ; and at White-
house station the surface declines to 450 feet above sea-
level, thence rising to 1306 feet at Green Hill on the
Monymusk boundary, and 1621 atCoRRENNlE or Bena-
quhallie on the Kincardine O'Neil boundary. Red and
blue granites and gneiss are the predominant rocks; and
hard claystone porphyry and magnesian limestone also
occur. The soil, in most places light, in several shallow
and stony, is here and there mixed with moss, but very
deep and fertile. Less than one-half of the entire area
is in tillage; some 1100 acres are under wood; and the
rest of the land is either pastoral or waste. Antiquities
are two or three cairns, several stone circles, an assem-
blage of standing-stones and small tumuli, and a stand-
ing-stone 12J feet high and 9J in circumference, tradi-
tionally alleged to mark the grave of Lulach or Luath,
the son of Lady Macbeth. The plain farmhouse of
Tillyfour, 3£ miles SSW of Whitehouse station, was the
home of the ' king of graziers, ' William M'Combie, Esq.
(1805-80), whose matchless herd of polled Angus or
Aberdeen cattle procured him the honour of a visit from
the Queen in 1866, and who sat for West Aberdeenshire
in the Liberal interest from 1868 till 1876, being the first
tenant-farmer returned in Scotland. In 1883 the Tilly-
four estate, of 1900 acres (1195 arable, 400 hill-pasture,
and 305 wood), was sold for £23,000 to Henry Begg,
Esq., of Lochnagar Distillery. Tonley House, a large
old mansion, 4 mile NNW of the church, is the seat of
George Moir-Byres, Esq. (b. 1839; sue. 1891). Two
more mansions are Whitehouse, standing high, to the
SE of the station; and Tullochvenus, in the extreme S,
3 miles N of Lumphanan station. Tough is in the pres-
bytery of Alford and the synod of Aberdeen; the living
is worth £166. The parish church, l£ mile S by W of
Whitehouse station, was built in 1838, and contains
550 sittings. A public school, opened in 1884, with
accommodation for 150 children, has an average at-
tendance of about 90, and a grant of nearly £90. Pop.
(1801) 629, (1831) 828, (1861) 874, (1871) 760, (1881)
681, (1891) 675.— Ord. Sur., sh. 76, 1874.
Tour, a mansion in Kilmaurs parish, Ayrshire, 2 miles
NNW of Kilmarnock. It was bought by Mr Pollock,
banker, Barrhead, in 1894.
Toward Point, a headland in Dunoon parish, Argyll-
shire, 6J miles SSW of Dunoon town, 3§ W by S of
Wemyss Bay, and 3f NE of Rothesay. Its lighthouse,
standing 70 feet above high-water, was completed in
1812, and shows a white light flashing every 10 seconds.
A fog-bell sounds three times in quick succession every
15 seconds. Near it is a steamboat pier, affording access
to Toward village, which has a chapel of ease to Dunoon
and a public school. There is a post and telegraph
office at Toward Point, and another with money order
and savings bank departments at the village. (See
Castle-Toward and Dunoon.) — Ord.Sur., sh. 29, 1873.
Towerhill House, a mansion in Kilmaurs parish, Ayr-
shire, 2| miles NW of Kilmarnock.
Tower-Lindsay. See Crawford.
Towie, a parish of Aberdeenshire, whose church stands
on the right bank of the Don, 10 miles SSW of Rhynie,
and 12£ WSW of Alford (only 8| as the crow flies). On
the opposite side of the river are Inverkindie post office
and the Glenkindie Arms Inn (1821), where fairs are
held on 27 May and on Saturdays after Banchory in
September and November. The parish is bounded N
and NE by Kildrummy, E by Leochel-Cushnie, S by
Tarland and Logie-Coldstone, W by Strathdon and
Glenbucket, and NW by Cabrach in Banffshire. Its
utmost length, from N to S, is 6j miles; and its utmost
breadth, from E to W, is 6J miles. The detached Glen-
cnie portion, to the NW, was joined to the main portion
of the parish in 1891 by an Order of the Boundary Com-
missioners, which transferred to Towie the intervening
detached Glenkindie portion of the parish of Strathdon.
