Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 6

SATJCHIE
a ghostly adviser, and, meeting a party of the malcon-
tents who had observed the King's flight, and were
tracking his steps, entreated that, if there were a priest
among them, he would stop and 'shrive his majesty.'
' I, ' said one of them, whose name is not certainly
known, ' I am a priest : lead me to him.' Being intro-
duced, he approached on his knees under pretence of
reverence, treacherously ascertained that the King
thought he would recover if he had the aid of a sur-
geon, and then stabbed him again and again to the
heart. 'Beaton's Mill,' a small old house, with crow-
stepped gables, but a mill no longer, is pointed out as
the scene of this tragedy. The King was buried in
Cambuskenneth Abbey. — Orel. Sur., sh. 39, 1869.
Sauchie, a village in the detached portion of Clack-
mannan parish, with a station on the Devon Valley
railway, 1J mile N by E of Alloa, under which it has
a post office. A church here, built as a chapel of ease
in 1841-42, was raised to quoad sacra status in 1877.
Pop. of q. s. parish (1881) 2935, of whom 1252 were in
Alloa parish and 1683 in Clackmannan. — Orel. Sur.,
sh. 39, 1869.
Sauchieburn. See Satjchie.
Saughs, Water of. See West Water.
Saughton, New, or Cammo, a mansion of 1693, with
finely wooded grounds, in Cramond parish, Midlothian,
5 furlongs SSW of Cramond Bridge, and 2h. miles WSW
of Davidsons Mains.
Saulseat or Soulseat, an ancient parish and an abbey
of Wigtownshire. The parish was a vicarage under
the monks of the abbey ; and, about the middle of
the 17th century it was incorporated with Inch. Its
ecclesiastical revenues are divided between the minister
of Inch and the minister of Portpatrick. The abbey
stood on a peninsula of Saulseat Loch (4 x J to 2J furl.),
in the vicinity of the present manse (1838) of Inch, 3
miles ESE of Stranraer. The building was in ruins in
1684, when Symson wrote his Description of Galloway;
and it is now commemorated only by some grassy
mounds. Its burying-ground contains some curious
gravestones, one of them bearing date 1647. The abbey
was founded, in 1148, by Fergus, Lord of Galloway, for
Premonstratensian monks. It was called in Latin
Sedes Animarum ('souls' seat') or Monasterium Viridis
Stagni ('monastery of the green loch') ; but some have
derived its name from its having had one Saul for its
first abbot, and so being Sedcs Saulis ( ' the seat of Saul').
Chalmers says, ' It was the mother of the more celebrated
and opulent priory of Whithorn, as well as of the abbey
of Holywood, both of which were planted by monks of
the same order. It appears to have been the original
establishment of the Premonstratensian monks in Scot-
land ; and the abbots of Soulseat were the superiors of
that order in this kingdom. ' Its abbacy was one of the
few in Scotland, the appointment of which remained with
the King, and could not be disposed of or controlled by the
Pope. The abbey never rose to any eminence or figured
conspicuously in history. In 1568 its abbot, along with
some of the most distinguished men of the kingdom,
subscribed a bond obliging themselves to defend Queen
Mary.— Ord. Sur., sh. 3, 1856.
Scalloway, a seaport village in Tingwall parish, Shet-
land, 6 miles WSW of Lerwick. Its cottages are of a
better description than most in the northern islands ;
and, arranged round a fine semicircular sweep of bay,
they combine with the sea-scene in front, and the old
castellated mansion of Scalloway towering above them
in the rear, to form a picturesque landscape. The har-
bour is naturally good, and is supposed to have given
to the locality the name of Scalloway, or ' the huts on
the bay' — Skali signifying 'a booth or shieling,' and
vagr, transmuted into way, 'a voe or roadstead.' The
village was anciently a burgh, and the capital of Shet-
land. A century ago most of the great Shetland land-
owners had residences here. The great bulk of the
present population are fishermen and their families.
A large quay, warehouses, and a cooperage were erected,
a good many years ago, for the accommodation of the
fisheries ; and Scalloway has a post office under Lerwick,
324
SCAPA FLOW
with money order, savings' bank, and telegraph depart-
ments, a branch of the Union Bank, a Congregational
chapel, a Baptist chapel, and a public school. Pop.
