Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

BLACK CAET
Black Cart. See Cart.
Blackcastle, the northern summit (917 feet) of
Cocklaw Hill (1046), in Innerwick parish, E Haddington-
shire. It takes its name from remains of an ancient fort.
Blackcastle, an ancient camp in Greenlaw parish,
Berwickshire, on a precipitous bank at the confluence of
Faugrist Burn and the Blackadder, If mile NW of
Greenlaw. An entrenchment commences opposite to it,
on the right bank of the Blackadder ; runs about J mile
along the bank ; turns thence to the S in the direction
of Hume Castle ; and, in the southerly reach of it, is
called Black Dikes.
Black Cave, a great cavern piercing the Struey Kocks
on the S coast of Arran, in Buteshire. It opens from the
shore, at the level of water-mark ; measures upwards of
160 feet in length, 80 in height, and 40 in width ; and
from its interior gives a striking view down the Firth of
Clyde, past Ailsa Craig, to Galloway.
Blaekchester, an ancient oval camp in Lauder parish,
Berwickshire, on an elevated spot, 2$ miles NSW of
Lauder town. It has one entrance on the E, another
on the W, and is fortified by two ditches and by earthen
mounds.
Black Cove, a large, wild, dismal cavern on the Bar-
loeco shore of Berwick parish, Kirkcudbrightshire.
Blackcraig, a village in Minnigaff parish, Kirkcud-
brightshire, 2 miles ESE of Newton-Stewart. Neighbour-
ing lead and zinc mines yielded in 1879 264 tons of lead
from 353 tons of ore, and 76 tons of zinc.
Blackcraig, a hamlet near the meeting-point of Stir-
ling, Clackmannan, and Perth shires. Its post-town is
Menstrie.
Blackcraig, a mountain in New Cumnock parish, Ayr-
shire, near the Dumfriesshire border, 5J miles SSE of
New Cumnock village. It has an altitude of 2298 feet
above sea-level.
Blackcraig, a hill in Creich parish, Fife, 1 mile S of
the Firth of Tay, and 6-J miles ENE of Newburgh. It
has an altitude of 665 feet above sea-level, and it com-
mands a brilliant and extensive view of the lower basin
of the Tay and the frontier Grampians.
Black Dee. See Dee, Kirkcudbrightshire.
Black Devon. See Devon, Clackmannanshire.
Black Dikes. See Blackcastle, Berwickshire.
Blackerstone, a detached section of Longformacus
parish, Berwickshire, interposed between two sections
of Abbey St Bathans parish, and about 7 miles ENE of
Longformacus church. It is 2J miles long from NW to
SE, and from \ to 1 mile wide ; in the S of it is Retreat
House.
Black Esk. See Esk.
Blacket-House, a ruined tower in Middlebie parish,
Dumfriesshire, with the date 1404 and the initials
W[illiam] B[ell] above its outer doorway. A Bell of
Blacket-House was the rejected suitor and the murderer
of ' Fair Helen of Kirkconnel Lee. '
Blackford, a village and a parish of SE Perthshire.
The village stands towards the middle of the parish, at
the northern base of the Ochils, and on the right bank
of Danny Burn, \ mile from its confluence with Allan
Water, and has a station, with telegraph office, on the
Scottish Central section of the Caledonian, 4 miles SW
of Auchterarder, 17| SW of Perth, 11 SSE of Crieff, 10J
NE of Dunblane, and 15J NE of Stirling. Burned by
the Earl of Mar in January 1716, it is a modern place,
with a post office having money order and savings' bank
departments, a branch of the Bank of Scotland, gas-
works, waterworks (1S70), an hotel and two inns, the
parish church (rebuilt in Norman style, 1850 ; 632
sittings), a Free church (500 sittings), 3 breweries, a
sawmill, and 2 tanneries. Pop. (1861) 881, (1871) 867,
(1881) 679.
Irregular in outline, the parish is bounded N by
Muthi'll and Trinity Gask ; E by Trinity Gask, Auchter-
arder, and Glendevon ; S by Glendevon, Dollar, and Tilli-
coultry in Clackmannanshire, and Alva in Stirlingshire
(detached) ; W by Dunblane, Ardoch, and Muthill.
