Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 5

BIACHERMOBE CASTLE
150 square miles. Its surface, as implied in its name,
is prevailingly low and flat, yet has considerable diversi-
ties, and will be noticed in our article on Wigtown-
SHIKE.
Machennore Castle, an old square tower in Minnigaff
parish, W Kirkcudbrightshire, near the left bank of the
Cree, 14 mile SE of Ne'wton-Stewart. Its owner, Robert
Lennox Nugent-Dunbar, Esq. (b. 1864 ; sue. 1866),
holds 1013 acres in the shire, valued at £1353 per an-
num.— Ord. Sur., sh. 4, 1857.
Machline. See Matjchline.
Machrihanish Bay, a bay on the W coast of Kintyre,
Argyllshire. It is flanked on the N by Glenacardoch
Point, 5 miles SSE of Cara island, on the S by Earadale
Point, 6f miles N of the Mull of Kintyre ; and the dis-
tance between these points is 13§ miles. It nowhere,
however, penetrates the land to an extent of more than
2J miles from the entrance line, and that at the mouth
of Machrihanish Water, 4| miles AV of Campbeltown ;
so that it lies all open to the W, and has an unindented
and unsheltered coast. ' The long crescent of Machri-
hanish,' to quote from the Idfe of Norman Macleod
(1876), ' girdled by sands wind-tossed into fantastic
hillocks, receives the full weight of the Atlantic. Woe
to the luckless vessel caught within those relentless
jaws,' etc.— Or(«. Sur., shs. 20, 12, 1876-72.
Maohry. See Mauchky.
Mackinnon's Cave, a cavern on the W coast of Mull
island, Argyllshire, in Gribon promontory, 8 miles NE
of lona. Opening from the shore, and obstructed by
fragments of rock, it penetrates to an unknown extent —
the common people say quite across the island. It got
its name, or is said to have got it, from the disappear-
ance within its depths of a gentleman called Mackinnon,
who went in to explore it, and never was heard of more.
Its accessible parts, which were long a retreat of the
clansmen, at once for safety and for strategy, are for
some way inward invaded by the tide and encumbered
with stones ; but it opens afterwards into an arched
chamber 45 feet wide and 30 high, where is a square
stone called Fingal's Table, on which the clansmen
frequenting it are said to have taken their meals. On
19 Oct. 1773 it was explored, to the extent of about 480
feet, by Dr Johnson and Boswell, the former of whom
pronoxmced it ' the greatest natural curiosity he had
ever seen. ' Once it competed with Staffa for attracting
tourists ; but, except for its vastness and its associations,
it possesses little real interest.
Mackinon's Cave. See Staita.
Mackiston. See Maxton.
Maclellan's Castle. See Kirkcudbright.
Macleod's Castle, an ancient fortress in Stornoway
parish, Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Eoss-shire, at the entrance
of Stornoway Bay. Built by the ancient proprietors of
Lewis to protect the bay, and dismantled by the troops
of Oliver Cromwell, it is now represented by only a
fragment of wall 12 feet high and 4 thick.
Macleod's Maidens, three insulated basaltic pillars of
Duirinish parish. Isle of Skye, Inverness-shire, a few
hundred yards W of Idrigill Point. Rising vertically
from the sea, one of them to a height of 200, and the
other two to a height of 100, feet, they are called, by the
country people, 'the mother and her two daughters,'
and by Sir Walter Scott were compared to the Nor-
wegian riders of the storm. Indeed, from a distance
they are not unlike gigantic women clad in cloaks and
hoods ; and they have been described as ' three spires of
rock rising sheer out of the sea, shaped like women,
around whose feet the foaming wreaths are continually
forming, floating, and disappearing. '^ A fourth pillar
once stood adjacent to them, but was overwhelmed by
the storms and waves. See Dunvegan.
Macleod's Tables. See Duirinish.
Macmerry, a village, with a post office and iron-worts
(now stopped), in Gladsmuir parish, Haddingtonshire,
at the terminus of a branch line of the North British,
2 miles E by S of Tranent. Pop. (1871) 330, (1881)
352.— Ord Sur., sh. 33, 1863.
