Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 5

LOCHLEE
liis sisters being engraved on a slab at the bottom.
The only seat in the parish is Invermark Lodge (the
Earl of Dalhousie— born 1S47 ; sue. 1880), W of the
parish church ; and close by are the ruins of Invermark
Castle, a fine square tower on a commanding site, close
to the North Esk. It remained almost entire down to the
erection of the present parish church, when all the out-
buildings were pulled down, and the interior of the
tower itself cleared out, in order that the materials
might be used for that building. It has a curious old
door made of iron, said to have been mined and smelted
on the Farm of Tarfside. It seems to date from the
earlier portion of the 16th century, and to have had a
moat filled from the Mark, the mouth of which seems
at one time to have been closer to it. It commands the
important pass of Mount Keen to Deeside. Built by
one of the Lindsays, it is now in the possession of the
Earl of Dalhousie. The parish is traversed by a dis-
trict road from Edzell up the basin of the North Esk, and
there are a number of connecting roads to the E, the W
being, as might be imagined, entirely destitute of any
communication. A track leads from the church up
Glen Mark and Ladder Burn by a winding path known
as 'The Ladder, ' across Mount Keen and by Glen
Tanner to Deeside. It was along this that the Queen
and Prince Albert travelled 20 Sept. 1861, on their
expedition to Fettercairn. The <Lochlee part is thus
described in Leaves from the Journal of our Life in the
Highlands (1868) : ' "We came in sight of a new country,
and looked down a very fine glen — Glen Mark. We
descended by a very steep but winding path, called
The Ladder, very grand and wild ; the water running
through it is called The Ladder Burn. It is very fine
indeed, and very striking. There is a small forester's
lodge at the very foot of it. The pass is quite a narrow
one ; you wind along a very steep and rough path, but still
it was quite easy to ride on it, as it zigzags along. We
crossed the burn at the bottom, where a picturesque
group of "shearers" were seated, chiefly women, the
older ones smoking. They were returning from the south
to the north, whence they came. We rode up to the little
cottage ; and in a little room of a regular Highland
cabin, with its usual "press bed," we had luncheon.
This place is called invermarlc, and is 4J miles from
Corrie Vruaeh. After luncheon, I sketched the fine
view. The steep hUl we came down immediately
opposite the keeper's lodge, is called Craig Boestoek,
and a very fine isolated craggy hUl which rises to the
left — over-topping a small and wild glen — is called the
Hill of Down. We mounted our ponies a little after
three and rode down Glen Mark, stopping to drink
some water out of a very pure well, called The White
Well; and crossing the Mark several times. As we
approached the Manse of Loeh Lee the glen widened,
and the old Castle of Invermark came out extremely
well ; and, surrounded by woods and corn-fields, in
which the people were "shearing," looked most pictur-
esque. We turned to the right and rode up to the old
ruined castle, which is half covered with ivy. We
then rode up to Lord Dalhousie's shooting-lodge, where
we dismounted. It is a new and very pretty house,
built of granite, in a very fine position overlooking the
glen, with wild hLUs at the back. . . . We passed
through the dramng-room and went on a few yards to
the end of a walk, whence you see Loch Lee, a wild but
not large lake, closed in by mountains.' In com-
memoration of the visit, the late Earl of Dalhousie
erected a granite well at the White Well. It hears the
inscription 'Her Majesty Queen Victoria and His Koyal
Highness The Prince Consort visited this well and
drank of its refreshing waters on the 20th September
1861— the year of Her Majesty's great sorrow ; ' and
round the basin is
* Rest traveller, on this lonely green,
And drink and pray for Scotland's Queen.'
On 19 Sept. 1865, the Queen and Princess Helena
' drank with sorrowing hearts from this very well where
just four years ago I had drunk with my beloved Albert.