From Machany Water to Skythorn Hill, i. e. from N by
W to S by E, it has an extreme length of 9J miles ; its
11
BLACKFEIAES
breadth varies between 1 furlong and 6-| miles ; and its
area is 21,491| acres, of which 39 are water. The
drainage of N and E belongs to the basin of the Tay,
Machany Water winding 1 mile on the northern boundary
and 3J miles through the interior to the Earn, which
itself traces for f mile the eastermost portion of that
northern boundary ; whilst Ruthven Water, another of
its tributaries, curves from the SE corner of the parish
along Glen Eagles and Kincardine Glen, and so into
Atjchterarder. The drainage of S and SW, on the
other hand, is carried to the Forth by the Devon,
whose early eastward course marks 3J miles of the
southern border, and by the Allan, which, rising in
the SAV with half-a-dozen affluents and sub-affluents,
runs first north-eastward towards the village, and then
south-westward to Dunblane. The surface has a general
southward rise, from less than 100 feet above sea-level
by the Earn to 291 on Farmton Mnir, 644 at Muirhead,
4S5 near Tullibardine Cottage, 602 near Drumlochey,
400 near the village, 1562 m Eastbow Hill, 1574 in
Wether Hill, 1279 in Tambeth, 17S0 in Core Hill, 16S5
in Little Corum, 1955 in Mickle Corum, and 2072 in
Blairdenon Hill. The last three culminate on the
south-western frontier, and, belonging with Eastbow,
Wether, Tambeth, and Core Hills to the moorish Ochils,
are steep and craggy to the S, but fall away more gently
to the village, beyond which sandy hillocks and the
great level Moor (now Wood) of Tullibardine form the
' divide ' between Strathallan and Strathearn. A very
hard sandstone has been quarried for millstones ; except
in the N, the soil is poor, being thin for the most part
with a coarse gravelly bottom, and variously wet or dry
to an extreme. Antiquities are a Roman camp and an
outpost connecting it with the more famous one at
Ardoch, some cairns and standing stones, St Mungo's
Well in Glen Eagles, ruins of the cruciform Second
Pointed chapel of Tullibardine (Holy Trinity) and of
one or two other pre-Reformation chapels, and remains
of the castles of Ogilvie, Tullibardine, and. Kincardine.
Four great Scotch families have been for centuries con-
nected with this parish — the Hurrays, Grahams, Haldanes,
and Drummonds ; and places in it still give title of
Baron, Earl, and Marquess of Tullibardine (ere. 1604,
1606, and 1703) to John. Stewart Murray, Duke of
Athole ; of Earl of Kincardine (1644) to Douglas Graham,
Duke of Montrose ; of Earl of Gleneagles (1831) to
Robert Duncan-Haldane, Earl of Camperdown ; and of
Baron Madderty (1609) and Viscount Strathallan (1686)
to William Drnmmond. The two last have their seats
within its bounds, Gleneagles House in the E, Castle
Strathallan in the N, and own respectively 7122 and
7208 acres in the shire, of an annual value of £3479 and
£7612. Other mansions are Machany House (Major
Hunter) and the modern Kincardine Castle (D. Wilson,
Esq.) : and the whole parish is shared by 17 landowners,
6 holding each £500 a year and upwards, 1 between
£100 and £500, 1 between £50 and £100, and 9 be-
tween £20 and £50. Blackford is in the presbytery
of Auchterarder and synod of Perth and Stirling ; its
minister's income is £296. The public schools of
Blackford village, Gleneagles, and Tullibardine, and the
Free Church school at the first, with respective accom-
modation for 221, 75, 64, and 118 children, had (1S79) an
average attendance of 80, 35, 59, and 77, and grants of
£68, 6s., £24, 2s. 5d., £49, 12s., and £65, 9s. Valuation
(1881) £17,587, 15s. Id. Pop. (1811) 1666, (1S31) 1918,
(1841) 1782,(1861) 2041, (1S71) 1836, (1881) 1596.—
Ord. Sur. , shs. 39, 47, 1S69. '
Blackford, a hill on the S border of St Cuthbert's
parish, Edinburghshire^ in the southern vicinity of
Morningside, and 2 miles S by E of Edinburgh Castle.
Exceeding 400 feet above sea-level, it commands a magni-
ficent view ; southward, of the Braid and Pentland Hills ;
northward, of Edinburgh city, the Firth of Forth, and
the coast of Fife, backed by the Lomond and the Ochil
hills, and by the frontier Grampians — a prospect Scott
described in some of the noblest lines of Marmioii.
Blackfriars. See Ayr, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth;,
St Andrews, Stirling, and Wigtown.
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