Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 5

FEITSEIEL
either record or any distinct tradition. There are like-
Tvise in the parish two motes, and four very large cairns.
For ii miles at the upper end, the parish has no road ;
for 5 J more it has only one along the Scar, but elsewhere
it is tolerably well provided. Its southern margin is
traversed by the road from Thomhill to Moniaive ; and
all its south-eastern district has near access to the Thorn-
hill and Carronbridge stations of the Glasgow and South-
Western railway. The Duke of Buccleuch owns six-
sevenths of all the parish, 3 other proprietors hold-
ing each an annual value of between £100 and £500,
2 of from £50 to £100, and 12 of from £20 to £50. Pen-
pont is the seat of a presbytery in the synod of Dum-
fries ; the living is worth £461. The parish church,
built in 1867 at a cost of £3000 from plans by the late
Charles Howitt, architect to His Grace, is a handsome
Gothic edifice, said to be one of the finest parish churches
in Scotland, with 500 sittings, an organ, and a spire 120
feet high. The East Free church dates from Disrup-
tion times ; the West (1791 ; 500 sittings) till 1876 was
Reformed Presbyterian ; and the present Reformed Pres-
byterian church was built in 1875, and contains 300
sittings. At Btjrnhead is a U.P. church (1800; 700
sittings) ; and two public schools, Penpont and Wood-
side, with respective accommodation for 210 and 41 chil-
dren, had (1883) an average attendance of 121 and 37,
and grants of £120, 8s. 6d. and £40, 13s. Valuation
(1860) £7123, (1884) £8738. Pop. (1801) 966, (1831)
1232, (1861) 1326, (1871) 132-3, (1881) 1176.— Orci. Sur.,
shs. 9, 15, 1863-64.
The presbytery of Penpont, meeting at Thornhill,
comprises the quoad civilia parishes of Closeburn, Duris-
deer, Glencairn, Eeir, Kirkconnel, Morton, Penpont,
Sanquhar, and Tynron, and the quoad sacra parish of
Wanlockhead. Pop. (1871) 13,171, (1881) 12,932, of
whom 1379 were communicants of the Church of Scot-
land in 1878. — The Free Church also has a presbytery
of Penpont, with churches of Closeburn, Glencairn,
Penpont, Sanquhar, and Wanlockhead, which six
churches together had 1636 members in 1883.
Penshiel. See Whittingham.
Penston, a collier village in Gladsmuir parish, Had-
dingtonshire, 3 miles S of Longniddry station, and 2J
E by S of Tranent. The barony of Penston, lying
around the village, belonged towards the close of the
13th century to William de Baliol, nephew of John
Baliol of Barnard Castle, the fatlier of King John Baliol ;
and passed to his descendants, the Baillies of Laming-
TON. It had, near the village, a strong old mansion,
now represented by only the garden ; has been famous,
since the 14th century, for excellent coal ; yielded coal,
in the time of Oliver Cromwell, under a yearly rental of
£400 ; and, in 1834, when its old mines seemed to be
near exhaustion, had a new pit sunk in another quarter.
—Ord. Sur., sh. 33, 1863.
PentlaJid, an ancient but suppressed parish near the
centre of the county of Edinburgh, and containing the
hamlets of Pentland and New Pentland, which stand
on or near the road from Edinburgh to Peebles by
Liberton, and 4J miles S of Edinburgh. The name
has, probably, notwithstanding the author of Caledonia
to the contrary, been taken from the adjoining hills,
the old name of which, as well as of the Firth, seems to
nave been Petland or Pictland. This title they are
now supposed to have acquired from having formed the
debatable ground or boundaries to the S and the N
of the Pictish territories. The parish church, which
stood at the village of Pentland, seems to have been
granted to the monks of Holyrood at the founding of
that abbey, and was confirmed to them in 1240, but
before the death of Alexander III. it was an indepen-
dent rectory, which in the 14th and two following
centuries was under the patronage of the earls of
Orkney and barons of Roslin. The parish was sup-
pressed after the Reformation, and the northern part
annexed to Lasswade, while the southern, comprehend-
ing the barony of Falford, was united to the parish of
St Catherine, now Glencorse.
