Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

FINDHORN
skeid House, and 1^ mile along the S bank of the Garry
from Blair-Athole village to Auldclune. Fincastle Burn
flows through the midst to the Tummel, along a fertile
narrow strath, and near its left bank stands Fincastle
House, the seat and death-place of Sir Robert Gilmour
Colquhoun, K.C.B. (1803-70), who for seven years served
as Consul-General in Egypt. The district takes its name
from having anciently contained no fewer than fifteen
castles, vestiges of a number of which may still be seen ;
and it gives the title of Viscount to the Earl of Dun-
moke. It has a post office under Pitlochry, 6 miles to
the S.E.— Ord. Sur., sh. 55, 1869.
Findhorn, a seaport village in Kinloss parish, NW
Elginshire, at the right side of the mouth of Findhorn
river, and on the point of a peninsula between Find-
horn and Burghead Bays. By road it is 5 miles H
of Forres and 3J NE of Kinloss station on the Highland
railway, this station being 9J miles W by S of Elgin
and 27f ENE of Inverness. A branch line from Kin-
loss to Findhorn, opened in 1860, has now for some
years been discontinued. The original town, which
stood at least 2 miles westward of the present one, was
destroyed by the drifting of the Culbin Sands; the
next one stood a mile KW, on ground now covered by
the sea, and was swallowed in a few hours by the
great inundation of 1701 ; and even the present town
is so beset with surge-lashed sand-banks, that it, too,
possibly may some day share their fate. A place of
worship in it, used first as a dissenting meeting-house,
and next a3 a chapel of ease, was built on the sand, and
fell in Jan. 1843. The town, from its situation at the
mouth of the Findhorn, known in Gaelic as the Erne,
is commonly called by the Highlanders Invererne. It
ranks as a burgh of barony; is the centre of an extensive
fishery district between Buckie and Cromarty; and
carries on some commerce in the export of salmon, grain,
and other goods, and in the import of coals, groceries,
and manufactured wares. It has a post office under
Forres, a good harbour, a Free church, a girls' public
school, and a public library. The harbour is partly
natural, partly artificial, with a stone pier, two quays
of hewn stone, and a breastwork connecting the pier
with one of the quays; and has, in the shallowest part
of the channel at its entrance, 10J feet of water in the
lowest neap tide, and from 13 to 17 feet in spring tides.
In 1894 the number of boats employed in the district
was 384, of fishermen and boys 2012, of fish-curers 22,
and of coopers 72; the value of the boats being £50,729,
of the nets £37, 935, and of the lines £6467. the follow-
ing is the number of barrels of herrings salted or cured
in different years:— (1866) 29,572, (1870) 16,311, (1880)
16,255, (1890) 22,885, (1894) 12,331; of cod, ling, or
hake taken (1866) 20,779, (1873) 67,837. (1879) 56,191,
(1880) 34,265, (1881) 15,255, (1891) 19,192, (1894)
8128. Pop. (1841) 806, (1861) 891, (1871) 701, (1881)
605, (1891) 562.— Ord. Sur., sh. 94, 1878.
Findhorn, a river of Inverness, Nairn, and Elgin shires,
rising in the southern extremity of Moy and Dalarossie
Earish, among the Monadhliath Mountains, 5| miles N
y W of Laggan Bridge, and thence winding 624; miles
north-eastward, till it falls into the Moray Firth at
Findhorn village. In the first 7\ miles of its course it
bears the name of Abhainn Cro Clilaeh (' stream of the
stone fold'); and a 13th century charter alludes to it
as the Earn, so that Findhorn is possibly a corruption
of fionn-ear-an, ' wan east- flowing river, ' the greater part
of its basin being still known as Strathdoarn. It is
joined by the Eskin, Moy Burn, the Divio, Muckle
Burn, and numerous mountain torrents ; it expands,
between Forres and Findhorn village, into a triangular
tidal lagoon, 2 miles long and 2| wide, called Findhorn
Bay or Harbour, and again contracts to %\ furlongs at
its mouth. Its scenery, alpine at first, then moderately
mountainous, and finally lowland, exhibits almost every
variety of picturesqueness, from the wildly grand to
the softly beautiful, abounding in features of wood and
rock, gorge and cliff, fertile valley and finely-contoured
hill, and is not excelled, either in diversity of attraction
or in aggregate richness, by the scenery of any equal
ee'j
FINDRASSIE
length of stream in Scotland. From 2800 feet above
sea-level at its mossy source, it descends to 1627 at the
Eskin's confluence, 950 at Findhorn Bridge, 580 at the
Bridge of Dulsie, and 280 near Relugas House; and
thus its current is impetuous in the upper, swift in the
middle, and broad and placid in the lower reaches. Its
volume varies greatly in time of drought and in time of
heavy rain; and it is subject to such strong, sudden
freshets as sometimes to roll down a wall-like wave of
water with irresistible and destructive force along the
narrow or contracted parts of its bed, and to overflow
its banks and make a lake of all the lowland portions of
its valley. In the Plain of Forres, over 20 square miles
were so inundated by it in the memorable floods of
Aug. 1829, that a large boat, in full sail, swept along
its basin to within a few yards of the town. The Find-
horn is still a fine salmon and trout river, though not
what it was half a century since, when in a single day
360 salmon were taken from one pool. The Aviemore
and Inverness section of the Highland railway crosses
the Findhorn about 5 miles NW of Carrbridge station.
