Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 6

TYNRON
while the earliest modern one in Scotland, is excelled
by none in the lowlands for the beauty of either its
trees or its arrangements. The holly-hedges were
planted by the same earl, and they more than rival the
forest in fame. Aggregately extending to about 9000
feet, they have a breadth of 10 to 13 feet at the base,
and a height of from 15 to 25 feet ; they are arranged
in double rows, flanking very spacious walks or avenues ;
and they are kept with great care, and in constant
conservation. Numerous single hollies, each about 50
feet high, and of proportionate circumference, are inter-
spersed with the forest, and enliven its aspect. Vast
damage was done by the gale of 14 Oct. 1881, which
felled no fewer than 30,000 trees on the estate, includ-
ing nearly all the beeches surrounding the bowling-
green, the ' Trysting Tree ' (a beech 214 feet in girth,
and bearing date 1623), etc. On 26 Aug. 1878 the
Queen drove through the park, which she describes as
' really beautiful, reminding one of Windsor and Windsor
Forest. '
Tyninghame House stands J mile from the N bank of
the Tyne and 2| miles NE of East Linton. Though a
patchwork of pieces added by successive Earls, it was so
altered and enlarged about 1829 by Mr Burn, who re-
faced the whole with native red sandstone, as to present
the appearance of a large and handsome mansion, semi-
Elizabethan, with small Scotch towers, and a beautiful
terrace garden. The interior retains, with little altera-
tions, its original form, and is adorned with portraits
of Queen Mary and James VI., of the second Earl by
Vandyke, of the eighth Earl and Countess and of Gen.
Lord Rothes by Sir Joshua Reynolds, of Canning by
Lawrence, etc. Between the mansion and the river,
embosomed in a clump of wood, are two fine Norman
arches, the only remains of the ancient church, and
now the family cemetery of the Earls. Near the house,
too, is a fine obelisk to the sixth Earl and Countess.
George-Arden-Baillie-Hamilton, eleventh Earl since
1619 (b. 1827 ; sue. 1870), holds 27,790 acres, valued
at £34,445 per annum, viz., 8302 in Haddingtonshire
(£13,678, 10s.), 14,279 in Berwickshire (£15,099, 6s.),
470S in Roxburghshire (£5079, 4s. ), and 501 in Lanark-
shire (£588).— Ord. Sur., sh. 33, 1863. See Meller-
stain, Lennel House, Jerviswood ; the Rev. A. I.
Ritehie's Churches of St Baldrcd (Edinb. 1SS1) ; and
Jn. Small's Castles and Mansions of the Lothians (Edinb.
1883).
Tynron, a hamlet and a parish of Upper Nithsdale,
W Dumfriesshire. The hamlet stands, 360 feet above
sea-level, 2-| miles NE of Moniaive and 5 AVSW of
Thornhill, under which it has a post office.
The parish is bounded N and NE by Penpont, SE by
Keir, S and SW by Glencairn, and NW by Dairy in
Kirkcudbrightshire. Its utmost length, from WNWto
ESE, is 9J miles ; its breadth varies between 9 furlongs
and 4 miles ; and its land area is 244, square miles or
15,6S3 acres. Shinnel Water, rising in the north-west-
ern extremity at an altitude of 1500 feet, runs lOf miles
east-south-eastward through all the length of the parish,
then 2 miles north-north-eastward along the Keir border,
till it falls near Scar Bridge into Scar Water, which
itself flows 3| miles south-eastward along the boundary
with Penpont. In the extreme E, at the confluence of
Shinnel and Scar Waters, the surface declines to 225
feet above the sea ; and chief elevations to the N of
Shinnel Water, as one goes up the valley, are Tynron
Doon (945 feet), Auchengibbert Hill (1221), Bennan
(1105), Lamb Craigs (1367), *Hard Knowe (1502), and
*Ox Hill (1655) ; to the S, Maqueston Hill (1063),
Thistlemark Hill (1079), *Glenskelly Hill (1493), "Ball
HU1(177S), Lamgarroch (1878), and *Colt Hill (1961),
where asterisks mark those summits that culminate on
the confines of the parish. The surface mainly consists
of the glen or strath of the Shinnel, and of two ranges
of hills which form its screens. The hills for the most
part are green, and constitute capital sheep-pasture.
