Imperial gazeteer of Scotland, or, Dictionary of Scottish topography > Volume 1

DEER.
373
DEIL'S DIKE.
This parish, .anciently called Audi redely, was dis-
joined from Old Deer in the beginning of the 17th
contury. It is in the presbytery of Deer, and synod
of Aberdeen. Patron, the Crown. Stipend, £219
2s. 8d. ; glebe, £20. Unappropriated tenuis, £737
17s. 6d. There are three parochial schools. Salary
of the three masters, £35, £35, and £25 13s. 4d., with
fees. Each of the masters receives also between £20
and £30 from the Dick bequest. There are nine
private schools. The parish church is a handsome
structure, built in 1840, and containing 1,500 sit-
tings. A chapel of ease, containing 658 sittings,
was built at Savoch, near the south-eastern extremity
of the parish, in 1834; and was constituted by the
Court of Teinds a quoad sacra parochial church in
May 1851. The right of presentation to it belongs
to the Earl of Aberdeen. There is a Free church
for New Doer with an attendance of 350 : sum raised
in 1865, £212 9s. 3d. There are three United
Presbyterian churches at respectively New Deer,
Savoch, and Whitehill; the first with 310 sittings,
the second with 380, and the third with 450. At-
tendance at the Savoch and Whitehall U. P. churches,
each 250.
DEER (The), a small river in the north of Aber-
deenshire. It rises near the north-west extremity
of the parish of New Deer, and flows about 16 miles
east-south-eastward and eastward, through the in-
terior of that parish, across the parish of Old Deer,
and nearly across the parish of Longside, to a con-
fluence with the northern head-stream of the Ugie
at a point about 4J miles west-north-west of Peter-
head.
DEER ISLAND. See Muldohich.
DEERNESS and ST. ANDREWS, an united
parish on the east side of Orkney, and in the pres-
bytery of Kirkwall and synod of Orkney. It com-
prises a district of Pomona and three small islands.
Its post-town is Kirkwall. But the two parishes
included in it, though politically one, though one
also as to quoad civilia incumbency, are under com-
pletely separate ecclesiastical administration, and
require to be separately described. Population of
the united parish in 1831, 1,557; in 1861, 1,681.
Houses, 318. Assessed property in 1860, £2,314.
Deerness parish comprises a peninsula of its own
name, and the three islands of Copinshay, Corn-
holm, and Horse. The peninsula is the most east-
erly land of Pomona. It is connected by a narrow
isthmus with the most easterly part of St. Andrews;
it extends about 4i miles northward to Mullhead,
with a variable breadth of from 1 mile to 3 miles ;
and it is separated from the main body of St. Andrews
along all the west by the large and beautifully wind-
ing harbour of Deer sound. This harbour runs
nearly in the direction of north-east and south-west ;
it is four miles long, and from 1 to 2J miles broad.
Its entrance is from the north; and as it is sur-
rounded with land on eveiy side, and has a bottom
of clay mixed with sand, and a sufficient depth of
water, it constitutes an excellent harbour. Around
the shores the soil of the peninsula is mostly sandy ;
higher up it is loam and clay ; the middle of the
peninsula is extremely boggy and wet. Here are
several tumuli; and near the end of the isthmus are
the remains of a very large Pict's house, commonly
called Dingy's howe or Duncan's height. Deerness
is very conveniently situated for a fishing station ;
and about 50 or 60 boats are employed in the her-
ring fishery. On the sand and shores are seen
myriads of plovers, curlews, sea-larks, sea-pies,
and a large grey bird with a hoarse cry, called
by the inhabitants the Horra goose. Here very
strong ropes, calculated for different purposes in
husbandly, are made of the shoots of the crow-
berry heath or Empotrum nigrum. The ropes
for hanging the caaeys, or baskets, over tho
horses' backs, are made of tho fibrous roots of
the sea-reed or Arundo arcnaria. Tethers and
bridle-reins are made of long meadow-grasses, such
as Holcus lanatus, which bore receive the name of
pounce or puns. Considerable improvements have
recently been made in agriculture. The landowners
are tho Earl of Zetland, Balfour of Trenaby, and
Davidson of Newhall. Population in 1831, 608; in
1861, 804. Houses, 151. — Deerness was constituted
a separate parish quoad sacra by the Court of
Teinds in June 1845. Patron, the Crown. Stipend,
£120, with manse and glebe. The parish church
was originally a parliamentary one. There is a Free
church: attendance, 350; sum raised in 1865, £99
0s. 1 .]id. There is a Society's school, with £15 salary.
St. Andrews parish is bounded by Inganess bay,
Stronsay frith, Deer sound, and the parishes of Deer-
ness, Holm, and Kirkwall. Its extreme length is
about 6 miles ; and its average breadth is about 2.
Its surface is prevailingly flat, yet is diversified by
gentle inequalities, whose highest ground has an
elevation of about 350 feet above sea-level. Tho
coast is partly low beach and partly mural cliff, the
latter rising in one place to a height of nearly 180
feet, and pierced in another by a great pool-bottomed
cavern, which can be entered by a boat from the
sea. The landowners are Lord Zetland, Stewart of
Brough, and Baikie of Tankemess, the last of whom
is resident. Population in 1831, 889 ; in 1861, 868.
Houses, 166. — St. Andrews contains the quondam
church and manse of the united parish. Patron, the
Earl of Zetland. Stipend, £208 6s. 8d. ; glebe, £6.
Unappropriated teinds, £47 10s. 6d. Schoolmaster's
salary, £35, with from £9 to £12 fees. The parish
church was built in 1801, and enlarged in 1827, and
contains upwards of 400 sittings. There is a Free
church: attendance, 150; sum raised in 1865, £78
8s. Od. Cattle fairs are held at Knockhall and
Occlester at Candlemas, Midsummer, and Martin-
mas.
DEESIDE, the valley of the Aberdeenshire Dee.
DEESIDE RAILWAY, a railway, deflecting from
the Aberdeen railway at Ferrybill, near Aberdeen,
and ascending the valley of the Dee to Aboyne. The
original line was only to Banchory, 17 miles, and was
authorised in 1846, commenced in 1852, and opened
in 1853. The extension thence to Aboyne is 15J
miles, and was authorised in 1857, and opened in
1859. Further extension up the Dee was in progress
in 1866. See Aberdeenshire.
DEIL'S DIKE (The), a remarkable ancient line
of fortification, extending from Loch Ryan in Wig-
tonshire, by way of Minigaff, Glencairn, Penpont,
and Lochmaben, to the upper part of the Solway
frith in Dumfries-shire, at a point opposite the com-
mencement of the great wall of Adrian in Cumber-
land. It is now quite obliterated in many parts, and
more or less obscure in many, but still very distinct
in some. It appears to have been invariably eight
feet broad at the base, with a fosse onthe north or
inland side of it; and was built in most places of
unehiselled blocks of common moorstone, — in others,
of mixtures of stone and earth, — and, in a few, as at
Hightae Flow in Lochmaben, wholly of earth. It
separates the fertile lands of the sea-board districts
from the irreclaimable wastes and wild fastnesses of
the mountains, and may be presumed to have been
built by an industrious or comparatively settled
people on its south side, as a defence against a war-
like or comparatively roving people on its north side.
All facts respecting it, however, and even all reliable
traditions, have been lost. Chalmers, the author of
Caledonia, says, — " Considering all its circiun