Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

CEINGLETIE
by Government. The canal is used chiefly by small
coa9ting and fishing vessels, by goods steamboats plying
between the Clyde and Inverness, and by an elegant,
roomy, and well-appointed steamboat conveying passen-
gers between large steamers at Ardrishaig and Port-
Crinan. Since 1818 the canal has been managed by the
Commissioners of the Caledonian Canal. Its revenues
arising from the tolls have, on the average, been barely
sufficient to cover the current expenses of maintenance
and repair.
Cringletie, an estate, with a mansion, in Eddleston
parish, Peeblesshire, 3 miles NNW of Peebles. The
mansion, standing on a finely-wooded plateau, to the
right of Eddleston Water, was rebuilt in 1863 in the old
Scotch manor-house style, and contains some fine family
portraits by Gainsborough, Raeburn, and others. For
more than two centuries it has been the seat of a branch
of the Hurrays, which has produced a gallant soldier
and an eminent judge — Col. Alex. Murray (d. 1762),
and Jas. Wolfe Murray, Lord Cringletie (1760-1836).
Crocach. See Crokach.
Crocketford, a village on the mutual border of Urr
and Kilpatrick-Durham parishes, Kirkcudbrightshire,
near Aehenreoeh and Milton Lochs, 9 miles WSW of
Dumfries. Founded by the Buchanites in 1787, it has
a post office under Dumfries, and a public school; near
it is Crocketford House.
Croe, a clear-flowing river of Glenshiel parish, SW
Ross-shire, formed by two head-streams at an altitude
of ISO feet above sea-level, and running 5J miles west-
north-westward — latterly along the Kintail border — to
the head of Loch Duich. It abounds in salmon and sea-
trout, but is preserved. — Ord. Sur., sh. 72, 1880.
Croftanrigh. See Dalry.
Crofthead. See Neilston.
Crofthead, a large mineral village in Whitburn parish,
SW Linlithgowshire, 3J miles S by W of Whitburn
village, and 1J mile EKE of Crofthead station on the
Morningside section of the North British, this being 6J
miles SSW of Bathgate. It has itself a Free church
and a public school; and it practically forms one with
Fauldhouse and Greenburn villages, lying 1 mile WSW
and | mile SW. See Fauldhouse.
Croftinloan, an estate, with a mansion, in Logierait
parish, Perthshire, near the left bank of the Tay, 2
miles SE of Pitlochrie.
Croftmaxtaig, a hamlet adjoining the village of
Acharn.
Croftness, a hamlet, with a public school, in Glen-
livet quoad sacra parish, Banffshire.
Crofts. See Crossmichael.
Crogo, a hamlet in the SE of Balmaclellan parish,
NE Kirkcudbrightshire, 1J mile NNW of Corsock.
Croick, a quoad sacra parish in Kincardine parish,
Ross-shire, whose church (1827), manse, and school stand
in the Black Water's sequestered valley, 10 miles W of
its station and post-town, Ardgay. It is in the presby-
tery of Tain and synod of Ross; the minister's stipend
is £160, with a manse and a glebe. Pop. (1891) 192.
— Ord. Sur., sh. 102, 1SS1. See Kincardine.
Crokach, a loch in Assynt parish, Sutherland, 3 miles
N of Lochinver. Lying 380 feet above sea-level, it is
1| mile long, and from J furlong to 3 furlongs wide; is
studded with thirteen islets; and contains fine, well-
shaped trout.
Crokach, a loch in the SW corner of Reay parish,
Sutherland, 5£ miles W by N of Forsinard station.
Lying 950 feet above sea-level, it contains two islets,
and presents an irregular outline, with utmost length
and breadth of 5i and 4 furlongs.
Crolin. See Crot/lin.
Crom, a loch on the mutual border 1 of Fodderty and
Kincardine parishes, Ross-shire, 7 J miles NW of the head
of Loch Glass. Lying 1720 feet above sea-level, it has
an utmost length and breadth of § mile and 3 J furlongs,
and communicates with the river Carron.
Cromack. See Crammag.
