Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 5

PENTLAND HILLS
reaches Scarfskerry Head, as the land between these
points forms a considerable bay. By two o'clock the
whole firth seems to rage. About three in the afternoon
it is low-water on the shore, when all the former
phenomena are reversed — the smooth water beginning
to appear next the land and advancing gradually till it
reaches the middle of the firth.' These opposite currents
are perplexing to those unacquainted with the Firth,
but the boatmen of the adjacent coast know them well,
and invariably make use of them when sailing about.
In a calm, more particularly during a fog, the danger is
increased rather than diminished, for ships drift along
while the crew believe them to be stationary. At full
spring tides the rise of the sea is 8 feet, and on extra-
ordinary occasions 14 feet, while at neap the rise is from
3J to 6 feet, and the firth is most stormy when a spring
flood-tide is running against a gale blowing from the
opposite direction. The islands and the adjoining
coast suS"er most severely when gale and flow act to-
gether. ' The great storm of December 1862,' says Mr
C. W. Peach, ' in particular distinguished itself by the
havoc which it wrought along these shores. It swept
the sea over the north end of the island of Stroma,
which lies in the Pentland Firth, and redistributed the
ruin-heaps there. The waves ran bodily up and over
the vertical cliff's on the west side, 200 feet in height,
lodging portions of the wrecked boats, stones, seaweeds,
etc., on the top. They rushed in torrents across the
island, tearing up the ground and rocks in their course
towards the old mill at Nethertown on the opposite
side. This mill had often before been worked by water
collected from spray thrown over these cliffs, but never
had such a supply been furnished as by this gale. One
curious phenomenon was noticed at the south end of
Stroma : the sea there came in such a body between the
island and the Caithness coast, that at intervals it rose
up like a wall, as if the passage was too narrow for the
mass of water which, forced onwards from the Atlantic
between Holburn Head on the Caithness shore and the
Old Man of Hoy on the Orkney side, passed bodily over
the cliffs of Stroma.' Even in summer the effects of a
gale is often grand and almost sublime. 'Nowhere
else, ' says Dr Archibald Geikie, ' round the British
islands can the tourist look down on such a sea. It
seems to rush and roar past him like a vast river, but
with a flow some three times swifter than our most
rapid rivers. Such a broad breast of rolling, eddying,
foaming water ! Even when there is no wind the tide
ebbs and flows in this way, pouring now eastwards now
westwards, as the tidal wave rises and falls. But if he
should be lucky enough to come in for a gale of wind
(and they are not unknown there in summer, as he will
probably learn), let him by no means fail to take up his
station on Duncansbay Head or at the Point of Mey.
He wUl choose if he can a time when the tide is coming
up against the wind. The water no longer looks like
the eddying current of a mighty river. It rather
resembles the surging of rocky rapids. Its surface is
one vast sheet of foam and green yeasty waves. Every
now and then a huge billow rears itself impatiently
above the rest, tossing its sheets of spray in the face of
the wind which scatters them back into the boiling
flood. Here and there, owing to the configuration of
the bottom, this turmoil waxes so furious that a con-
stant dance of towering breakers is kept up. . . .
solid sheets of water rush up the face of the cliffs [of
Duncansbay Head] for more than 100 feet, and pour
over the top in such volume, that it is said they have
actually been intercepted on the landward side by a dam
across a little valley, and have been used to turn a mill.'
Pentland Hills, a group of hills commencing in Edin-
burghshire, 3 miles SW of Edinburgh, and extending
thence south-westward for 16 miles through the counties
of Edinburgh, Peebles, and Lanark, to near Camwath,
where they slope into Clydesdale. The average breadth
is from 4 to 6 miles. They nowhere form a continuous
chain or ridge, but are broken up by many intersecting
ravines and hollows, the principal being the valley
occupied by the Glencorse Burn near the NE end,
FEHSIE
and the Cauldstane Slap between East and 'West Cairn
Hills near the centre. Through the latter there is a
rough cross-road from the Edinburgh and Lanark road
up the valley of the Water of Leith, to the Edinburgh
and Dumfries road, by Penicuik and Biggar, at Linton;
and at many points the hills are traversed by foot-
paths, over the attempted shutting up of which, against
public use, a good deal of feeling has recently been
excited. Along the N\V the rocks belong to the Cal-
ciferous Sandstone series of the Carboniferous System,
while along the SE they belong to the Lower Old
Red Sandstone System, and have to the N a thick
series of interbedded porphyrites of the same age.
