Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 5

LOSSIEMOUTH
LOTH
£1?.00 previous to 1780, but the entrance was very in-
convenient on account of a bad sand-bar, which could
not be got rid of, notwithstanding the effort made to
increase the scour of the river by the erection of another
pier on the opposite side of the river in that year. As
business by and by increased — particularly the herring
fishing, which was first tried in 1819 — the accommoda-
tion became very insufficient, and in 1834 a Stotfield
and Lossiemouth Harbour Company was formed for the
purpose of making a new harbour at Stotfield Point,
away from the mouth of the river and the bar altogether.
This was a rectangular basin, mainly cut in solid rock,
and protected by a breakwater on the N. The work
was carried out between 1837 and 1839, and the rubbish
was flung on the shore. The stones thus thrown down
have been gradually carried westward by a strong in-
shore current that sets in that direction, and now extend
along the shore for fully J mile, forming a ridge 40 feet
wide at the base and about 10 feet high. The harbour
was again enlarged, deepened to 16 feet at spring tides,
and otherwise improved in 1852, when railway com-
munication with Elgin was first opened, and during the
next eight years trade again increased, and such large
numbers of herring boats began to fish from the place,
that the directors of the company — now the Elgin and
Lossiemouth Harbour Company — extended the break-
water to the SW, and,'at a cost of £18,000, formed a
large new basin, intended entirely for boats. The
herring having, however, gone off the coast, the number
of boats frequenting it has fallen from 120 about 1868
to some 30 at present, so that the operations have not
been at all a financial success, and the curing stations
are mostly deserted. The rising-ground W and SW of
the harbour is known as the Coulai-d Hill (124 feet), and
along the slopes of this since 1830 the village of Brander-
burgh has spruug up, Colonel Brander of Pitgaven}',
the late proprietor of the ground, having, in that year,
built a house there for himself — the first, and for seven
3'ears the only one erected — close to the present entrance
to the boat basin at the harbour. The change of harbour
favoured the rise of the new village, and within the next
thirty years the number of inhabitants had become
nearly 1000. This village is also regularly laid out,
with the streets at right angles and a large central square.
To the W and N of the square the houses belong to
fishermen, and are substantial and mostly very tidy
buildings. To the S there are a number of villas occupied
by the business men connected with the place, or belong-
ing to the inhabitants of Elgin, who make this a summer
resort. Stotfield is along the coast to the SW, and con-
tains a number of villas used as summer residences. It
has a boat-building yard, and, close by, the rocks [See
Elginshike] contain galena, efforts to work which to
profit have been made on many occasions, from 1790
downwards, but hitherto without success, though a shaft
was sunk in 1876-77, and stamping mills subsequently
set up. To the E of this is the Branderburgh Baths,
containing a swimming bath and other accommodation,
the water being pumped from the sea. Originally con-
structed by a joint stock company in 1873-74, thej' have
since been sold, and are now in private hands. The
beach below Stotfield, in Stotfield Hythe, forms excellent
bathing ground, and is much resorted to by visitors.
The village was, on 25 Dec. 1806, the scene of a
sudden and terrific gale, in which almost all the fisher-
men belonging to the place were drowned within sight
of the houses. There are fine views of the Sutherland-
shire and Eoss-shire hUls, both from Stotfield and the
Coulard Hill. The Established church at the W of the
Old Town, with 300 sittings, was erected in 1848, and
is a chapel of ease for the parish of Drainie, which in
1792 was in what the writer of the Old Statistical Ac-
count evidently thought the happy position of having ' no
lawyer, writer, attorney, physician, surgeon, apothecary,
negi'o, Jew, gipsy. Englishman, Irishman, foreigner of
any description, nor family of any religious sect or de-
nomination except the Established Church.' In the
beginning of 1884 it was proposed to erect near the
town a new church for the parish of Dr.AiNiE. The
Free church (1844), with 500 sittings, is a short dis-
tance to the N. The original U.P. church was further
to the E, and was the oldest church in the village ; but
a new one was erected in 1881. The Baptist church
dates from 1870. Lossiemouth school, close to the Free
church, was originally built as a General Assembly
school, but on the passing of the Education Act was
handed over to the school board of Drainie. Funds
are being raised for the erection of a town-hall. The
industries are mainly those connected with fishing and
shipping, and there are quarries of good sandstone along
the edge of Coulard Hill. From these large numbers of
specimens of the reptiles found in the ' Elgin Sand-
stones ' have been procured. They are noticed in the
article on the county of Elgin. A lifeboat has been
stationed here since 1866. The Police and General
Improvement (Scotland) Act was adopted in 1865, and
an excellent water supply was introduced in 1877 at a
cost of £4340. The supply is taken from an excellent
spring in a deep well to the E of Lossiemouth proper,
from which it is pumped by steam to a circular iron
reservoir, containing over 6000 gallons, on the top of the
Coulard Hill, and thence distributed over the place.