Cromal or Cromwell's Mount, a circular elevation in
Ardersier parish, UE Inverness-shire, on the ridge of hill
CROMARTY
behiud Campbeltown. It rises about 20 feet above the
adjacent level of the ridge; is crowned by an ancient
Caledonian fort, with a rampart 5 feet high and 360
feet in circumference; and commands a very extensive
view, including parts of seven or eight counties.
Cromar, a sub-district of Aberdeenshire, on the N side
of the middle reach of the river Dee. It comprehends
the parishes of Coull, Tarland, and Logie-Coldstone, and
a small part of Glenmuick.
Cromarty, a parish and the head town of Cromarty
District in the united county of Ross and Cromarty.
A seaport and parliamentary burgh, the town lies low
on the southern shore of the Cromarty Firth, 2 miles
W by S of its Sutor-guarded entrance, 4 j miles E by
S of Invergordon by water and 8 by the shore-road
and Invergordon ferry, llf SSE of Tain, 9 NNE of
Fortrose, and 19J NNE of Inverness. For more than
three centuries the sea has been steadily gaining on its
site, so that where the old burgh stood is covered deep
by each returning tide; but at a remote period the sea
came higher up than now, and its ancient margin is
marked by an eminence that, rising abruptly from the
level to a height of 100 feet, next forms a tableland, and
thence sweeps gently upward to the Southern Sutor.
On the said eminence, right above the town, stood the
old castle of the Urquharts, a massy, time-worn building,
battlemented, stone-roofed, and six stories high. It was
rased to the ground in 1772, and its place is occupied by
Cromarty House ; hard by, a column, 40 feet high, is sur-
mounted by Handyside Ritchie's life-size statue (1859) of
Cromarty's most celebrated son, the stonemason geolo-
gist and author, Hugh Miller (1802-56). Even before
his day the antique gabled-houses of ' Old Cromarty '
had mostly disappeared; but their successors have in
turn grown old, and the whole place presents an appear-
ance of picturesque decay and desolation, 19 out of its
279 domiciles standing untenanted in 1891. The Bay
of Cromarty forms one of the finest natural harbours in
the world, and during the winter storms ship after ship
comes pressing into it for shelter. Thither they are
guided by a lighthouse, whose fixed red bight is visible
for 13 nautical miles, and which was built on the Point
in 1846 at a cost of £3203. From a commodious quay,
constructed in 1785, and repaired and extended in 1880,
goods valued at £25, 000 were shipped to London in 1807.
But by the railway the commerce of Easter Ross has
been diverted to Invergordon ; and fishing and fish-
curing are now the only industries of Cromarty. It still
is head of the fishery district between Findhorn and
Helmsdale Loch, in which during 1894 there were cured
2258 barrels of white herrings, not to mention cod, ling,
and hake, — taken by 2S6 boats; the persons employed
being 998 fishermen and boys, 3 fishcurers, 11 coopers,
and some 155 others, and the total value of boats,
nets, and lines being estimated at £38,528. A brewery,
a hemp and cloth factory, and one or two timber-yards
have all been closed; two fairs have become extinct;
but a weekly market is held, in name at least, on Tues-
day. There are three churches — the 16th century
parish church, described as 'a true Presbyterian edi-
fice;' an Established Gaelic church, built about 1785;
and a Free church: and Cromarty has besides a post
office, with money order, savings bank, and telegraph
departments, branches of the Caledonian and Commer-
cial Banks, hotels, a neat town-hall (1782) with cupola
and clock, a masonic lodge, and a geological museum
(Hugh Miller's house). A royal burgh once, it was
reduced in 1672 to the rank of a burgh of barony, but
by the Reform Act of 1S33 unites with the other five
Wick burghs in returning a member to Parliament; and,
having adopted the General Police and Improvement
Act of 1862, is governed by a provost, 2 bailies and 6
councillors, who act also as police commissioners. Its
parliamentary constituency numbered 150, and its
municipal constituency 178, in 1891, when its valua-
tion amounted to £1936. Pop. (1861) 1491, (1871)
1476, (1881) 1338, (1891) 1360.
The parish, forming the north-eastern extremity of
the Black Isle peninsula, is bounded N by Cromarty
309