Very much land which, in other circumstances, would
have remained pastoral and unenclosed, has, in conse-
quence of the vicinity of lime at Barjarg and Closeburn,
TYREE
been reclaimed and subjected to the plough. Very
few acres are flat or strictly low ground, and less
than one-twentieth of the entire area is in tillage. The
soil is rather thin and sandy ; and the crops are neither
early nor luxuriant. Upwards of 400 acres are under
wood, chiefly natural. Greywacke is the prevailing
rock ; clay slate occurs in one small bed at Corfardine,
and was at one time worked ; and flinty slate occurs in
a small bed at Shinnelhead. The most interesting
object in the parish is the Dun or Doon of Tynron.
This is a beautiful steep and conical hill, which,
rising up on the peninsula of Scar and Shinnel Waters,
terminates the northern hill range of the parish, and
commands an extensive and delightful prospect. Its
summit, a small piece of table-land, bears marks of
having been the site of a fortified castle, and, during
last century, supplied from the ruins many building
stones which must have been procured at 4 or 5 miles'
distance, and laboriously carried up the difficult acclivity.
Ditches round the top are still partially traceable ; and
dense woods anciently covered its sides, and stretched
away from its base. Robert Bruce was conducted to
the fortalice on the hill by Kirkpatrick of Closeburn,
and probably made it his retreat for some time after
killing the Red Comyn at Dumfries (1306). James
Hogg, the ' Ettrick Shepherd,' was for a short time
tenant of the Duke of Buccleuch's farm of Corfardine
— a very unfortunate tenancy. A Roman road leads
from the Doon along the face of the range to near
the head of the parish, and is, in many places, quite
bare of grass. The road from Moniaive to Thornhill
crosses the SE end of the parish ; and two roads go
up the Scar and the Shinnel. The principal land-
owner is the Duke of Buccleuch. Tynron is in
the presbytery of Penpont and the synod of Dumfries;
the living is worth £425, having been angmented in
1881. The parish church is a neat edifice, built in
1837, and containing 314 sittings. The ancient church
was a vicarage of the monks of Holy wood. A public and
an endowed school, with respective accommodation for
36 and 63 children, had (1884) an average attendance
of 18 and 42, and grants of £29, 7s. and £48, 17s.
Valuation (I860) £4498, (1SS5)£5999, lis. Pop. (1801)
563, (1831) 493, (1861) 446, (1871) 381, (1SS1) 416.—
Ord. Sur., shs. 9, 15, 1863-64.
Tyree (Gael, tirith, ' land of corn '), an island of the
Argyllshire Hebrides, 2 miles SW of Coll, 13J W of
Treshinish Point in Mull, 19 NW of Iona, and 37| SE
of Barra. Its length is 14 miles ; and its breadth varies
between f mile and 6 miles. It appears to have been,
in Columban times, part of the patrimony of the Church,
and to have supplied Iona with considerable quantities
of grain ; and hence it is supposed to have acquired its
name. Another ancient name, still applied to it in
romantic tales, is Rioghaclid barfo thitin, ' The kingdom
whose summits are lower than the waves ; ' and this
aptly describes it as the lowest and the flattest of the
Hebrides, and as so curiously washed by the sea, that
from one side the waves may often be seen on the other
rising several feet above the level of the rocks. The
shores have frequent though not deep indentations, and
consist of sandy bays, separated by ridges of rock. The
Bay of Gett, on the E side, measures about 24, miles
round the head, and has so firm a sandy beach that a
horse at full gallop makes an impression not above 4,
inch deep. Upwards of 20 fresh-water lakes together
cover some 600 acres. From one of the larger lakes
flows the only stream, which, however, is powerful
enough to drive a mill. At the northern extremity of
the island are considerable accumulations of blown sand.
In the S the rocks look so rarely up from the surface
as to form only a few scattered elevations ; but towards
the N they become numerous, and at length occupy the
greater part of the surface, preventing the cultivation of
the soil, and condemning it to perpetual pasturage. A
few low heights are formed on the rocky ground, ranging
from 30 to 60 feet in altitude ; and three separate hills
rise near the southern extremity to a maximum height
of 400 feet. All the rest of the island has a mean eleva-
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