538
LOCHMABEN
. . . We afterwards had some tea close by ; and this
fine wide glen was seen at its best, lit up as it was by
the evening sun, warm as on a summer's day, without
a breath of air, the sky becoming pinker and pinker,
the hills themselves, as you looked down the glen,
assuming that beautifully glowing tinge which they do
of an evening. The Highlanders and ponies grouped
around the well had a most picturesque effect. And
yet to me aU seemed strange, unnatural, and sad'
{More Leaves from the Journal, 1884). On Migvie
or Rowan HUl are a number of cairns traditionally
but ivrongly asserted to be connected with an engage-
ment between Bruce and Cumyn in 1307. 'There
was certainly a' meeting between their forces ; but
Cumyn either sued for peace or ran away without
fighting. A stone with a rudely incised figure of a cross
is pointed out as the position of Bruce's standard, but
it is probably a boundary mark of church lands. Other
objects worthy of notice are the standing stones at
Colmeallie ; the Com-t Hill, S of Modlach Hill, probably
an old law hill ; St Fillan's Well, beside the Burn of
Gleneffbck ; Eagil's or Edzell's Loup, where the young
laird of Edzell leaped across the Mark when pursued by
the Earl of Crawford ; Bonnymune's Cave, near Cur-
mand Hill, where the laird of Balnamoon resided for a
time after the battle of Culloden ; Johnny Eidd's Hole
(all these three are in Glenmark). At Gilfumman there
was formerly a fine rocking-stone, but it has been thrown
down. Near Carlochy is a small cave called Grj'p's
Chamber, after a robber of that name who lived in it.
In the churchyard at the old church is a memorial of
Alexander Ross (1699-1784), the author of Selenore, or
the Fortunate Shepherdess, and of other shorter pieces,
who was long schoolmaster of Lochlee, and who died
there. The monument was erected by public subscrip-
tion, and was at first erected in the new churchyard,
but the Earl of Dalhousie removed it in 1856, and placed
it near Ross's grave.
The parish is in the presbytery of Brechin and the
sjTLod of Angus and Mearns, and the living is worth
£230 a year. The only proprietor is the Earl of Dal-
housie. Originally belonging to the Lindsays, the
district passed to the Panmure familj', and on the Earl
of Panmure's forfeiture in 1716 was sold to the York
Buildings Company, but was afterwards recovered for
its present possessors. Lochlee public school at Tarf-
side, with accommodation for 91 pupils, had in 1882 an
attendance of 30, and a grant of £34. Valuation (1857)
£1473, (1884) £3941, 6s. Pop. (1801) 541, (1831) 553,
(1861) 495, (1871) 424, (1881) 359.— OrcZ. Siir., shs. 66,
65, 1871-70. See Andrew Jervise's Land of the Lindsays
(Edinb. 1853 ; 2d ed. 1882).
Lochlin or Lochslin, an ancient castle in the NE
corner of Fearn parish, Ross-shire, on a little eminence
3i furlongs ENE of Loch Eye, and 4| miles E by S of
Tain. Said to be more than five centuries old, it com-
prises two square towers, 20 and 38 feet broad, standing
conjointly corner to corner, and 60 feet high. It has
one large turret on the lesser square, and two others
on the greater square ; and it figures consjiicuously in a
wide extent of landscape. — Ord. Sur., sh. 94, 1878.
Lochmaben, a town and parish of Annandale, Dum-
friesshire. A royal, parliamentary, and police burgh,
the town stands 183 feet above sea-level, amid a periect
cordon of lakes, and within 9 furlongs of the right bank
of the Annan. Its station, on a branch line of the
Caledonian, is IQi miles NE of Dumfries, 4J WNW of
Lockerbie, 52 SSE of Carstairs, 794 S by W of Edin-
burgh, and 83J SSE of Glasgow ; whilst by road it is 15
S of Mofi'at, 65 S by W of Edinburgh, 8 NE of Dumfries,
and 13 NNW of Annan. ' Lochmaben,' says Mr
Graham, ' is situated in the beautiful vale of the Annan,
and, though an inland town, has much more of the
aquatic than many seaports. There are no less than
seven lochs around it, and the rivers Annan, Kinnel,
and Ae are in the immediate vicinity. Viewed from the
Pinnacle Hill or some other neighbouring height, it
seems, like the city of Venice, to rise from the water.
Nor are the beauties of hill and valley wanting. North-