Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

BARRHILL
Paisley and synod of Glasgow and Ayr, a quoad sacra
parish of Barrhead, all on the right bank of the Levern,
was formed in 1869, with stipend of £120 ; there are 5
places of worship — Established, Free, U. P. , Evangelical
Union, and Roman Catholic, — of which none but the
U. P. church (1796) is older than 1837. Barrhead public
and Roman Catholic schools, and Cross Arthmiie public
school, with respective accommodation for 505, 258, and
455 children, had (1879) an average attendance of 343,
156, and 342, and grants of £329, 14s. 6d., £110, and
£286, 2s. Pop. of town (1841) 3492, (1851) 6069, (1861)
6018, (1871) 6209, (1881) 7495 ; of quoad sacra parish
(1871) 6503, (1881) 6727.— Ord. Sur., sh. 30, 1866.
Barrhill, a village and district in Colmonell parish,
Ayrshire. The village stands on the river Dusk, 12-J
miles SSE of Girvan station. Of modern origin, it has
a post office, with money order and savings' bank depart-
ments, a Free church, cattle fairs on the fourth Friday
of April, August, and October, and a lamb and sheep
fair on the Thursday before the fourth Friday of August ;
a public school, with accommodation for 84 children, had
(1879) an average attendance of 92, and a grant of £68,
10s. Pop. of district (1881) 1059.
Barrhill, an elevation 400 feet above sea-level, on the
mutual border of Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch par-
ishes, Dumbartonshire, 3J miles W by S of Cumber-
nauld village. One of the forts in the line of Antoninus'
Wall stood on its summit, and must have commanded a
view of almost the entire line of the wall from the Forth
to the Clyde. Some vaults, in entire condition, were
discovered near the close of last century.
Barrisdale, a mansion in Glenelg parish, W Inverness-
shire, at the head of Loch Hourn, 31 miles W by S of
Fort Augustus.
Barrmill. See Beith.
Barrochan. See Barochan.
Barrock. See Bower.
Barrogill Castle, a mansion in Canisbay parish, Caith-
ness, on the coast of the Pentland Firth, 16 miles ENE
of Thurso. A venerable pile, it was greatly improved
and enlarged from designs by Burn ; and (to quote Miss
Sinclair) is now an imposing edifice, ' with all the natural
elegance of a house in London, and all the external
dignity of an ancient Highland residence. ' It is a seat
of Geo. Philips Al. Sinclair, who, born in 1858, suc-
ceeded as fourteenth Earl of Caithness in 1881, and owns
in the shire 14,460 acres, valued at £4479 per annum.
Barrowfield, a suburb of Glasgow, in Calton parish,
Lanarkshire, on what was the Burgh Moor, adjacent
to the Clyde, at the south-western extremity of the city.
Standing compact with Bridgeton, it is a dingy, smoky
seat of factories and other works, with a chapel of
ease and a Church of Scotland mission station. The
Regent Murray, in 1568, encamped his army on the site
of Barrowfield, and there received accessions of recruits
and provisions from the city on the eve of his march to
the field of Langside.
Barrschol, a district of Rogart parish, Sutherland, 4
miles NW of Rogart Church.
Barry, a village and a coast parish of SE Forfarshire,
The village lies towards the middle of the parish, on
Pitairlie Burn, f mile NNW of Barry station, which is
8 miles WSW of Arbroath, 5J ENE of Broughty Ferry,
and 8f ENE of Dundee ; at it are an inn, a public school,
the old parish church (enlarged in 1818 ; 673 sittings),
and a Free church.
The parish contains also, 1J mile to the E, the larger
village of Carnoustie, with a head post office and
another station. Bounded NW by Monikie, NE by
Panbride, E by the North Sea, S by the Firth of Tay,
and W by Monifieth and Monikie, it has an extreme
length from N to S of 3-| miles, a width from E to W
of 3§ miles, and an area of 5328 acres. The coast-line,
5J miles long, rises at Buddon Ness, its SE point, to
but 42 and 95 feet above sea-level ; 7 and 5 furlongs
westward stand the Tay lighthouses, a high and a low
one. Inland, the surface for nearly half of the entire
area consists of low sandy links ; nor even in the arable
district beyond does it anywhere exceed the 153 feet of
132
BARVAS
Upper Victoria near the extreme N, at Deyhouse attain-
ing 19, at Cotsyde 26, at Greenlawhill 100, near Clay-
holes 107, and at Travebank, 118 feet. Buddon Burn
for 2 miles traces the western boundary, and Pitairlie
Burn runs 3J miles south-eastward through the interior.