(1861) 448, (1871) 525, (1881) 648.
Scalloway Castle, situated above the village, was
built in 1600 by Patrick Stewart, the tyrannical
Earl of Orkney. A previous mansion of the Earl, at
Sumburgh, having given way in consequence of the
sandiness of its foundation, the despot compelled the
inhabitants, on pain of forfeiting their property, to find
as many men as were required for speedily building a
new castle, and to supply them gratuitously with pro-
visions ; and he superintended and matured the execu-
tion of his ignoble plan by means of a military force.
The castle, though now a mere shell, exhibits plentiful
and distinct indications of its original condition. It is
a structure of three stories, surmounted at each angle by
a small round turret. The windows are very large ; but
the principal door is quite disproportionate and even
puny. On the ground floor are an excellent kitchen
and vaulted cellars, with a broad flight of ascending
steps ; and above are a spacious hall and suites of ordinary
sized chambers.
Scalpa or Scalpay, an island in the Harris district
of the Hebrides. It lies at the entrance of East Loch
Tarbert, $ mile from the northern, and 3 miles from
the southern, headland. It measures 2g miles in
extreme length, and 1J mile in extreme breadth ; but is
much indented, and cut into small peninsulas, by the
sea. It is low and heath-clad, and consists of irregular
protuberances of gneiss. A bed of serpentine, generally
placed at a high angle, and often having a vertical
position, traverses a promontory in the extreme E.
Near the western extremity are two of the best natural
harbours in the Hebrides. Pop. (1841) 31, (1861) 388,
(1871) 421, (1881) 540.
Scalpay, an island of Strath parish, Skye, Inverness-
shire, separated from the E coast of Skye by Scalpay
Sound or Loch na Cairidh, which, at two points, is less
than J mile broad. It lies off the mouth of Loch Ainort,
and is 7 furlongs SSE of Kaasay, 9J- miles SSW of Apple-
cross, and 7J W by N of Kyleakin. It is of an irregu-
larly oval shape of 4J by 3 miles ; and has the longer
axis from NW to SE. Most of its area is occupied by a
grassy mountain (994 feet) of uneven summit and
rounded outline, displaying much bare rock, yet nowhere
marked by asperities or wearing a barren aspect. The
descent, in most places, but especially along the side
towards Skye, comes down in smooth and gentle de-
clivities to the sea ; but, towards the NE, it terminates
in bold though not very high cliffs. The Sound of
Scalpay is a noted rendezvous of the herring fleet ; and
it abounds in oysters, some of which, both fish and shell,
are black, while others are of a dingy blue colour. These
oysters are supposed to be only a variety of the common
species, and to derive their unwonted hue from the dark
mud in which they breed. On the island are vestiges of
an ancient chapel dedicated to St Francis. Pop. (1841)
90, (1861) 70, (1871) 48, (1881) 37.
Scalpay Sound. See Scalpay.
Scalpsie Bay, a bay (9^ x 5 furl.) on the SW coast of
the island of Bute. It penetrates the boundary between
the parish of Kingarth and the parish of Rothesay ; and
is screened on the N side by a small promontory, called
Ardscalpsie Point (90 feet), 1$ mile ESE of the S end of
Inchmarnock.
Scamadale, Loch. See Kilninver.
Scapa Flow, a large expanse of sea interspersed with
land in the southern parts of Orkney. Irrespective of
lateral recesses and outlets, it measures about 15 miles
in extreme length from N to S, 8 miles in mean
breadth, and 45 or 47 miles in circumference. In a
general view it may be regarded as having Pomona on
the N, Burray and South Konaldshay on the E, the
Pentland Firth on the S, the island of Hoy on the W,
and the small islands of Cava, Risa, Pharay, Calf, Flotta,
Switha, and Hunda in its bosom. In the extreme NW
it opens by Hoy Sound, 7 miles in length and 2 in mean
breadth, to the Atlantic Ocean ; in the NE, it opens by