The Findhorn traverses or bounds the parishes of Moy
and Dalarossie, Cawdor, Ardclach, Edinkillie, Forres,
Dyke and Moy, and Kinloss; and in our articles on these,,
its various features of bridge, mansion, village, and town
are noticed.— Ord. Sur., shs. 73, 74, 84, 94, 1876-78.
See chaps, ii.-x. of Sir Thomas Dick Lauder's Moray
Floods (Elgin, 1830; 3d ed. 1873).
Findlater, an estate on the coast of Fordyce parish,
Banffshire. It formerly belonged to the Ogilvies of
Deskford, and gave them the title of earl from 1638 till
1811. That title expired at the death of the seventh
Earl of Findlater and fourth of Seafield, who was suc-
ceeded in his estates and in the earldom of Seafield by
his cousin. Findlater Castle stood on a peninsulated
rock overhanging the sea, 2 miles E of Cullen, and 4
W by N of Portsoy, and, with permission of the Crown,
was fortified in 1445 by Sir "Walter Ogilvie, knight, of
Auchleven. It was one of the places which refused to-
receive Queen Mary on her visit to the North (1562), and
is now a curious picturesque ruin. See Culles. — Ord.
Sur., sh. 96, 1876.
Findochty, a fishing village in Rathven parish, Banff-
shire, 3£ miles W by N of Cullen, under which it has a
post office, with money order, savings bank, and tele-
graph departments. Founded in 1716 by a colony of
fishermen from Fraserburgh, it has a public school and
132 boats engaged in fishing. Its sheltered harbour,
with 24 feet depth of water, and 270 feet of width at
the entrance, was greatly improved by the Fishery Com-
missioners in 1882-83. Near it is a medicinal spring
situated within high water mark. Findochty was formed
into a special water-supply district in 1879. Pop. (1881)
936, (1891) 1148.— Ord. Sur., sh. 96, 1876.
Findogask. See Gask.
Findon, an estate inUrquhart and Logie- Wester parish,
Ross-shire, on the SE shore of Cromarty Firth, 5 miles
NE of Conan Bridge. It is traversed by a burn of its
own name, which makes a fine cascade of 20 feet in a
yawning bosky gorge.
Findon, a farm in Gamrie parish, NE Banffshire, 5 fur-
longs S by W of Gardenstown. Its rocks are famous for
great abundance and variety of fossil fish, ganoids chiefly,
many of which were figured and described by Agassiz.
Findon or Finnan, a fishing village in Banchory-
Devenick parish, Kincardineshire, 1J mile NE of Port-
lethen station, this being 8 miles S by W of Aberdeen.
It is a little place, of no more consequence than other
fishing villages on the E coast; but it has gained
celebrity for having been the first place to prepare the
dried fish called from it Findon or Finnan haddocks.
It has a public school. — Ord. Sur., sh. 67, 1871.
Findrack, an estate, with an old mansion, in Lum-
phanan parish, Aberdeenshire, 2J miles ENE of Lum-
phanan station. It was sold in 1670 by Sir Robert
Forbes of Learney to the Frasers; and its present owner
is William N. Fraser, Esq.
Findrassie, an estate, with a mansion, in Spynie
parish, Elginshire, 2J miles NW of Elgin. It belonged,