Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 6

UNAPOOL
a strait that, except as seen on its very shores, they
appear to be one island ; on the N and NE, from Mor-
nish in Mull by Loch Tuadh, which decreases eastward
from a breadth of If mile to a shallow and very narrow
strait ; on the SW, from Torosay in Mull by Loch-na-
Keal, 14 mile broad ; and on the S from Little Colonsay
by a sound 1 mile broad. Its length, from E to W, is
5 miles ; and its maximum breadth is 2J miles. The
island is distinguished for grand basaltic colonnades and
picturesque combinations of these with amorphous
masses of trap. Its surface rises from the shore in
successive ranges of terraces to an extreme altitude of
1400 feet. Its rocks are a dark bluish trap, now
columnar, and now amorphous ; and an amygdaloid,
abounding in analcime and mesotype, now above the
trap, now below it, and now interposed between two
ranges of its columns. Some low but well-formed
colonnades occur along the shores. The upper ranges
seldom exceed 20 feet in height, but are very numerous ;
and they preserve little or no continuity, but exist in de-
tached parts which in numerous places resemble fragments
of walls and ruined towers. ' The ranges, ' says Dr Mac-
culloeh, ' are often as regular as those of Staffa, although
on a much less scale ; and pass gradually from that
regularity of form into the most shapeless masses. In
many places they afford elegant and picturesque com-
positions, which, although passed every day by the
crowds who visit Staffa, appear to have been unnoticed.
If either their numbers, extent, or picturesque appear-
ance be considered, they are more deserving of admira-
tion than even those of the Giant's Causeway ; and had
they been the only basaltic columns on this coast, they
might have acquired the fame which they merit. But
Ulva is eclipsed by the superior lustre of Staffa ; and,
while the mass of mankind is content to follow the
individual who first led the way, its beauties will pro-
bably be still consigned to neglect.' From 1473 and
earlier the island was possessed by the Macquarries,
whose last and sixteenth chief was visited here by Dr
Johnson in 1773. Near his old mansion stands Ulva
House, a large modern building, the seat of Francis
William Clark, Esq., who owns 8000 acres in Argyll-
shire, valued at £1525 per annum. The quoad sacra
parish of Ulva was disjoined, as a parliamentary church
district, from the Mull parish of Kilninian and Eilmore
in 1828, and was made a parochial erection by the
General Assembly in 1833. Comprehending the islands
of Ulva, Gometra, Colonsay, and Staffa, with a portion
of the mainland of Mull, it is in the presbytery of Mull
and the synod of Argyll. The minister's stipend is
£153. The church, built in 1827, contains 320 sittings.
Pop. of q. s. parish (1871) 222, (1881) 166 ; of island
(1837) 168, (1851) 204, (1871) 71, (1881) 53.
Unapool. See Kylesku.
Underwood, a commodious mansion of about 1792, in
Craigie parish, Ayrshire, 3 miles ¥NW of Tarbolton.
Union Bridge. See Huttojt.
Union Canal, a canal in Edinburgh, Linlithgow, and
Stirling shires, going 31£ miles westward from Port-
Hopetoun, in the W of the city of Edinburgh, to
a junction with the Forth and Clyde Canal at Port-
Downie, 1| mile W by S of Falkirk. Authorised in
1817, and begun to be cut in 1818, it was completed
in the early part of 1822, the estimated cost being
£235,167, but the actual cost nearly £400,000 up to
the time of opening, and £600,000 within four years of
that date. It was designed entirely for inland traffic,
principally between Edinburgh and Glasgow, and for a
long time was often called the Edinburgh and Glasgow
Canal. It runs a total distance of only 25 miles
measured in a direct line ; and it expends the additional
6J miles of its actual length mainly in sinuosities,
designed to maintain the dead level, and to avoid the
cost and delays of lockage. It traverses the parishes of
St Cuthberts, Colinton, Currie, Ratho, Kirkliston,
Uphall, Dalmeny, Ahercorn, Linlithgow, Muiravonside,
Polmont, and Falkirk ; and is flanked, over most of its
course, by productive and populous country. It pro-
ceeds on a level for 30 miles from Port-Hopetoun ;
468
UNST
descends 110 feet by 11 locks in the last 1| mile to
Port-Downie ; and is 40 feet wide at the water-surface,
20 wide at the bottom, and 5 deep throughout. An
aqueduct 65 feet high and 500 long takes it across
the Water of Leith ; a still grander aqueduct, with 23
arches, takes it across the river Avon ; a tunnel 700
yards long takes it through a hill in the neighbourhood
of Falkirk ; and important cuttings, embankments, and
works of masonry occur in many other parts of its
course. The traffic on it, from the very commencement,
proved uncompensating ; was estimated, in the project
for its formation, to yield a gross return of £55,000 a-
year ; yielded a natural return, during the first seven
years, of less than £17,000 a-year ; suffered vast decrease
from the opening of the Edinburgh and Glasgow rail-
way ; and, a short time afterwards, lost all its passenger
department, and diminished greatly in its mercantile
and mineral departments. The canal was sold in 1848
to the Edinburgh and Glasgow railway company, and
passed, in 1865, along with the Edinburgh and Glasgow
railway, to the North British railway.company.
