Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 5

LUNAN WATER
frequently shallow on the higher grounds. Three-
fourths of the entire area are in tillage ; less than 20
acres are under wood ; and the rest is either pastoral or
waste. The chief antiquities are vestiges or sites of
structures connected with Red Castle. Walter Mill
(1476-1558), burned at St Andrews, the last of Scotland's
Eeformation martyrs, was priest of Lunan for forty
years ; and Alexander Peddle, its Episcopalian minister,
was suffered, after the re-establishment of Presby-
terianism, to retain his charge till his death in 1713.
Lunan House is the seat of William Thomas Taylor
Blair-Imrie, Esq. (b. 1833 ; sue. 1849), who holds 297
acres in the shire, valued at £747 per annum. The
Earl of Northesk is chief proprietor, and Arbikie
belongs to a third. Lunan is in the presbytery of
Arbroath and the synod of Angus and Jlearns ; the
living is worth £223. The church, rebuilt in 1844,
contains 130 sittings ; and a public school, with accom-
modation for 83 children, had (1882) an average attend-
ance of 80, and a grant of £75, lis. Valuation (1857)
£2513, (1884) £3034, Ss., plus £1202 for railway. Pop.
(1801) 318, (1831) 298, (1861) 259, (1871) 248, (1881)
2iS.— Orel. Sur., sh. 57, 1868.
Lunan Water, issuing from Eescobie Loch (196
feet above sea-level), and, { mile lower down, traversing
Balgavies Loch (4xlJ furl.), flows 125 miles eastward
through or along the boundaries of Piescobie, Kirkden,
Guthrie, Kinnell, Inverkeilor, and Lunan parishes, till
it falls into Lunan Bay. Its chief tributary is the Vinny ;
and its waters are limpid, and contain good sea-trout
and excellent trout, with a few salmon.
Lunan Bay, lying open to the E, extends from Boddin
Point in Craig parish to the Lang Craig in Inverkeilor;
measures 3 miles across the entrance, and 1| mile from
the entrance line to the head ; has an approximately
semicircular outline ; is flanked for about 1 mile at each
end by bold rocky heights, rising to altitudes of more
than 100 feet above sea-level, and partly consisting of
columnar or pyramidal cliffs ; has, around its head, a
low sandy beach, slightly strewn with small boulders,
and regularly flanked with bent-covered knolls ; and,
during westerly or south-westerly winds, affords safe
anchorage. Its bottom is fine sand, and its strand
furnishes beautiful varieties of sea-shell, and occasionally
some jasper and onyx gems.
Lunan Bum, a rivulet of Stormont district, Perthshire,
rising at an altitude of 1400 feet, and winding 14 J miles
east-south-eastward, through or along the borders of
Dowally, Caputh, Clunie, Kinloch, Lethendy, and Blair-
gowrie parishes, till, after a total descent of 1270 feet,
it falls into the Isla at a point 2 miles W by S of Coupar-
Angus. During the middle 7 miles of its course it tra-
verses a chain of five lakes — Craiglush Loch (4x2 furl. ;
380 feet), the Loch of the Lows (8x4 furl.), Butterstone
Loch (41 X 3 J furl.), the Loch of Clunie (5x5 furl.), and
Drumellie Loch (8 x 3J furl. ; 190 feet) — all five of which
are noticed separately. A deep, sluggish, ditch-like
sti'eam, it contains some capital trout of 2 or 3 lbs.
weight— Ord. Sur., shs. 56, 48, 1870-68.
Lunasting, an ancient parish of Shetland, now united
to Nesting, and lying 25 miles N of Lerwick. Its church
still stands, and ranks as a chapel of ease. Pop. of
Lunasting registration district (1861) 880, (1871) 822,
(1881) 783.
Lunoarty, a suppressed parish and a village in the
Strathmore district of Perthshire. The parish was
anciently a rectory, and is now incorporated with Eed-
gorton, forming the NE division of its main body. The
village, near the right bank of the Tay, has a station on
the Caledonian railway, 4 miles NNW of Perth. Lun-
carty bleachfield has long been reputed one of the largest
in Britain. Its grounds cover upwards of 130 acres.
