Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 4

HAYLAND
HEBRIDES
first published production. Some curious artificial caves
are in cliff's below the mansion and further up the North
Esk's ravine. Formed, it would seem, with prodigious
labour out of solid rock, they communicate one with
another by long passages, and have access to a draw-well
of great depth, bored from the court-yard of the man-
sion. Like the 'earth-houses' of the North, they pro-
bably belong to prehistoric times. Three of them bear
the names of the King's gallery, the King's bedchamber,
and the King's dining-room ; and they were occupied in
133S as military retreats by the adventurous band of
Sir Alexander Ramsay of Dalhousie. These caves were
visited, on 14 Sept. 1842, by Queen "Victoria. A fine
view is got of Hawthornden from a point of rock over-
hanging the river, and popularly called John Knox's
pulpit :
' The spot is wild, the banks are steep,
With eglantine and hawthorn blossom'd o'er,
Lychnis, and daffodils, and hare-bells blue ;
From lofty granite crags precipitous,
The oak, with scanty footing, topples o'er,
Tossing his limbs to heaven ; and, from the cleft,
Fringing the dark -brown natural battlements,
The hazel throws his silvery branches down ;
Then, starting into view, a castled cliff,
'Whose roof is lichen'd o'er, purple and green,
O'erhangs thy wandering stream, romantic Esk,
And rears its head among the ancient trees.'
See Prof. David Masson's Drummond of Hawthornden
(Lond. 1S73), and John Small's Castles and Mansions of
the Lothians (Edinb. 1883).— Ord. Sur., sh. 32, 1857.
Hayland or Hailan, Loch. See DtrNNET.
Hayocks, an estate, with a mansion, in Stevenston
parish, Ayrshire, 1 mile NE of the town.
Haystoun, a farmhouse in Peebles parish, Peebles-
shire, amid fine old trees on a knoll overhanging the
right bank of Glensax Burn, 2 miles S by E of Peebles
town. Built in 1660, and forming three sides of a quad-
rangle, it is a good example of an old-fashioned country-
seat; and over its chief entrance has a tablet, sculptured
with the armorial bearings of the Hays, who acquired
the estate in the course of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Its present proprietor, Sir Robert Hay of Smithfield and
Haystoun, eighth Bart, since 1635 (b. 1825 ; sue. 1867),
holds 9755 acres, valued at £4515 per annum. The
reach of Glensax Burn through the grounds is often
called Haystoun Burn.— Ord Sur., sh. 24, 1864.
Haywood. See Hetwood.
Hazelbank, a village in Lesmahagow parish, Lanark-
shire, on the left bank of the Clyde, near Stonebyres
Fall, U miles WNW of Lanark. Pop. (18S1) 319.
Hazlefield House, a mansion in Rerwick parish, Kirk-
cudbrightshire, 10J miles SSW of Dalbeattie.
Hazlehead, a mansion in Newhills parish, Aberdeen-
shire, 3 miles W by S of Aberdeen. The estate, S32
acres, has a yearly value of £1130.
Heacamhall, Heacle, or Hecla. See Uist, South.
Head of Ayr, a rocky, precipitous headland in May-
bole parish, Ayrshire, flanking the S side of the Bay of
Ayr, 4 miles SW of Ayr town. Abutting from the
northern skirt of Brown Carrick Hill, it has an alti-
tude of 258 feet above sea-level, and consists of black,
earthy, tufaceous trap, traversed at one part by a thick
basaltic vein. — Ord. Sur., sh. 14, 1863.
Hearthstane Burn. See Harestane.
Hebrides or Western Islands, a large group or series
of groups of islands and islets extending along the
greater portion of the western coast of Scotland.