Madderty, a parish in Stratheam district, Perthshire,
MAGUS MUIR
with a station on the Perth, Methveu, and Crieff sec-
tion of the Caledonian railway, llj miles W by S of
Perth and 6i E by N of Crieff', under which it has
a post and telegi'aph office. Containing also Aber-
CAIRNEY station, St David's village, and the hamlet
of Bellycloan, it is bounded N by^Fowlis-Wester, NE
by Methven, SE by Cask, S by Trinity Gask, SW by
Monzie (detached), and NW by Crieff. Its utmost
length, from ENE to WSW, is 5 J miles ; its utmost
breadth is 2f miles ; and its area is 4863|: acres, of
which 2J are water. The surface is all a portion of the
low flat lands of the vaUey of the Earn, sinking Uttle
below 200 and little exceeding 300 feet above sea-level.
All the northern and north-western boundary is traced
by sluggish Pow Water, which traverses an artificial
cut 6 feet deep and 4 feet wide, and which formerly
flooded the adjacent lands, but is now restrained by
embankments ; and all the south-eastern boundary is
traced by Cowgask Burn, another tributary of the river
Earn. The prevailing rock is Old Red sandstone ; and
the soil is partly alluvial, partly loamy. About one-
eighth of the entire area is under plantation, and
nearly all the remainder is in tillage. James Burgh
(1714-75), a voluminous but forgotten writer, was a
native. Inchaffr.4.y Abbey is noticed separately, as
likewise are the mansions of Woodend and Dollerie.
The landed property is divided among 8. Madderty is
in the presbytery of Auchterarder and the synod of
Perth and Stirling ; the living is worth £317. The
parish church, 5 furlongs SW of Madderty station, is
modern and amply commodious. There is also a Free
church ; and a public school, with accommodation for 70
children, had (1883) an average attendance of 58, and a
grantof £57, 10s. Valuation (1860) £5754, (1884)£6421,
17s. lid. Pop. (1801) 560, (1831) 713, (1861) 536, (1871)
523, (1881) 527.— Ord. Sur., sh. 47, 1869.
Maddiston, a village in Muiravonside parish, Stirling-
shire, IJ mile SE of Folmont Junction. It has a post
office under Linlithgow.
Maddy. See Lochmaddy and Dollar.
Maeshowe or Maiden's Mound, a tumulus in Stenness
parish, Orkney, near the head of the Loch of Harray, 9
miles WNW of Kirkwall and 5f NE of Stromness.
Conical in shape, it rises to the height of 36 feet above
the level of the circumjacent plain, and is engirt at a
distance of 80 feet from its base by a moat of consider-
able breadth. On the W side it is entered by a narrow
passage, 62 feet long and from 2J to 4^ feet high, the
whole being mostly constructed of huge blocks of stone.
It was first opened in 1861, and was then found to con-
tain a central chamber, 15 feet square, converging to a
vaulted roof originally 20 feet high. Three little cham-
bers branch off from the one in the middle ; and on the
stones are a series of Runic inscriptions, supposed to
date from the middle of the 12th century, and thus
affording no clue to the origin of the tumulus itself.
See James Fergusson's Mude Stone Monuments (1872) ;
and vol. 1, pp. 101-104, of Dr Hill Burton's ffisfory o/
Scotland (ed. 1876).
MagbieMll. See Maobib Hill.
Magus Muir, a tract, reclaimed and cultivated now,
but formerly bleak and wild, in St Andrews parish, Fife,
3J miles WSW of the city. A spot on it, marked now
by the Bishop's Wood, was the scene, on the night of 3
May, of the murder of Archbishop Sharp (1618-79) by
twelve Fife Cameronians. He was travelling from Edin-
burgh with his daughter, and, after a halt at Ceres to
smoke a pipe with the parson, was driving on again,
when a horseman, spurring towards them, fired right
into the carriage. Others rode up, and shot after shot
was fired, but never one took effect, and ' Judas, come
forth ! ' was their cry. So they dragged the old man
out of the lumbering coach, and hacked him to death
on the heath. ' Upon the opening of his tobacco-box,
a living humming-bee flew out. 'This either Hackston
of Rathillet or Balfour of Burley called his "familiar ;"
and, some in the company not understanding the term,
they explained it to be " a devil." ' Guillan, a weaver
lad, one of the murderers, was, four years later, hung in
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