Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 6

SUTHERLAND
ning of the present century, the county was without
formed roads, hut in 1811, under the Highland Road Act
of 1803, the Parliamentary Commissioners completed
the formation of a road along the E coast and through
the centre, the former leading over the Ord into Caith-
ness, and the latter to Tongue. There are now also
good main lines of road from N to S by Strath Halla-
dale and Strath Ullie, by Strath Naver and Bagaisteach
to Lairg, by Strath More and Bagaisteach from Eriboll
to Lairg ; and from Lairg to the W coast by the hollow
of Loch Shin, Loch Merkland, Loch More, and Loch
Stack to Laxford, and thence to Rhiconich, Durness,
and Cape Wrath ; and there are also a number of good
cross and district roads in the SE. The Highland
Railway enters the county at Invershin, runs up the
hollow of the Shin to Lairg station, turns down Strath
Fleet, skirts the coast from Golspie to Helmsdale, and
then turns up Strath Ullie to Forsinard, where it passes
into Caithness.
The county town and only royal burgh is Dornoch ;
towns with more than 1000 inhabitants are Golspie,
Helmsdale, and the combined Portskerra and Melvich ;
and smaller villages are Armadale, Backies, Bonar-
Bridge, Brora, Clashnessie, Durness, Embo, Farr,
Inver, Kinlochbervie, Kirkiboll, Lairg, Melness, Mel-
vich, Port Gower, Scourie, Skianid, Strathy, Tongue,
Torrisdale, and West Helmsdale. The chief residences
are Dunrobin Castle, Achany, Balnakiel, Creieh House,
Culgower, Dornoch House, Embo, Eriboll House, Inver-
brora, Eirtomy, Ospisdale, Rhives, Rosehall, Scourie
House, Tongue House. The principal proprietor is the
Duke of Sutherland, who hold;: 1,176,343 acres ; E. C.
Sutherland-Walker, Esq. of Skibo, has about 20,000 ;
Lady Matheson of Lewis and Achany, 18,490 ; and the
remainder is divided among 430 proprietors, of whom
only 8 have over 1000 acres.
The cival county comprehends the thirteen entire
quoad civilia parishes of Assynt, Clyne, Creieh, Dornoch,
Durness, Eddrachillis, Farr, Golspie, Eildonan, Lairg,
Loth, Rogart, and Tongue, and part of the parish of
Reay shared with Caithness. The quoad sacra parishes
of Stoer, Kinlochbervie, and Strathy are also included.
Except Reay, which is in the presbytery of Caithness,
they are all included in the presbyteries of Dornoch
and Tongue. Service is conducted in Gaelic in all the
churches, of which there are in the county 16 in
connection with the Established Church, and 18 in
connection with the Free Church. In the year ending
September 1883, there were in the county 40 schools
(37 public), which, with accommodation for 3856 pupils,
had 2550 on the rolls, and an average attendance of
1816. Their staff consisted of 45 certificated, 4 assist-
ant, and 5 pupil, teachers. Sutherlandshire, with a
parliamentary constituency of 374 in 1885, returns a
member to serve in parliament, and Dornoch being
included in the Wick burghs, has a share of another.
