Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 5

OEANSAY
loua. Transitional Early English in style, its roofless
cliurch measures 77g feet in length and 18 in width, has
a fine three-light Gothic E window, and adjoins a very
peculiar cloister, forming a square of 40 feet without and
28§ within. In Pennant's time (1772) one of the sides
of the cloister had five small round arches ; whilst two
other sides, confronting each other, showed seven low
triangular-headed arches, with plain square columns.
A side chapel contains a sculptured tomb of an abbot
of 1539, and a stone with figures of dogs, a stag, and a
ship under sail ; and in the churchyard is a finely sculp-
tured cross of 1510, resting on a graduated pedestal, and
bearing on its head a sculpture of the crucifi.xion. Other
antiquities, such as cairns and tumuli, are numerous.
Pop. (1871) 48, (1881) 10. See an article by W. Steven-
son in Procs. Soc. Ants. Scotl. (1881).
Oransay, a rocky island of Morvern parish, Argyll-
shire, in Loch Sunart, 2^- miles E of that loch's deflection
from the NW end of the Sound of JIuU. It groups with
Carna islet, and is washed by impetuous tides from tlie
W, rushing towards the land-looked upper reaches of the
loch.
Oransay, Skye, Inverness-shire. See Isle-Ornsay.
Orchardton, a mansion, with beautiful grounds, in
Eerwick parish, Kirkcudbrightshire, near the head of
Orchardton Bay, 6J miles SSE of Castle-Douglas. Its
owner, "William Douglas Robinson-Douglas, Esq. (b.
1851 ; sue. 1878), holds 3495 acres in the shire, valued
at £2021 per annum. Orchardton Tower, 1;].- mile NNE,
is the only round tower in Galloway. It was a seat of a
branch of the Maxwells ; and the strange story of its
' Wandering Heir ' is told in Miss Goldie's Family Be-
ioZZccitons (Ediub. lUl).—Ord. Sur., sh. 5, 1857.
Orchil, an estate, with a mansion, in Ardoch parish,
Perthshire, 3J miles NW of Blackford station. See
MUTHILL.
Orchy, a stream of Glenorchy parish, Argyllshire,
rising, close to the Perthshire boundary, at an altitude
of 2700 feet, and 5S miles SSE of Loch Lydoch. Thence
it winds lOf miles north-north-westward and west-south-
westward under the name of the Water of Tulla, until
it expands into Loch Tulla (2J miles x 5 furl. ; 555 feet),
and receives there an important tributary from the
mountains flanking the E side of the upper part of Loch
Etive. It next runs 16J miles south-westward to Loch
Awe (lis feet) at EiLOHUiiN Castle — rapidly and turbu-
lently along the valley of Glenorchy proper, but tran-
quilly and sluggishly aloug the vale of Dalmally. Its
waters contain abundance of salmon, trout, perch, and
pike, the last running up to 34 lbs. — Ord. Sur., shs.
54, 46, 45, 1872-76.
Ord, a quoad sacra parish of N Banff'shire, whose
church, 3 miles SSE of Tillynaught station, was built
as a chapel of ease in 1836. The parish, constituted in
1869, is in the presbytery of Fordyce and the synod of
Aberdeen ; its minister's stipend is £120. Pop. (1871)
884, (1881) 851, of whom 169 were in Alvah, 390 in
Banfl", 203 in Boyndie, and 89 in Marnoch. — Ord. Sur.,
sh. 96, 1876.
Ord or Muir of Ord, the southern part of the MuU-
bnie, Eoss-shire, near the boundary with Inverness-
shire. It is traversed by the public road from Inverness
to Tain, and by the Highland railway, witli the station
of Muir of Ord, 3 miles N of Beauly ; is the scene
of great cattle, sheep, and horse markets, usually
denominated the markets of Beauly ; has a tabular
or flat surface, and a sandy soil ; contains two ancient
standing-stones, said to commemorate a great clan fight ;
and adjoins a. tract on the E containing a very large
number of ancient Caledonian cairns and stone circles.
Ord House, IJ mile W of the station, is the seat of
Thomas Mackenzie, Esq. (b. 1797 ; sue. 1821), who
holds 21,229 acres in the shire, valued at £2460 per
a-amnD..—Ord. Sur., sh. 83, 1881.
