Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

BOUND SKERRIES
years since or more, by straightening the course of the
river. A fair is held on 15 Feb., old style. Drummuir,
a modern castellated mansion, is the seat of Major Duff
Gordon Duff, owner of 13,053 acres in the shire of an
annual value of £7418. In the presbytery of Strath-
bogie and synod of Moray, Botriphnie has an Esta-
blished parish church (rebuilt 1820 ; living, £281), and,
1 1 mile NE, a Free church. A public and a girls' school,
with respective accommodation for 127 and 31 children,
had (1879) an average attendance of 64 and 34, and
grants of £51, 15s. and £20, 3s. Pop. (1801) 589, (1811)
577, (1831) 721, (1861) 867, (1871) 785, (1881) 696.—
Ord. Sur., sh. 85, 1876. See the Rev. Dr J. F. Gordon's
Booh of the Chronicles of Keith, Botriphnie, etc. (Glasg.
1S80). Valuation (1882) £4571.
Bound Skerries, a group of islets, with one inhabited
house, in Nesting parish, Shetland.
Bouness, a large peninsula in Fair island, Dunross-
ness parish, Shetland. It is fenced with a high stone
wall across the isthmus, and it feeds a considerable
flock of South Country sheep.
Bourjo, an extensive tumulus in Melrose parish, Rox-
burghshire, on the NW slope of the Eildon Hills. Ap-
parently artificial, it is said, by tradition, to have been the
site of a pagan altar ; and is approached by a road called
Haxalgate, traversing the ravine of Haxalgate Heugh.
Bourtie (anc. Bowrdyri), a parish of Garioch, E central
Aberdeenshire, bounded N by Meldrum, NE by Tarves,
SE by Udny, S by Keithhall, W and NW by Daviot.
Its greatest length, from near Blair Croft in the ENE
to WSW near Portstown mill, is 5J miles ; its width
from N to S varies between 1 J and 2§ miles ; and its
land area is 5693 acres. Lochter Burn on its southward
course to the Ury follows all the Daviot boundary, re-
ceiving Barra Burn, which traces the northern border,
and another which rises near the church ; while by Kin-
goodie Burn, on the south-eastern frontier, a part of the
drainage is carried eastward to Brora Burn, and so to
the river Ythan. The western division, touched at three
points by the Old Meldrum railway, is flat and low, 200
feet or so above sea-level, but rises gently to Barra HOI
(634 feet) in the N, and Lawelside Hill (773 feet) in the
S, which, continuing eastward, converge in Kingoodie
Hill (600 feet), other points of elevation being Barra
Castle (296 feet), Sunnybrae (491), the Kirktown (522),
and Kingoodie Mill (458). The rocks are chiefly green-
stone or trap of a deep blue hue, and Barra Hill has been
deemed an extinct volcano ; the soil of the valleys and
lower slopes is a rich yellowish clay loam, that of the
uplands an inferior stiff clay, mingled with gravel and
ferruginous sand. Within the last fifty years much waste
has been reclaimed, and nearly four-fifths of the entire
area are now in cultivation, besides some 360 acres under
wood — mostly Scotch firs and larch. A prehistoric fort
on Barra Hill, defended by three concentric earthworks,
and long called 'Cumines Camp,' is traditionally con-
nected with the victory of Barra, gained in the Bruce-
Field near North Mains by King Robert Bruce over
Comyn Earl of Buchan, the Englishman Sir John
Mowbray, and Sir David de Brechin, 22 May 130S.
Bruce at the time lay sick at Inverurie, but, roused by
a foray of the Comyns from Old Meldrum, he demanded
to be mounted ; and his force of 700 men soon routed
the enemy, 1000 strong, chasing them far and wide,
then swept the lands of the Comyn, so wasting them
with fire and sword that fifty years later men mourned
the ' heirschip ' (harrying) of Buchan — Hill Burton,
Hist. Scot, ed. 1876, vol. ii., p. 257. Barra Castle (If
mile SW of Old Meldrum) or its predecessor was, in 1247,
and for more than two centuries after, the seat of the
Kings, later of Dudwick in Ellon ; it is now the resid-
ence of Col. J. Ramsay ; and Bourtie House (P. Duguid,
Esq. ) lies 1J mile further S by E. Four proprietors hold
each an annual value of more, and two of less, than £100.