At several points there are patches of Upper Silurian
rocks, which are above North Esk reservoir and else-
where very richly fossiliferous. These must have been,
at one time, wholly covered to a depth of from 6000
to 7000 feet by carboniferous rocks, all of which have
been removed by denudation. Ice action has been
traced over 1600 feet above sea-level, and erratics that
must have come from the NW are found over 1000 feet
up. There are numerous springs and streams, those
near the N end providing the water supply of Edin-
burgh, Leith, and Portobello, the principal reservoirs
being Torduff, Clubbiedean, and Bonaly, on the N
near Bonaly Tower ; Glencorse and Loganlee reservoirs,
in the basin of Glencorse Burn or Logan Water ; and
Listonshiels and Bavelaw (Threiprauir and Harelaw)
reservoirs, in the basins of the Water of Leith and its
tributary, Bavelaw Burn. Other reservoirs are North
Esk reservoir, for regulating the supply to the mills
along that stream, and Cobinshaw and Crosswood reser-
voirs on Murieston and Linhouse Waters, and connected
with the supply of the Union Canal. Besides the
streams already mentioned, there is Lyne Water on the
SW, flowing by Linton to the Tweed near Lyne church.
The appearance of the hills varies considerably, but is
everywhere more or less rounded. In some districts
they are bleak and heathy, but in others they are
green and covered with excellent pasture. The scenery
along their skirts and in some of the glens of the inter-
secting streams is very pretty ; and near the centre of the
SE side along the North Esk at Carlops, on the borders
of the counties of Edinburgh and Peebles, are Habbie's
Howe, and the rest of the scenery rendered classic in
Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd ; while 1| mile N by W of
Penicuik, on the shoulder of Carnethy, is the scene of
the battle of Rullion Gkeen. The principal summits
from NE to SAV are AUermuir Hill (1617 feet). Castle-
law Hill (1595), Bells Hill (1330), Black Hill (1628),
Carnethy (1890), Hare Hill (1470), Scald Law (the
highest, 1898), West Kip (1806), East Cairn (1839),
West Cairn (1844), Mount Maw (1753), Craigengar
(1700), Byrehope Mount (1752), Faw Mount (1366),
King's Seat (1521), Fadden Hill (1526), Millstone Rig
(143'9), AVhite Craig (1425), Catstone Hill (1470),
Black Law (1336), Harrows Law (1360), Black Birn
(1213), Bleak Law (1460), Mid Hill (1347), and Left
Law (1210). From Catstone Hill a scattered series of
hills pass southward by Mendick Hill (1480 feet), Blyth
Hill (1007), and Broughton Heights (1872), and connect
the Pentlands with the Southern Uplands. In 1883-84
there was much correspondence and some litigation with
regard to the right of way over the Pentlands. The
Pentlands, of which Lord Cockburn wrote about 1825
that 'there is not a recess in their valleys, nor an
eminence on their summits, that is not familiar to my
solitude. One summer I read every word of Tacitus in
the sheltered crevice of a rock (called ' My Seat ') about
800 feet above the level of the sea, with the most mag-
nificent of scenes stretched out before me. ' — Ord. Sur. ,
shs. 32, 24, 1857-64.
Perceton, an estate, with a mansion, in Dreghorn
parish, Ayrshire, on the right bank of Annick Water,
2J mUes NE of Irvine. Its owner, Mrs Mure-Macredie
(sue. 1834), holds 451 acres in the shire, valued at
£1599, 15s. per annum.— 0)-d Sur., sh. 22, 1865.
Persie, a quoad sacra parish of NE Perthshire. Its
church, near the right bank of the Black Water, 9 miles
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