Ord or Ord-of-Caithness, an abrupt, broad, lofty,
granite mountain overhanging the sea, on the mutual
border of Sutherland and Caithness, 4 miles by road
NE of Helmsdale. The old road over it, formerly the
only land ingress to Caithness, traversed the crest of
ORDIQUHILL
its stupendous seaward precipices at a height and in
a manner most appalling to both man and beast ; and
even the present road, formed in 1811, rises to an eleva-
tion of 726 feet above sea-level, and has very stiff
gradients. 'The Ord-of-Caithness,' says Miss Sinclair,
' was formerly pre-eminent for being the most danger-
ous bit of road in Scotland. . . . During the last
century, whenever the late Earl of Caithness, my grand-
mother Lady Janet Sinclair, or any of the chief landed
proprietors, entered that county, a troop of their
tenants assembled on the border of Sutherland, and
drew the carriage themselves over the hill, a distance of
two miles, that nothing might be trusted in such a
scene to the discretion of quadrupeds. . . . The
mail-coach now rattles down the whole descent of the
Ord, scarcely deigning even to use a drag ! ' According
to an old-world superstition, no Sinclair may, without
fearful foreboding of evil, cross the Ord on a Monday ;
forty Sinclairs, led by the Earl of Caithness, having on
that day ventured over the barrier on their way to the
field of Flodden, where — with the excejition of the
drummer, who was dismissed before the battle began— all
were cut down by the sword. — Ord. Sur., sh. 109, 1878.
Ordbain Hill. See Loch-an-Eilein.
Ordhead, a place in Monymusk parish, Aberdeenshire,
3J miles NNW of Monymusk station. It has a post
office under Aberdeen, with money order and savings'
bank departments.
Ord Hill. See Knockbain.
Ordie Burn, a Perthshire rivulet, rising in the extreme
NW of Auchtergaven parish, and running SJ miles east-
south-eastward, chiefly within Auchtergaven parish,
partly on the boundary between that parish and
Moneydie and Eedgorton. It receives, towards the end
of its course, the large tribute of Shochie Burn; tra-
verses, for I mile after the influx of that tributary, an
artificial bed made for it by the Luncarty Bleaehfield
Company ; gives to the part of its basin witliin Auchter-
gaven the name of Strathord; is an excellent fronting
stream ; and passes through a steep bank into the Tay
a little above Luncarty. See Auchtergaven. — Ord.
Sur., shs. 47, 48, 1869-68.
Ordie, Loch, a lake in Dunkeld and Dowally parish,
PcBthshire, 6 miles N of Dunkeld. Lying 980 feet
above sea-level, it has an utmost length and breadth of
5 and 3 J furlongs, sends ofl' Dowally Burn to tlie Tay,
and contains abundance of fine large trout. On 12 Oct.
1865 the Queen, with the Princess Helena and the
Duchess of Athole, 'took a short row on Loch Ordie,
which looked extremely pretty, wooded to the water's
ed£;e and skirted by distant hills.' — Ord. Sur., sh. 56,
1870.
Ordiquhill, a parish of Banfl'shire, to the N" containing
CoRNHiLL village, i mile SSE of Cornhill station in For-
dyce parish, this being 8| miles SW by W of Banff", under
which it has a post and railway telegraph office. It is
bounded NW by Fordyce, NE by Boyndie, SE and S by
Marnoch, and SW by Grange. Its utmost length, from
WE to SW, is 4J mUes ; its utmost breadth is 2| miles ;
and its area is 4758 acres, of which 3J are water. The
drainage is carried north-north-eastward by head-streams
of the Burn of Boyne ; and in the extreme N the surface
declines to 240 feet above sea-level, thence rising to 410
feet near Rothen, 711 at Corn Hill, 865 at Culvie Hill,
890 at Wether Hill on the southern border, and 1409 at
Knock Hill on the meeting-point with Grange and
Fordyce, the summit of which last. Knock Hill, is
covered by a stratified bed of moss 15 to 20 feet deep.
The predominant rocks are mica slate and gneiss, with
some granite ; but they mostlj' lie under thick deposits
of coarse, gritty, ferruginous clay. Trap boulders are
everywhere plentiful ; serpentine rock, prolonged from
the famous beds and pits near Portsoy, occurs along the
eastern base of Knock Hill ; and specimens of garnet,
tourmaline, asbestos, and rock-cork are found. The
soil is in most parts deep, but lies on a cold retentive
bottom. Till 1842 nearly half the entire area continued
to be pastoral or waste ; but the gi-eater part of it has
since been brought under the plough ; and some 350
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