Anciently, the Hebrides comprehended also the islands
in the Firth of Clyde, the peninsula of Kintyre S of the
narrow neck of land between East and West Loch Tar-
bert, the island of Rathlin off the NE coast of Ireland,
and even the Isle of Man, but the modern Hebrides
embrace only the islands flanking the W coast from
Cape Wrath on the N to Kintyre on the S, and extend-
ing from 58° 32' of N latitude to 55° 33', or a distance,
measuring in a straight line from the Butt of Lewis on
the N to the Mull of Islay on the S, of 205 miles. The
islands are divided into two main groups, the Inner
Hebrides and the Outer Hebrides. The former extend
254
along the coast for 150 miles, measuring in a straight
line from the Point of Aird at the N end of Skye to the
Mull of Islay at the S end of the island of that name ;
and the distance of the various islands from the main-
land varies from less than half a mile at the narrow
strait of Kyle Rhea, at the SE corner of Skye, to 18J
miles at the N end of Skye, 51A at Tyree, and 21
at the S end of Islay. The Inner Hebrides are divided
into two portions by the Point of Ardnamurchan. The
division to the N may be called the Skye group, and
consists of Skye with the adjacent islands of South
Rona, Fladda, Eaasay, Scalpa, Longa, Pabbay, Soay,
Canna, Rum, Eigg, and Muck, and a number of smaller
islets. These are separated from the mainland by part
of the Minch, the Inner Sound, Kyle Akin, the mouth
of Loch Alsh, Kyle Pihea, Glenelg Bay, and the Sound
of Sleat. All the islands belong to the county of Inver-
ness, except Rum, Canna, Muck, Sandy, which are in
Argyll, and some small islets close inshore along the
coast to the N of Loch Alsh, which are in Ross-shire.
Rum, Eigg, Canna, Muck, and Sandy are known as
the Small Isles. The division S of Ardnamurchan falls
into two sub-divisions — the Mull group extending from
Ardnamurchan S to the Firth of Lome, and the Islay
group extending from the Firth of Lome southward
along the coast of Kintyre. The first group contains
Mull, with the cluster of islands round it, viz., Lis-
more, Kerrera, Iona, Staffa, Eorsa, Gometra, and Diva,
while westward are the small group of the Treshinish
Islands, and still farther W the islands of Coll and Tyree.
Besides these there are a number of smaller islets, in-
cluding, to the SSW of Tyree, the rock on which the
Skerryvore Lighthouse is built. The group is separ-
ated from the mainland by the Sound of Mull, the
sound between Lismore and the mainland, and the
Sound of Kerrera. The second group has the largest
island, Islay, at the extreme S end, and gradually tapers
to the NNE by Jura, Scarba, Luing, Shuna, and Seil.
To the E of Islay, and within a mile and a half of the
Kintyre coast, is the island of Gigha, while to the W of
Jura are Colonsay and Oronsay. The group is separated
from the mainland by the narrow passages to the E of
Seil and Shuna, and farther S by the Sound of Jura.
The whole of the islands S of Ardnamurchan are in
the county of Argyll.
The Outer Hebrides or Long Island group lies to the
W of the Inner Hebrides, and has the long triangular
portion known as Lewis to the N, and an extended
irregular chain tapering away in a S by W direction.
The northern extremity is W by S of Cape Wrath, and
distant from it 46 miles, while the southern extremity
at Barra Head is W by N of Ardnamurchan, and dis-
tant from it 54 miles. The islands extend from N
latitude 58° 31' at the Butt of Lewis, to 56° 48' at Barra
Head, and over a distance, measuring in a straight line
between these two points, of about 130 miles ; and they
are so closely connected that the whole chain is often
spoken of as the Long Island. To the N is the largest
island of the Hebrides, the northern part of which is
known as Lewis, while the southern part is called
Harris. Off the NE of Lewis are the Shiant Isles,
while on the W side, in Loch Roag, is the island of Great
Beruera. Off the E coast of Harris, at the entrance to
East Loch Tarbert, is the island of Scalpa, while on the
W and S are Scarpa, Taransay, Ensay, Killigray, Groay,
and a very large number of smaller islands and islets.
Separated from this island by the Sound of Harris is the
island of North Uist; and across a narrow channel
about A mile wide, still farther S, is Benbecula. To the
S of Benbecula, and separated from it by the Sound of
Benbecula, is South Uist, with the Sound of Barra at
its southern extremity ; and to the S of this lies the last
sub-group of the Outer Hebrides known as the Barra
Isles. North and South Uist and Benbecula in reality
form only one island, as the straits separating them are
fordable between half tide and low water. At the N
end of North Uist are the smaller islands of Shillay,
Pabbay, Berneray, Boveray, Valay, Tahay, Hermetray ;
on the SE are Flodda, Rona, and Grimisay ; while to