Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

BORLAND
William Nicholson (1783-1843), the Galloway pedlar-
poet. Earlston House, 1} mile N of the village and 5
miles SSE of Gatehouse, is a good modern residence, the
seat of Lieut. -Col. Sir William Gordon, sixth Bart, since
1706, and one of the heroes of the Balaclava charge.
(See Dalky. ) Senwick and Borgue, the other chief
mansions, are the seats of A. J. Corrie and A. Pringle,
Esqs. ; and these 3 proprietors respectively own 765,
1062, and 1327 acres in the shire, valued at £1179,
£1156, and £1628 per annum, while 5 others hold
in Borgue a yearly value of between £500 and £1000,
8 of between £100 and £500, and 3 of from £20 to
£100. Anciently held by Dryburgh Abbey, Borgue is
now in the presbytery of Kirkcudbright and synod of
Galloway; its minister's income is £350. One public
school, with accommodation for 178 children, had (1879)
an average attendance of 96, and a grant of £95, 18s.
Valuation (1881) £13,998, 7s. 6d. Pop. (1811) 858,
(1831) 894, (1861) 1162, (1871) 1087, (1881) 1129. See
pp. 79-93 of Harper's Rambles in Galloway (Edinb. 1S76).
—Orel Sur., sh. 5, 1S57.
Borland. See Boreland.
Borlay or Borralaidh, a loch in Durness parish, NW
Sutherland, 1 mile WSW of Durness church. Lying 38
feet above sea-level, it is f mile long and from 1 to 2
furlongs wide ; is fed, through limestone rocks, by a
subterranean stream ; has a green islet J mile long ; pre-
sents a beautiful appearance ; and abounds in trout and
char.
Borness. See Bokgite.
Bornish, an estate in South Uist parish, Outer
Hebrides, Inverness-shire. It comprises about 1600
acres, of which about 260 are arable. St Mary's Roman
Catholic church here was built in 1837, and contains 400
sittings.
Borniskittag, a headland and a hamlet in Kilmuir
parish, Isle of Skye, Inverness-shire, in the western
vicinity of Kilnmir manse. The headland, for nearly 1
mile on its northern face, exhibits basaltic colonnades in
picturesque combinations of form ; and, near its extremity,
is pierced with three caves, one of which presents a some-
what miniature resemblance to Fingal's Cave in Staffa.
Borough Head, a promontory in the S of Whithorn
parish, Wigtownshire, at the E side of the entrance of
Luce Bay. It forms a projection at the extreme S of
Scotland, similar to the Mull of Galloway ; describes
the segment of a circle, on a chord of 1\ miles from
Broom Point on the E to the vicinity of Carghidown
Castle on the W ; terminates in bold cliffs about 156 feet
high, pierced with caves ; is crowned, on its southernmost
point, with vestiges of a small fort or cairn ; and has, 3
furlongs ENE thereof, a natural archway among its
cliffs, the Devil's Bridge.
Borough Muir, a quondam open common in St Cuth-
bert and Liberton parishes, Edinburghshire, adjacent
to the S side of Edinburgh city. In 1504 it was over-
grown with wood, of which it was mainly cleared in
result of an order of the Edinburgh authorities allowing
the citizens to purchase portions of the timber on
highly advantageous terms ; in 1513 it was the ground
where James IV. mustered and reviewed his army on the
eve of marching to Flodden. A large chapel, dedicated
to St Roqne, stood at the W end of the common ; had a
cemetery where victims of the plague were buried ; and,
at the Reformation, was converted into private property.
Much of the quondam common is occupied no;v by hand-
some suburbs. A massive stone, in which was planted
James IV. 's standard, still stands in a wall adjoining
Morningside church, aud bears the name of Bore Stone.
Borrodale, an estate, with a mansion, in the Arasaig
part of Ardnamurchan parish, on the N side of Loch-na-
Nuagh, 35 miles W by N of Fort William. Here
Prince Charles Edward landed, 25 July 1745, and here
he received Lochiel.
Borrolan, a shallow, weedy loch on the mutual border
of Sutherland and W Ross-shire, close to Altnakealgach
Inn, in Assynt parish, 26 miles W of Lairg. Measuring
1 by J mile, it teems with trout and char, 200 of the
former having been taken by one rod in a single day.