Bourtie is in the presbytery of Garioch and synod of
Aberdeen ; its minister's income is £298. The parish
church (rebuilt 1806 ; 300 sittings) was dedicated to St
Brandon, and belonged to St Andrews priory ; it stands
towards the middle of the parish, between Barra and
BOWDEN
Lawelside Hills, and is 2 miles S by W of the post-town
Old Meldrum, 1\ E by N of Lethenty station, and 3J
NE of Inverurie. Two rude stone statues of a mailed
knight and a lady, lying in the churchyard, are currently
held to be those of a Sir Thomas and Lady de Longueville.
He, runs the story, was Bruce's brave English comrade,
who, wounded to death in the battle, shot an arrow
hither from the dykes of Fala, to mark the spot where
he would lie ; and she, his dame, died when the tidings
reached her. The public school, wuth accommodation
for 69 children, had (1879) an average attendance of 28,
and a grant of £15, 4s. Valuation (1881) £5795, 12s. 2d.
Pop. (1801) 445, (1831) 472, (1861) 547, (1871) 499, (1881)
468.— Ord. Sur., shs. 76, 77, 1874-73.
Bourtree-Busn, a village of E Kincardineshire, 7 miles
from Stonehaven.
Boveray. See Boreray.
Bow, a farm in Stow parish, Edinburghshire, on Gala
Water and the Edinburgh and Hawick railway, 2 miles
SSW of Stow village. Remains of an ancient castle are
on the top of a hill 5 furlongs E of the farm-house.
Bow, a reef Ijdng quite across Noop Bay in Westray
island, Orkney. Many a vessel has been wrecked upon it.
Bowbeat, one of the Moorfoot Hills in the extreme S of
Temple parish, Edinburghshire, 4f miles NE by N of
Peebles. It has an altitude of 2049 feet above sea-level.
Bowbutts, a mound or tumulus in Glencairn parish,
Dumfriesshire, about J mile from Glencairn church. It
is supposed to have been used for the exercise of archery.
Bowbutts, a farm in Strachan parish, Kincardineshire.
Three circular artificial mounds, supposed to have been
used for the practice of archery, are on it ; and two of
them are now covered with comparatively old trees.
Bowden, a hill on the N border of Torphichen parish,
Linlithgowshire, 2 miles SSW of Linlithgow. It forms
the western extremity of the Cockleroi range, rises 749
feet above sea-level, and is crowned with traces of an
ancient, circular, entrenched camp.
Bowden [Bothenden in 1124), a parish and a village ol
NW Roxburghshire. The village stands at the eastern
border, on the left bank of Bowden Burn, 2J miles S by
E of Melrose and 1 1 WSW of its post-town and railway
station, Newtown' St Boswells. It has an old stone
cross, a handsome modern fountain, an inn, a post office,
remains of one or two old square ' bastel ' towers, and a
Free church ; across the stream is the ancient parish
church, much older than the oldest date upon it (1666),
with 380 sittings, a curious canopied pew, and a chancel
vault, where 22 Kers of the Roxburghe line have been
laid — the last, the sixth duke, on 3 Slay 1879.
The parish also contains the village of Midlem or Mid-
holm, 3^ miles SW of Bowden, and 3 J E by S of its post-
town Selkirk, with another inn and a United Original Se-
ceders church. It is bounded N and NE by Melrose, E
by St Boswells and Ancrum, SE and S by Lilliesleaf,
and W by Selkirk and Galashiels. Its length from N to S
varies between 2§ and 4J miles, its breadth from E to
W between 2J and 4J miles ; and its area is 7682| acres,
of wdiich 15J are water. For 2| miles Ale Water traces
the south-eastern boundary, and receives two rividets
from the interior ; but most of the drainage is carried east-
north-eastward directly to the Tweed by the Bowden and
lesser burns. Just where the Bowden quits the eastern
frontier, 1 mile from its mouth, the surface is only 400
feet above sea-level ; but thence it rises in parallel west-
ward ridges to 571 feet near the manse, 933 on Bowden
Moor, 816 onFaughhill Moor, 856 near Nether Whitlaw,
735 at Prieston, 862 at Clarilawmoor, and 893 near
Friarshawmuir, other points of elevation being Rowches-
ter (640 feet), Blackchester (500), Cavers Carre (535),
and a nameless eminence in the farthest S (709). All
these, however, are dominated by the triple Eildons,
whose southern and half of whose middle and loftiest
peak attain a height of 1216 and 1385 feet within the
north-eastern confines of the parish. The leading for-
mation is porphyritic trap ; and the soil varies from a
stiff clay overlying a hard retentive tilly subsoil in the
N and part of the W to a fertile loam along the central
haughs, whilst in the S it has a thin, dry, friable charac-
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