It is governed by a lord lieutenant and high sheriff,
a vice-lieutenant, 8 deputy lieutenants, and 43 justices
of the peace. It forms a division of the sheriffdom of
Ross, Cromarty, and Sutherland, with a resident sheriff-
substitute at Dornoch. Ordinary and small debt sheriff
courts are held at Dornoch every Tuesday and Friday
during session, and small debt circuit courts are held in
May, July or August, and September or October at
Helmsdale for the parishes of Loth, Clyne, and Kil-
donan ; at Tongue for the parishes of Tongue and
Durness ; at Melvich for the parishes of Farr and Reay ;
and at Scourie in May only, for the parishes of Assynt,
Eddrachillis, and Durness. Justice of peace courts are
held at Dornoch on the first Tuesday of every month ;
at Golspie on the second Tuesdays of February, April,
June, and October ; at Brora on the Wednesdays after
these Tuesdays ; and at Helmsdale on the Thursdays
after. The police force consists of 13 men (1 to every
1797 of the population), under a chief constable with a
salary of £255 a year. The number of cases dealt with
is about 80 every year. The prison at Dornoch was
discontinued in 1880. The average number of registered
poor in 1883 was 744, with 223 dependants, and of
SWINDRIDGEMDIR
casual poor 13, with 9 dependants. All the parishes
are assessed, and they unite to form a poor-law com-
bination with a poorhouse at Bonar-Bridge. The pro-
portion of illegitimate births averages about 6 - 3 per
cent., and the death-rate is about 16 2. Markets are
held at Dornoch, Alltnaharrow, Brora, Clashmore, Farr,
Golspie, Helmsdale, Inchnadamff, and Kyle of Suther-
land. There are artillery and rifle volunteers connected
with the county. Valuation (1674) £2266, (1815)
£33,878,(1860) £52, 379, (1870) £62,629, (1880) £96,273,
(1885) £99,124, inclusive of railway. Pop. of registra-
tion county, which gives off part of Reay to Caithness,
(1871) 22,298, (1881) 22,376 ; of civil county (1801)
23,117, (1811) 23,629, (1821) 23,840, (1831) 25,518,
(1841) 24,782, (1851) 25,793, (1861) 25,246, (1871)
24,317, (1881) 23,370, of whom 11,219 were males and
12,151 were females. These were distributed into 5220
families occupying 4840 houses, with 17,242 rooms, an
average of 1-35 persons to each room. Of the 23,370
inhabitants, 397 males and 150 females were con-
nected with the civil or military services or with
professions, 153 men and 830 women were domestic
servants, 264 men were connected with commerce, 4262
men and 1540 women were connected with agriculture
and fishing, and 1940 men and 224 women were
engaged in industrial occupations. Of those engaged
in agriculture and fishing 3031 men and 1430 women
were employed in farming alone, while there were 3502
boys and 3238 girls of school age.
The territory now forming the county of Sutherland
was held by the Scandinavians along with Caithness,
but not so firmly nor so long, one result being that far
more Celtic place-names have survived in Sutherland.
The antiquities — the most important of which are the
numerous Pictish towers or brochs — and also the events
of historical importance, will be found noticed in con-
nection with the parishes. After the North passed finally
into the hands of the Scottish kings, the district became
a thanedom, and was granted in the end of the 12th
century to Hugh Freskin, son of that Freskin de Moravia
who had obtained a grant of the lands of Duffus from
King David I. Hugh's son William was created Earl
of Sutherland by King Alexander II. about 1228, and
the title descended in the direct male line till the death
of John, the ninth earl, in 1514. He was succeeded by
his sister, who was married to the second son of the Earl
of Huntly, and her husband, becoming Earl of Suther-
land in right of his wife, was the founder of a new line
of earls who were Gordons. In 1766 this line again
ended in an heiress, who in 1785 married George Gran-
ville Leveson-Gower, second Marquess of Stafford, who
was created Duke of Sutherland in 1833. The
Duchess-Countess, who died in 1839, was succeeded by
her son, who died in 1861. He was succeeded by his
son, the present Duke (b. 1828). The seats are Dun-
robin Castle and Tongue House.
See James Macdonald, ' On the Agriculture of Suther-
land,' in Trans. Highl. and Ag. Soc. (1880) ; C. W. G.
Saint John, A Tour in Sidherlandshire (2 vols. 1849) ;
Sir Robert Gordon, Genealogical History of the Earldom
of Sutherland (1813) ; and A. Young, Angler's and
Sketcher's Guide to Sutherland (1880).
Sutherland and Caithness, a synod of the Established
Church, comprehending the presbyteries of Dornoch,
Tongue, and Caithness. It meets at Dornoch on the
last Wednesday of August. The Free Church has also
a synod of Sutherland and Caithness, embracing the
same districts and presbyteries, and meeting at Helms-
dale or Lairg on the second Wednesday of April.
Sutherland and Caithness Railway. See Highland
Railway.
Sutors of Cromarty. See Cromakty.
Swana. See Swona.
Sweatheart Abbey. See New abbey.
Sweno's Stone. See Forres.
Swindridgemuir, a plain two-story mansion in Dairy
parish, Ayrshire, 2 miles ENE of the town. It was
built about 1830 by Jn. Smith, Esq. (1754-1838), whose
great-grandfather had acquired the estate about the
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