Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 5

Lo'cHMADDY
Islands. From time immemorial they have been called
' the King's kindly tenants, ' and occasionally the
'rentallers' of the Crown. The lands originally be-
longed to the kings of Scotland, or formed part of their
proper patrimony, and were granted, as is generally
believed, by Bruce, the Lord of Annandale, on his
inheriting the throne, to his domestic servants or to
the garrison of the castle. The rentaliers were bound
to provision the royal fortress, and probably to carry
arms in its defence. They have no charter or seisin,
but hold their title by mere possession, yet can alienate
their property by a deed of conveyance, and by procur-
ing for the purchaser enrolment in the rental-book of the
Earl of Mansfield. The new possessor pays a small fee,
takes up his succession without service, and in his turn
is proprietor simply by actual possession. The tenants
were, in former times, so annoyed by the constables of
the castle that they twice made appeals to the Crown,
and on both occasions — in the reigns respectively of
James VI, and Charles II. — they obtained orders, under
the royal sign-manual, to be allowed undisturbed ■ and
full possession of their singular rights. In more recent
times, at three several dates, these rights were formally
recognised bythe Scottish Courtof Session and theBritish
House of Peers. A chief part of the lands existed till
the latter half of last century in the form of a common ty,
but it was then, by mutual agreement, divided ; and
being provided, in its several parcels, with neat sub-
stantial farm-houses, and brought fully into cultiva-
tion, it soon became more valuable than the original
allotments immediately adjacent to the villages. More
than a moiety of the lands, however, has been purchased
piecemeal by the proprietor of Rammerscales, whose
mansion-house is in the vicinity, within the limits of
Dalton parish. But such portions as remain unalienated
exhibit, in the persons of their owners, a specimen of
rustic and Lilliputian aristocracy unparalleled in the
kingdom. If the possession of landed property in a
regular line of ancestry for several generations is what
confers the dignity of gentleman, that title may be
justly claimed by a community whose fathers have
owned and occupied their ridges and acres from the
13th century. Their names run so in clusters that
soubriquets are very generally in use. Richardson is
commonest, then Eae, Kennedy, Nicholson, and Wright.
These names were borne by companions of Wallace and
Bruce in their struggles against the usurping Edward.
Mansions, noticed separately, are Elshieshields
Tower and Halleath ; and 8 proprietors hold each an
annual value of £500 and upwards, 11 of between £100
and £500, U of from £50 to £100, and 49 of from £20
to £50. Lochmabeu is the seat of a presbytery in the
synod of Dumfries ; the living is worth £384. A Free
church at Hightae, built for a Relief congregation in
1796, and afterwards Reformed Presbyterian, was restored
in 1883. Three public schools — Hightae, Lochmaben,
and Templand — with respective accommodation for 152,
425, and 94 children, had (1882) an average attendance
of 72, 283, and 75, and grants of £51, 15s., £247, 12s.,
and £63, 3s. Valuation (1860) £10,502, (1884) £13,997,
6s. 4d. Pop. (1801) 2053, (1831) 2795, (1861) 3087,
(1871) 3085, (1881) 2816.— OrcZ. Sur., sh. 10, 1864.
The presbytery of Lochmaben comprises the parishes
of Applegarth, Dalton, Dryfesdale, Button, Johnstone,
Kirkmichael, Kirkpatrick-Juxta, Lochmaben, Moffat,
Mouswald, St Mungo, Tundergarth, and Wamphray.
Pop. (1871) 16,177, (1881) 16,126, of whom 3876 were
communicants of the Church of Scotland in 1878. The
Free Church presbytery, comprising the parishes around
Lochmaben, takes designation from Lockerbie.
See AVilliam Graham, Lochmaben Five Hundred Years
Ago (Edinb. 1865) ; and M. E. Gumming Bruce, Family
Hecords of the Bruces and the Cumyns (Edinb. 1870).