Pentland Firth, a strait along the E portion of the N
178
PENTLAND FIRTH
coast of Caithness, separating the Orkney islands from
the mainland of Scotland. Its length, from a line
drawn on the E from Duncansbay Head to Old Head at
the SE point of South Ronaldsay, to a line drawn on
the W from Dunnet Head to The Barry in Hoy, is 14
miles. The width from Duncansbay Head to Brough
Ness in South Ronaldsay is 6J miles, and the width
from Dunnet Head to Tor Ness in Hoy is 7| miles. In
the centre the width is greater, as a triangular projection,
measuring 10 miles along the base from E to W and 4
deep, is sent off to the N between the islands of South
Ronaldsay and Flotta and Walls, and passes by the
Sound of Hoxa into Scapa Flow. Three and a half
miles WNW of Duncansbay Head is the island of
Stroma, included in the county of Caithness, and
separated from the mainland by the Inner Sound (IJ
mile). Six and a half miles N bj' W of Duncansbay
Head is the island of Swona, included among the
Orkneys and belonging to the parish of South Ronald-
say, aud 4 j miles NE of Duncansbay Head ; and at the
eastern entrance to the Firth are the Pentland Sker-
EIES, consisting of Muckle Skerry, with Little Skerry
5 mile S by E, Louther Skerry f mile SE, and Clettack
Skerry 1 mile E by S. The two last are tidal, and as
the whole group lies right in the middle of this much
frequented passage, and at a point where approach to
either shore is dangerous from the strength of the cur-
rent, it early became necessary to mark them by night,
for which purpose a lighthouse was erected on the Muclde
Skerry in 1794. The rocks are at present marked by
two fixed lights placed in towers, one of which is 170
feet, and the other 140 feet, high. These are 100 feet
apart from SSW to NNE, and are visible at a distance of
18 aud 19 nautical miles. The only inhabitants of the
Skerries are the lighthouse keepers and their families,
who numbered 19 in 1861, 14 in 1871, and 17 in 1881.
Though the Pentland Firth is the most dangerous
passage in the British seas, it must be traversed by all
vessels passing from the E of Scotland to the Atlantic,
or from the W to the North Sea, except those small
enough to be accommodated by the Caledonian Canal,
and hence over 5000 vessels pass through every year in
spite of the danger and difficulty of the navigation.
This danger and difficulty arises from the exti'eme
rapidity with which the tidal current here runs — from
6 to 12 miles an hour — and from the eddies by which it
is in many cases accompanied. The chief of these latter,
which are caused either by turns of the tide-race or by
sunk reefs forming obstructions along the bottom, are
the line of breakers off Duncansbay Head known as the
' Boars' or ' Bores of Duncansbay ; ' the line of breakers
off St John's Point midway between Duncansbay Head
and Dunnet Head, known as the ' Merry Men of Mey ; '
the whirlpool at the N corner of Stroma, known as the
' Swelkie ' (see Orkney) ; and the whirlpool near Swona
called the ' Wells of Swona. ' The current during flood
flows from W to E, and during ebb from I to W, and
ships have to wait at either end till the set of the stream
is in the direction in which they wish to pass, as it is
utterly useless to attempt to push on against the flow.
The stream along the coasts flows in a direction opposite
to that of the central or main current. ' The flood
tide,' says the writer of the account of the parish of
Dunnet in the New Statistical Account, ' runs from west
to east at the rate of ten miles an hour, with new and
full moon. It is then high-water at Scarfskerry [mid-
way between Dunnet Head and St John's Point] at nine
o'clock. Immediately as the water begins to fall on the
shore, the current turns to the west ; but the strength
of the flood is so great in the middle of the firth that if
continues to run east till about twelve. With a gentle
breeze of westerly wind, about eight o'clock in the
morning, the whole firth seems as smooth as a sheet of
glass, from Dunnet Head to Hoy Head in Orkney.
About nine the sea begins to rage for about 100 yards
off the Head, while all without continues smooth as
before. This appearance gradually advances towards
the firth and along the shore towards the east, though
the effects are not much felt upon the shore till it