Unst (anc. Onyst, Onist, and Ornist=brnen-nyst,
' eagle's nest '), an island in the extreme N of Shetland,
4J furlongs E of the nearest point of Yell, 2J miles N
of Fetlar, and 37J N by E of Lerwick, under which
there is a post and telegraph office of Uyea Sound. Its
utmost length, from N by E to S by W, is 12f miles ;
its breadth, from E to W, varies between 2J and 5|
miles ; and its land area, inclusive of Uyea, Haaf-
geunie, Balta, and some smaller islets, is 46- square
miles, or 29,856 acres. The coast, over much the
larger part of its extent, is a constant alternation of
headlands, and of indenting bays and creeks. The
headlands, especially in the W and N, are precipitous,
rocky, and high — the loftiest attaining a height of over
400 feet. The bays, on the contrary, are, for the most
part, fringed with low, shelving, and sandy shores.
The chief are Burra Firth on the N, Nor Wick, Harolds
Wick, Balta Sound, and Sand Wick on the E, Uyea
Sound on the S, and Lunda Wick on the W : but
though most may often protect a vessel for a tide or
two, none of them are safe harbours. Burra Firth and
Nor Wick have a picturesque aspect, and are environed
with much good land. Balta Sound on the E, and Uyea
Sound on the S, are so covered by isles of their own
name, and screened by projecting headlands at their
entrances, as to afford good shelter to shipping. The
tides on the coast flow nearly southward, and ebb north-
ward, but are often flung from their direction, and
whirled into eddies, by the projections and recesses of
the coast ; they run at spring, with a velocity of 6 miles
an hour ; and off Lamba Ness, the NE extremity of the
island, they form a tumbling and spouting sea, inferior
in its dangers only to that of Sumburgh Eoost, and
so impetuous and heaving, even in calm weather, as
to prove dangerous to fishermen. Of numerous caves
upon the coasts, one at Sha displays a roof supported by
natural octagonal pillars ; several in Burra Firth have
the sea for their pavement, and run backward under the
hills ; one at the hill of Saxa-Vord, 300 feet long and
of considerable height, is entered by a grand natural
arch ; and one a little E of the last resembles it in
character, but is inferior to it in magnificence.
The surface of Unst, compared with that of the other
Shetland Islands, is reckoned level ; yet it has several
extensive and moderately high hills. Valla Field, ex-
tending from the N end of the island to within 1A mile
of its S end, and attaining a maximum altitude of 703
feet, runs along the western coast, presenting a powerful
rampart against the tremendous onsets of the Atlantic,
yet often washed over its summit and down to the skirts
of its interior declivities by clouds of foam and spray.
Saxa-Vord, 934 feet high, and the loftiest ground on
the island, rises boldly up from the sea, in the centre of
the N coast, and forms a landmark to mariners within
a range of 14 leagues. Crossfield, at right angles with
Valla Field, but rising apart from it, extends nearly
across the middle of the island, and terminates on the
E coast in two conical peaks. Vordhill extends 3J