176
BORROWSTOTJNNESS
Borrowston, a mansion (Mrs Hart) on the left bank of
the Dee, in Kincardine O'Neil parish, Aberdeenshire, J
mile SE of the village. Enlarged in 1871, it lost its
older portion by fire in 1874.
Borrowstoun, a hamlet in Reay parish, Caithness, 7
miles W of Thurso. A number of small caves and a
strong natural arch are near it.
Borrowstounness or Bo'ness, a town and a parish of
NW Linlithgowshire. A seaport, a burgh of barony
since 1748, and a police burgh since 1880, the town
stands at the NE angle of the parish on a low ness or
promontory washed by the Firth of Forth ; by road it
is 3 miles N of Linlithgow and 8 ENE of Falkirk, by
water 2| miles SSE of Culross, and by rail, as terminus
of a section of the North British, 4| miles NNE oi
Manuel Junction, 24 WNW of Edinburgh, and 29}
ENE of Glasgow. Defoe described it, early in last cen-
tury, as consisting only of one straggling street, extended
close to the water along the shore, but ' a town that has
been, and still is, of the greatest trade to Holland and
France of any in Scotland, after Leith.' To-day its chief
streets are three — two, each 300 yards long, converging
eastward in one, 350 yards more ; and 'dismally dirty'
is Glennie's epithet for all. It has a post office, with
money order, savings' bank, and telegraph departments,
branches of the Clydesdale and Royal Banks, 2 commer-
cial hotels, gas-works, a town-hall, a custom-house, and
a Saturday paper, the Bo'ness Journal (1878). Places
of worship are the parish church (almost rebuilt in
1820 ; 950 sittings), a Free church, and a U.P. church
(400 sittings); a public, an infant, and Anderson's
school, with respective accommodation for 350, 150, and
142 ehiHren, had (1879) an average attendance of 262,
122, and 192, and grants of £152, ISs. 2d., £93, Is. 4d.,
and £112, 15s., the corresponding figures for Borrow-
stoun school being 200, 122, and £90, 14s. There are —
mostly of long standing — a salt factory, 4 iron-foundries,
2 engineering and 2 chemical works, a pottery, a dis-
tillery, 2 brick-yards, and 6 saw-mills ; and Kinneil iron-
works, | mile WSW, had 4 furnaces built in 1879, but
all of them out of blast. Fishing more or less employs
103 persons, with 26 boats of 105 tons ; and during 1875-
80 4 sailing vessels were built here of 885, and 7 steamers
of 2144, tons. Bo'ness was constituted a head port in
1707, with a district extending on both sides of the Firth
from Cramond Water and Donibristle Point to the Alloa
boundaries. Eighty years later it possessed 8 whalers
and 2 boiling-houses ; but a grievous blow was dealt to
its prosperity by the opening of the Forth and Clyde
Canal (1790), and the erection of Grangemouth into a
separate port (1810) — a blow from which it has hardly
yet recovered. At several dates between 1744 and 1816
Acts were obtained for improving the harbour, regulat-
ing the affairs of the port, cleaning, paving, and light-
ing the town, and supplying it with water ; but, the
powers created by these Acts proving incompetent, ap-
plication was made to Parliament in 1842 for greatly
increased powers. As last improved, the harbour com-
prises a basin of 2J acres, with a strong coffer-dam 410
feet long and 20 broad, an E and a W pier each 566 feet
long, and a depth at spring tides of fully 24 feet, and a
wet dock of 1\ acres, opened 9 Sept. 1881. It had on
its register at the close of 1880 21 sailing vessels of 3408
tons, and 1 steam-tug of 7, against a tonnage of 13,8S8 in
1790, 6521 in 1839, 5325 in 1865, and 3349 in 1874. The
following table, however, giving the tonnage of vessels
with cargoes, and also (for the three last years) in bal-
last, that entered and cleared it from and to foreign and
colonial ports and coastwise, tells a more hopeful tale: —
Entered.
Cleared.
1854
1S62
1873
1879
1SS0
British.
Foreign.
Total.
British.
Foreign.
Total.
8,659
15,375
43,121
67,007
76,057
5,217
15,912
148,662
1S3.223
196,143
13,876
31,287
191.7S3
250,230
272,200
59,474
85,665
41,857
67.S56
72,831
36,571
72,093
148,626
176,570
195,329
96,045
157,758
190.4S3
244,426
26S,210