Lochmaddy, a village and a sea-loch in North Uist
island. Outer Hebrides, luverness-sliire. The village,
on the W shore of the sea-loch, 19^ miles W of Vaternish
Point in Skye and 65 SW by S of Stornoway, com-
municates regularly with Skye and the Scottish main-
land by steamers, and is a centre of trade and commerce
542
LOCHNAW CASTLE
for the middle and southern portions of the Outer
Hebrides. It comprises some poor huts, an inn, a
sheriff's residence, and a court-house and prison, at con-
siderable distances one from another ; and has a post
office, with money order, savings' bank, and telegraph
departments, a branch of the Caledonian Bank, and a
considerably frequented harbour. The sea-loch, opening
on the E from the Little Minch, and expanding from
an entrance only IJ mile wide to an interior width
of 2| miles, penetrates the land to a length of a\ miles,
and includes, not one harbour, but many harbours, safe,
capacious, and wanting nothing but sufBcient trade to
render them one of the finest groups of natural harbours
in the world. About \ mile inward from the sea are
two remarkable isolated rocks of columnar basalt, 100
feet high, called Maddy-More and Maddy-Grisioch,
which serve as marks to mariners. The country around
is all low, flat, and peaty country ; and Loch Maddy itself
is so beset with innumerable islets and intersected by
multitudes of little peninsulas, as to present a perfect
labyrinth of land and water. It does not cover more
than 9 square miles with its waters, but its aggregate
coast-line can hardly be less than 200 miles.
Loch Maddy or Loch na Meide. See Mudale.
Lochmalonie, an estate, with a mansion, in Kilmany
parish, Fife, 4^ miles N by W of Cupar.
Lochnagar, a finely-shaped mountain of Braemar dis-
trict, SW Aberdeenshire, 6§ miles SE of Castletown and
9| SW of Ballater as the crow flies, but lOi and 13 to
walk. One of the frontier Grampians, it flanks the W
side of the upper part of Glenmuick, and blocks the
heads of Glengelder and Glengarrawalt ; and it rises so
steeply and fitfully as to be scaleable on foot only with
extreme fatigue, yet can be conveniently ascended on
Highland ponies, as by the Queen and Prince Albert
on 16 Sept. 1848. Far up its north-eastern side lies
triangular Lochnagar or the ' Lake of the Hare' (2J x 2
furl. ; 2575 feet), a gloomy tarn, overhung by precipices
1200 feet high ; and it is gashed on other sides and on
its shoulders by frightful corries. Some of its higher
hollows retain deep snow-drifts throughout the summer
months ; and the whole of it was white with snow all
day on 4 June 1880. The predominant rock is granite,
and topazes, beryls, and rock crystals are found. Rising
to an altitude of 3786 feet above sea-level, Lochnagar
commands, from its summit a very extensive and most
magnificent view. Lord Byron pronounced it ' the most
sublime and picturesque of the Caledonian Alps,' and
celebrated it, as ' dark Lochnagar, ' in one of his best
known and most beautiful minor poems. — Ord. Sur.,
sh. 65, 1870.
Loch-na-Eeal, a sea-loch penetrating the W side of
Mull island, Argyllshire. Opening a little E of Staffa
island, and extending eastward to the length of 14^
miles, it measures 12j miles across the entrance, and
diminishes gradually to a width of onlj' 1 mile ; con-
tains Gometra, Ulva, Little Colonsay, Eorsa, and Inch-
kenneth islands ; is divided by Gometra and Ulva into
two sections, slenderly connected with each other ; and,
in the part to the N of Gometi'a and Ulva, bears the
separate name of Loch Tuadh.
Loch nan Cuinne. See Kildonan.
Looh-na-Sheallag. See Lochbroom.
Lochnaw Castle, a mansion in Leswalt parish, Wig-
townshire, on the southern shore of the AVhite Loch,
6f miles WNW of Stranraer. Its oldest part, a central
square battlemented tower, five stories high, bears date
1426 ; the modern portion, well harmonising with the
old, was commenced in 1820. The garden and grounds
are of great beauty, finely wooded with trees both
native and exotic. The White Loch (3 x 2J furlongs)
was drained in the early part of last century, but a
hundred years after was restored to its original condi-
tion. It contains abundance of capital trout ; and on
its wooded islet are traces of the ancient King's Castle
of Lochuaw. From 1330 to 1747 the Agnews of Loch-
naw were hereditary sheriffs of Galloway ; and the pre-
sent representative, Sir Andrew Agnew, eighth Bart,
since 1629 (b. 1818 ; sue. 1849), Liberal M.P. for Wig-