Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

BEAUMONT
order, savings' bank, insurance, and telegraph depart-
ments, branches of the Bank of Scotland and the Com-
mercial Bank, gas-works, 3 hotels, a Roman Catholic
church (1864 ; 350 sittings), and the ruined priory of St
John Baptist. This latter was founded in 1232 by Sir
John Bisset of Lovat, for seven French monks of the
congregation of Vallis Caulium or Val de Choux, a sub-
order of the Cistercians, who followed the rule of St
Benedict ; its aisleless church, 136 by 21 feet, is mostly
Early Second Pointed, and may date from about the first
decade of the 14th century. The last prior granted its
lands in 1558 to the sixth Lord Lovat ; but, forfeited by
Alex. MacKenzie of Fraserdale in 1716, they are now
Crown property (E. C. Batten's Beauly Priory, Gram-
pian Club, 1877). Fairs are held either in the village
or on the neighbouring Moor of Ord on the third Thurs-
day of January and February, the third Wednesday and
Thursday of March and April, the second Wednesday
and Thursday of May, the third Wednesday and Thurs-
day of June and July, the Wednesday and Thursday of
August, September, and October before Falkirk, the
Wednesday and Thursday of November before Edinburgh
Hallow fair, and the Thursday after the third Wednes-
day of December. The village has a safe and convenient
small harbour, and carries on a considerable trade in
grain, timber, coal, lime, and other commodities. A
sheriff small debt court is held in January, May, and
September. A bridge of 5 arches, built in 1S10, with a
water-way of 240 feet, spans the river on the line of the
longest road to Inverness ; and a ferry for foot-passengers
is on the line of the shortest road, but does not serve for
horses or carriages. The Established and Free churches
of Eilmorack, though not within the village, are at con-
venient distances. A public and a Roman Catholic
school, with respective accommodation for 250 and 90
children, had (1879) an average attendance of 170 and
24, and grants of £114, 10s. and £17, 17s. Pop. (1861)
917, (1871) 855.
The river Beauly is formed by the confluence of the
Glass and the Fairer at Erchless Castle ; it runs, in a
winding course of about 16 miles, north-eastward to the
head of Beauly Firth ; it "has frequent narrowings and
windings ; it makes, at Eilmorack Church, remarkable
falls amid splendid scenery ; and it abounds, below the
falls, with salmon, grilses, and sea-trout. The salmon
fishings, belonging to Lord Lovat and The Chisholm,
are splendid, the late Lord Lovat in 1864 killing 146
salmon to his own rod in five days. The valley of the
Beauly, in common with that of the Glass, bears the
name of the Strathglass. The Firth of Beauly (Ptolemy's
Varar JEshuzrium) is the upper basin or inner division
of the Moray Firth ; and is separated from the lower
basin by a contraction about J mile wide at Eessock
Ferry in the northern vicinity of Inverness. Its length is
about 7 miles ; its greatest breadth is about 2 miles, and
its shores are iow and well cultivated. The Caledonian
Canal enters it at Clachnaharry, a little W of Inverness.
Beaumont. See Bowmont.
Beaver-Craig, a romantic ravine, traversed by a brook
with waterfalls, in Eing-Edward parish, a little below
King-Edward Castle, at the north-western extremity of
Aberdeenshire.
Beckton, a place in Dryfesdale parish, Dumfriesshire,
near Lockerbie. It had anciently a chapel, and it has a
very copious medicinal spring.
Bedlay, an estate, with an old mansion, in Cadder
parish, N Lanarkshire, in the vicinity of Chryston, and
4 miles NW of Coatbridge. The mansion stands on a
gently elevated platform, overlooking a small well-wooded
dell ; is a quadrangular structure with two round turrets
and high-peaked gables ; and, once belonging to the Earls
of Eilmarnock, is now the seat of Thos. Craig Christie,
Esq., owner of 910 acres in the shire, valued at £1451
per annum. Limeworks are on the estate, yielding a
hard dark blue lime, extensively used in the Monkland
iron-works.
Bedlormie, an old baronial fortalice, still entire, in Tor-
phichen parish, Linlithgowshire. It came by marriage,
in the 17th century, to the baronet family of Livingstone.