The water-power by which the works are driven includes
the whole volume of Ordie and Shochie Burns, carried
along an artificial canal, and also a considerable volume
led out from the Tay by means of a dam run nearly
across the river.
According to Hector Boece, but to no earlier historian,
Luncarty in 990 was the scene of a decisive overthrow
LUNDIE
of the Danes by Kenneth III., aided by the peasant-
ancestor of the noble family of Hay. The Danes, strong
in numbers and fiery in resolve, had landed on the coast
of Angus, razed the town and castle of Montrose, and
moved across Angus and along Strathmore, strewing
their path with desolation, and menacing Scotland with
bondage. Kenneth the King heard at Stirling of their
descent, and hastened to take post on Moncrietf Hill, in
the peninsula of the Earn and the Tay ; but while there
organising the raw troops, whom he had swept together,
and waiting the arrival of forces suited to his exigency,
he learned that Perth was already besieged. Arraying
what soldiery he had, and making a detour so as to get
to northward of the enemy, he marched to Luncarty,
saw the Danes posted on an eminence to the S, and
next day taunted and provoked them to a trial of
strength on the intervening level ground. The rush of
the Danes was dreadful ; but three puissant ploughmen,
father and sons, of the name of Hay, or Haya, who
were at work in a field on the opposite side of the river,
were bold enough to attempt to infuse their own courage
into the faltering troops. Seizing the yoke of the plough
and whatever similar tools were at hand, they forded
the Tay, and arriving just at a crisis when the wings
had given way and the centre was wavering, they
shouted shame and death against the recreant who
should flee, and threw themselves with such fury on the
foremost of the Danes as to gain the Scots a moment for
rallying at a spot still known as Turn-again Hillock.
Hay, the father, as if he had been superhuman, had no
difficulty in drawing some clans to follow in his wake ;
and plunging with these down a deep ravine, while the
battle was renewed on ground at a little distance from
the original scene of action, he rushed upon the Danes
in flank and real', and threw them into confusion. A
band of peasants, who were lurking near or drawn
together from curiositj', now raised a loud shout of
triumph, and were taken by the Danes for a new army.
The invaders instantly ceased to fight ; they became a
mingled mass of routed men ; and, not excepting their
leaders and king himself, they either were hewn down
by the sword or perished in the river. An assembly of
the states, held next day at Scone, decreed to give the
peasant-conqueror the choice of the hound's course or
the falcon's flight of land, in reward of his bravery.
Hay having chosen the latter, the falcon was let off
from a hill overlooking Perth, and flew eastward to a
point a mile south of the house of Errol, alighting there
on a stone which is still called the ' Hawk's Stane.' All
the intervening lands were given in property to Hay's
family ; but they have since been either alienated, or
parcelled out among various lines of descendants. — Ord.
Sur., sh. 48, 1S68.
Lunderston Bay. See Innerkip.
Lundie, a village and a parish of SW Forfarshire.
The village stands 3 miles WSW of Auchterhouse
station, 6 ESE of Coupar-Angus, and 9 NW by W of
Dundee, under which it has a post office.
The parish is bounded N by Newtyle, E by Auchter-
house, S by Fowlis-Easter in Perthshire, and W by
Kettins. Its utmost length, from W by N to E by S,
is 4 miles ; its utmost breadth is 3 miles ; and its area is
4296J acres, of which 107| are water. Of seven lakes,
which send off head-streams of Dichty Watek, much
the largest is Long Loch (5| x 2 furl. ; 722 feet) in the
N, Lundie Loch having been reduced by drainage about
the year 1810 to less than a twelfth of its former size.
A range of the Sidlaw Hills extends along part of the
N and all the W of the parish, whose surface, nowhere
sinking much below 500 feet above sea-level, attains
1063 feet near Smithston and 1088 at Keillor Hill on
the Kettins boundary. The range divides the head of
Strathdighty from the neighbouring part of Strathmore,
and gives to all the interior of the parish a sheltered and
sequestered aspect. The predominant rocks are trap and
common grey sandstone ; and the soil is for the most
part light, sharp loam. Since 1850 great improvements
have been effected in the way of reclaiming, draining,
fencing, and building. The Duncans of Lundie, now
565