The soil of the upper division, raised from the lower by
a steep green bank that seems to have been the ancient
coast-line, is fertile, being variously gravel, light loam,
and deep black earth ; and nearly 3000 acres are in till-
age, besides some 20 under wood. On the plains of
Barry, in 1010, Malcolm II. is said by Buchanan to have
overthrown a Viking host, at Camustown slaying their
general, Camus ; but the story is discredited by Worsaae,
and mentioned by neither Hill Burton nor Skene.
The principal mansions are, Woodhill (J. Miln) to the-
W, Grange of Barry (W. Wighton) to the HW, and
Ravensby (P. G. Walker) to the N, of the village ; and
5 proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and
upwards, 8 of between £100 and £500, 15 of from £50
to £100, and 44 of from £20 to £50. In the presbytery
of Arbroath and synod of Angus and Mearns, this parish
is ecclesiastically divided into Barry (living, £355) and
Carnoustie. The Barry school, with accommodation
for 153 children, had (1879) an average attendance of
63, and a grant of £43, 15s. Valuation (1881) £15,064,
18s. 2d., including £1531 for 3J miles of the Dundee
and Arbroath railway. Pop. of q. s. parish (1871) 2003 ;
of civil parish (1801) 886, (1831)1682, (1861)2465, (1871)
3008, (1881) 3228.— Ord. Sur., sh. 49, 1865.
Barry Hill. See Alyth.
Barscobe. See Balmaclellan.
Barshaw, an estate, with a mansion ( Jas. Arthur, Esq. ),
in Abbey parish, Renfrewshire, 1 J mile E of Paisley.
Barshell, a hill in Tinwald parish, Dumfriesshire,
crowned with traces of an ancient Caledonian camp.
BaTsick, a bold headland on the W side of South
Ronaldshay island, Orkney.
Barskimming, an Ayrshire estate on the river Ayr,
at the boundary between Stair and Mauchline parishes,
2 miles SSW of Mauchline village. It belongs to Sir
Wm. Fred. Miller, fifth Bart, since 1788 (b. 1868 ; sue.
1875), and owner of 4453 acres in the shire, valued at
£3823 per annum. Its 18th century mansion was totally
destroyed by fire, 8 March 1882. See Ballochmyle.
Barthol. See Tarves.
Bartonholm, a collier hamlet in Irvine parish, Ayr-
shire. Pop. (1861) 342, (1871) 379.
Barvas (Gael. Barabha-s), a village and a parish in the
N of the Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Ross-shire. The village
stands near the western coast and the mouth of Barvas
river, 12 miles NW of Stornoway, and has a post office
under that town, and a temperance hotel. Pop. (1871)
501.
Including the islets of Rona-Lewis and Sulisker,
40 miles N and 46 NNE, the parish contains also Bragar
village, 5 miles WSW of Barvas, and the adjoining villages
of Cross or Ness and Suainabost, 13 miles NE, Ness having
another post office under Stornoway. Bounded N W by the
Atlantic, NE by the North Minch (36 miles broad here at
the narrowest), SE by Stornoway, and SW by Lochs, it
has an extreme length from NE to SW of 22f miles, a
varying width from NW to SE of 3g and 7J miles, and
a land area of 89,054 acres. The steep and rock-bound
coast, in northerly gales lashed by tremendous surf, pro-
jects the headlands of Seileir or Cellar, Rudha Geall, the
Butt of Lewis (142 feet), Aird Dhail, Aird Bharabhais,
and Aird Mhor Bhragair, and is broken only by the
little creeks of some sixteen smooth, north-westward-
flowing streams, the largest of them Barvas river, which,
rising just within Stornoway parish, runs 7 miles to Loch
Mor Bharabhais (6 J x 4 J furl. ), and thence 1 furlong to
the open sea. Inland, the surface is one continuous
moss, treeless and well-nigh shrubless, that seldom sinks
to (and never much below) 100 feet above sea-level, and
but little exceeds 400 feet in Beinn Bhail and Druim
Ghrinnabhal, 500 in Tom Dithabhail, whilst culminat-
ing in Beinn Choinnich (690 feet), close to the border of
Lochs. Especially in the SE and SW, it is thickly
sown with more than a hundred shallow lakes and