Towie also received at the same time from Tarland
parish so much of its detached Deskry portion as lay on
the right bank of the river of that name. The Don
winds 6J miles east-north-eastward, mainly across the
TRAILTROW
interior, but partly along the Strathdon, Glenbucket,
and Kildrummy boundaries; and here is joined by four
or five little burns. Along it the surface declines to
600 feet above the sea, and chief elevations on its left
or northern side are Glaschuil or Grey Hill (1177 feet),
Garlet Hill (1596), and *Peat Hill (1857); on its right
or southern side, »Scar Hill (1723), "Broom Hill
(1883), and Gallows Hill (1425), where asterisks mark
those summits that culminate on the confines of the
parish. The hills are undulating, smooth, and heathy;
and the arable lands are partly haugh, partly the steep
declivities of the hills. The soil near the river is very
fertile, and produces comparatively early crops. The
parish is fairly well wooded, especially to the N of the
Don, but in the S there is hardly a tree. Granite and
sandstone are scarce or difficult of access; a coarse hard
limestone is found in one or two places; and serpentine
occurs on one farm. The ancient name of the parish
was Kilbartha ( ' the church or cell of Bartha ') ; and its
later name, written in full, was Towie-Kinbaltoch ('the
north-lying land at the head of the fair hill'). There
are sites or remains of several pre-Reformation chapels;
artificial mounds, seemingly parts of ancient fortifica-
tions, at Kinbattoch and Fichlie; large tumuli at Gray-
hill, one of which on being opened was found to contain
charred bones and an arrow head: and a sculptured stone
in the churchyard. But the most conspicuous antiquity
is the ruin of the castle of Towie, anciently the fortified
seat of a branch of the sept of Forbes. A square tower
is almost all that now remains of it. The castle is
famous as the scene of a terrible tragedy, enacted in the
November of 1571. Alexander Forbes was absent at
the time; but his lady, Margaret Campbell, being sum-
moned to surrender by a party of soldiers despatched
by Sir Adam Gordon of Auehindoun, fired upon their
leader, one Captain Kerr, and wounded him in the knee.
In revenge, the castle was straightway fired, when she
and her family and domestics, numbering twenty-seven
persons, perished in the flames. * Towie is in the pres-
bytery of Alford and the synod of Aberdeen; the living
is worth £188. The parish church, built in 1803, is a
plain structure; a hall was opened in 1890, and extensive
alterations and improvements were made in the church in
1894. There is also a Free church; and a public school,
with accommodation for 110 children, has an average
attendance of about 90, and a grant of nearly £80.
There is also a church school with accommodation for
57. Pop. (1891) 939.— CW. Sur., shs. 76, 75, 1874-76.
Towie-Barclay, an old castle in the SE corner of
Turriff parish, Aberdeenshire, near Auchterless station,
and 4 J miles SSE of the town of Turriff. Supposed to
have been built in 1593, it remained pretty perfect till
1792, was re-roofed in 1874, and retains a fine baronial
hall with vaulted ceiling. From the beginning of the
12th century till 1733, the estate belonged to the Bar-
clays, one of whose line was the celebrated Russian
general, Prince Michael Barclay de Tolly (1759-1818).
In 1792 it was sold to the governors of Gordon's Hos-
pital, Aberdeen, for £21,000.— Orf. Sur., sh. 86, 1876.
See vol. iv. of Billings' Baronial Antiquities (1852).
Townend House, a mansion in Symington parish,
Ayrshire, 4 miles E by N of Troon.
Townhead, a place in Crossmichael parish, Kirkcud-
brightshire, 2 miles NW of Castle-Douglas, under which
it has a post office.
Townhill, a collier village in Dunfermline parish,
Fife, \\ mile NNE of the town. It has a post, money
order, and telegraph office under Dunfermline, a public
school (1876), and a chapel of ease (1878). Pop. (1871)
855, (1881) 1862, (1891) 1801.— Ord. Sur., sh. 40, 1867.
Town-Yetholm. See Yetholm.
Trailtrow. See Cttmmertrees.
* An erroneous date (1751) has been fiiven for this event in the
New Statistical Account. It is also curious that a wholly identical
tragedy is narrated of Corgarff Castle, in Strathdon parish,
Aberdeenshire (under the different dates of 1551, 1571, and 1581);
of the ' House o' Bodes,' near Gordon village, in Berwickshire ;
and of Loudoun Castle, in Ayrshire. The fine ballad, Edam d
Gordon, has often been published as a ' Border ballad.' Its Ayr-
shire version is given in the New Statistical, vol. v., pp. 846, 847.
1575