There is frequent railway communication with Elgin by
the Morayshire railway, since 1881 a branch of the Great
North of Scotland railway system. The principal imports
are coal, salt, timber, pavement, and slates, and the prin-
cipal export pit-props. Pop. (1831) 580, (1861) 2285,
(1871) 2620, (1881) 3497, of whom 1831 were females,
whilst 18S8 were in Branderburgh, 1129 in Lossiemouth,
277 in Seatown, and 203 in Stotfield. Houses (1881)
655 inhabited, 16 vacant, 4 building. — Ord. Sur., sh.
95, 1876.
Loth, a coast parish of E Sutherland, with a station
of its own name on the Duke of Sutherland's railway
(1871), 5| miles SW of Helmsdale. Containing also the
fishing village of Portgower, 2 miles SW of Helmsdale,
and much curtailed by the annexation of its Helmsdale
portion to Kildonan prior to 1851, it is boimded N by
Kildonan, SE by the Jiloray Firth, and SW by Clyne.
Its utmost length, from K E to SW, is 1h miles ; its
utmost breadth, from NW to SE, is 5| miles ; and its
area is 2Si square miles or 18,042 acres, of which 430f
are foreshore and 4J water. The coast-line, closely
followed by the railway for 7f miles, is chiefly a low,
level beach of sand, indented by several baylets, and
projecting some low rocky headlands. The imjjetuous
Loth, rising on Beinn na Meilich at an altitude of 1510
feet, winds 5f miles southward to the sea near Loth
station, 2f miles above its mouth being joined by
Sletdale Burn, which rises on Meall an Liath Mor at an
altitude of 1495 feet, and, thence curving l>\ miles east-
by-southward, has a total descent of 1132 feet. Of
seven other streamlets the chief is one running 4 miles
south-south-eastward to the sea near Kintradwell. In
1818 a new channel was cut for the Loth through a solid
rock 20 feet high, whereby a largish swamp or loch —
the river's expansion — was drained, and its bed con-
verted into rich arable carse-land. The surface rises
rapidly north-westward to 1000 feet at Cregan Jlor, 970
at Cnoc na h-Iolaire, 1294 at Creag a Chrionaich, 1346
at Creag a' Mheasgain, 1311 at Culgower Hill, 1767 at
Beinn Choi, 1608 at Meallan Liath Mor, 1581 at Creag
Mhor, 2068 at Beinn Dobhrain, 2046 at Beinn na
h-Urrachd, and 1940 at Beinn na Meilich, the six last
of wliich culminate on the confines of the parish. The
rocks along the coast are oolitic, comprising limestone,
conglomerate, variously-coloured shales, and white and
red sandstone ; but the prevailing rock of the uplands is
a species of large-grained porphyry, unusually frangible,
and easily denudated by running water. At most one-
seventh of the entire area is in tillage, but what arable
land there is has a fertile soil, and the farm of Crakaig
is one of the best in the county. Pennant describes an
ancient flag-built 'hunting house' — one of three — in
Glen Loth ; and near Kintradwell there still are remains
of a Pictisli tower. The mansion of Kintradwell was
burnt by the Jacobite Earl of Cromarty in 1746. Here-
about stood a chapel dedicated to St Trullo ; and another
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