BEIL
Bedrule, a hamlet and a parish of Teviotdale, central
Roxburghshire. The hamlet, lying on the right bank
of Rule Water, 4J miles WSW of Jedburgh, its post-
town and railway station, consists of the parish church
(rebuilt about 1803 ; 140 sittings), the manse, the school,
and a few scattered cottages. Close to it, on a grassy
knoll, are scanty traces of an ancient castle, the strong-
hold of the Turnbulls, where, about 1494, 200 of that
fierce Border clan were brought before James IV. , with
halters round their necks and naked swords in their
hands.
The parish is bounded NW by Ancrum, NE and E by
Jedburgh, S by Hobkirk, and W by Hobkirk and Cavers.
It has an extreme length from N to S of 4J miles, a width
from E to W of from 1 to 2| miles, and an area of 3952J
acres, of which 35 are water. Rule Water traces nearly
all the western, the Teviot more roughly the north-
western, boundary ; and the surface has a general east-
ward rise to Dunian Hill (1095 feet above sea-level),
Black Law (1110), and Watch Knowe (957). The rocks
belong mainly to the Silurian system, but partly also to
the Devonian ; the soils of the uplands are thin and poor,
in places spongy, while those of the haughs are occa-
sionally argillaceous, but chiefly a rich sandy loam super-
incumbent on graveh In the S the peel tower of Fulton
stands, fairly perfect, on a greensward slope, confronting
' dark Ruberslaw' (1392 feet) across the Rule ; northward
are a hill-fort and the sites of Ruecastle (burned in Lord
Dacre's raid, 1513 ; and again in Hertford's, 1545) and
Newton Tower. William Turnbull, Bishop of Glasgow
from 144S to 1454, was probably a native of this parish;
and at the manse was born an eminent physician, Sir
David James Hamilton Dickson (1780-1850). The prin-
cipal residences, Menslaws, Newton (with a fine old
avenue of ash and elm trees), and Enowesouth, are all
three situated near the right bank of the Teviot, along
the highroad from Hawick to Jedburgh ; and 3 pro-
prietors hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards,
2 of between £100 and £500, and 2 of from £20 to £100.
Bedrule is in the presbytery of Jedburgh and synod of
Merse and Teviotdale ; its minister's income is £212.
The public school, with accommodation for 84 children,
had (1879) an average attendance of 39, and a grant of
£36, 13s. Valuation (1SS0) £4809. Pop. (1831) 309,
(1861) 222, (1871) 292, (1SS1) 269.— Ord. Sur., sh. 17,
1864.
Bee, a sea-loch in the NW of South Uist island, Outer
Hebrides, Inverness-shire. With a very irregular out-
line, it measures about 3 miles in length, and 1 mile
in mean breadth ; has an extreme depth of about 2
fathoms ; is entered, at its NW end, by the sea in spring
tides ; is nearly connected, at its SW end, with Loch
Skiport, opening to the sea on the E ; and abounds not
only in fine trout, but also in flounders and mullet.
Beechwood, a mansion in Corstorphine parish, Edin-
burghshire, on the S side of Corstorphine Hill. Built
in 1770, by a son of Walter Scott of Harden, and sold
in 1786 to Colonel Alexander Leslie, in 1797 to Major-
General David Dundas, it is now a seat of Sir Sidney
Jas. Dundas, third Bart, since 1821 (b. 1849 ; sue.
1877).
Beechwood, an estate, with a mansion, in St Vigeans
parish, Forfarshire, near Arbroath.
Beeswing, a post office hamlet in the NW corner of
New Abbey parish, Eirkcudbrightshire, near the boun-
dary with Lochrutton and Eirkgunzeon parishes, 7 miles
SW of its post-town Dumfries.
Beg, a head-stream of the river Shee, in the N of
Eirkmichael parish, Perthshire.
Beg, a sea-loch in Bracadale parish, Isle of Skye,
Inverness-shire. It opens from Loch Bracadale, strikes
2 miles to the NE, and has, on its shore, the church of
Bracadale.
Beglie. See Wicks of Begiie.
Beich. See Glenbf.ich.
Beil, an estate, with a mansion, in Stenton parish,
Haddingtonshire. The mansion stands 1J mile NNE of
Stenton village, 3 j miles SW of Dunbar ; is partly an
ancient edifice, partly a great modern extension, after a
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