Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

GADGIBTH
GAIRLOCH
GADGIRTH, a hamlet and an estate, with a mansion,
in Coylton parish, Ayrshire, on the left hank of
the river Ayr, 4 miles SSW of Tarbolton. The
estate was the property of the late Major-General
Francis Claud Burnett.
Gadie, a burn of Aberdeenshire, rising in Clatt parish,
and running 10J miles east-by-northward through Leslie,
Premnay, and Oyne parishes, till it falls into the XJry,
9 furlongs E of Oyne church. It is celebrated in several
of the Latin poems of Arthur Johnston, and also in a
fine old ballad, beginning —
' O an I were where Gadie rins,
'Mang fragrant heath and yellow whins.
Or brawlin down the bosky linns,
At the back o' Bennochie.'
After the capture of Pondicherry in 1793, a Highland
regiment, marching into the town, was suddenly arrested
by hearing this ballad sung by a Scottish lady from an
open window. — Ord. Sur., sh. 76, 1874.
Gaick, a desolate alpine tract, a forest one, in Kin-
gussie parish, Inverness-shire, around the head of
Glentromie, contiguous to the Perthshire border. It
touches, or rather overlaps, the watershed of the central
Grampians, its mountain summits culminating at an
altitude of 2929 feet above sea-level; and it abounds
in grandly romantic scenery, including on its southern
border one of the most accessible and picturesque of the
passes over the central Grampians. It partly contains,
partly adjoins, three lakes — Loch an Duin (10 x 1£ furl. ;
1680 feet), Loch Bhradain (4$ x If furl.; 1460 feet), and
Loch an t-Seilich (9 x 3 J furl. ; 1400 feet). "Wood there
is none now, except some scattered birch copse; but the
' forest ' is stocked by numerous herds of red deer, be-
longing to Sir George Macpherson Grant, Bart of Inver-
eshie. Glentromie Lodge, the residence, is 4 miles from
Kingussie. — Ord. Sur., sh. 64, 1874.
Gainvich. See Sanda, Argyllshire.
Gairbridge. See Guard Bridge.
Gairden. See Gairn.
Gairie, a rivulet of Kirriemuir and Glamis parishes,
Forfarshire, flowing round two sides of Kirriemuir town,
and, after a south-south-easterly course of 7J miles, fall-
ing into Dean Water 2 miles NE of Glamis village. —
Ord. Sur., sh. 56, 1870.
Gair Loch, a sea loch on the west coast of Ros9 and
Cromarty. It strikes 6J miles east-south-eastward from
the North Minch, and measures 3£ across the entrance,
where lies the island of Longa, whilst 3 J miles higher up,
near the southern shore, is the smaller island of Horris-
dale.
Gairloch (GaeL gearr-loch, ' short loch '), a coast vil-
lage and parish of west Ross and Cromarty. The vil-
lage stands on the north-eastern shore of the loch that
gives it name, by water being 30 miles NNE of Portree
in Skye, by road 6 SW of Poolewe, 9 TOW of Talla-
dale or Lochmaree hotel, 18 WNW of Kinlochewe hotel,
and 28 WNW of Auchnasheen station on the Dingwall
and Skye section (1870) of the Highland railway, this
station being 25i miles NE of Strome Ferry and 27J
WSW of Dingwall. It communicates with Auchnasheen
by a daily coach, with Portree by weekly steamer (thrice
a week in summer), and with Poolewe by mail-car thrice
weekly. It has a post office, with money order, savings
bank, and telegraph departments, a branch of the Cale-
donian Bank, a steamboat pier, and a good hotel. A
market for horses and cattle is held on the Thursday
2£ e Beaul y in October and November.
The parish, containing also Poolewe, Talladale. and
Kinlochewe, is bounded NE by Greinord Bay and Loch-
broom parish, E by Contin parish, SE by Lochalsh and
Lochcarron parishes, S by Applecross parish and Loch
Torridon, and W by the North Minch. It has an utmost
length, from E to W, of 25 miles; an utmost width,
from N to S, of 22 miles; and an area of 356 square
miles, or 227,880g acres, of which 1689§ are foreshore
»nd 16.996& water. The seaboard, 90 miles long, is
40
bold and rocky, rising rapidly to 100 and 400 feet above
sea-level, and deeply indented by Greinord Bay, Loch
Ewe, Gair Loch, and Loch Torridon. The river Coulin
or A Ghairbhe, entering from Lochcarron parish, winds
6| miles northward, through Lochs Coulin and Clair,
along the Lochcarron border and through the interior
to Kinlochewe, where it is joined by a rivulet, running
3J miles north-westward down Glen Docherty. As Kin-
lochewe river, the united stream flows 2§ miles north-
westward to the head of famous Loch Maree (12f miles
_x 3 furl, to 2 J miles; 32 feet above sea-level), and from
its foot, as the river Ewe, continues 2J miles north-north-
westward, till at Poolewe it falls into Loch Ewe. Lochan
Fada (3f miles x 5 furl. ; 1000 feet), lying near the Loch-
broom border, sends off a stream 4| miles south-south-
westward to Loch Maree, near its head; and Fionn Looh
(5| x 1J mile; 559 feet), lying right on the Lochbroom
border, sends off the Little Greinord along that border
5J miles north-by-eastward to the head of Greinord Bay.
These are the principal streams and lakes of Gairloch
parish, whose very large fresh-water area (more than fif-
teen times larger than that of the whole of Fife) comprises
the 7090| acres of Loch Maree, the 2238§ of half of Fionn
Loch, the 928 of Lochan Fada, the 203 of part of Dubh
Loch (9x3 furl.) at the head of Fionn Loch, the 345J of
Loch na h-Oidhche (lj mile x 3£ furl.), the 166 of Loch
Tollie (7 J x 5 furl. ), etc. The surface is grandly diversi-
fied by tall pyramidal quartz mountains, the chief being
Ben Airidh a'Char (2593 feet), Ben Lair (2817), Ben
Sleooh (3217), and Ben a'Mhuinidh (2231), to the NE
of Loch Maree; to the SW, Bus-bheinn (2869) and Ben
Eay or Eighe (3309). The rocks are primary, of Lauren-
tian, Cambrian, or Devonian age. Lessthan5000acres, or
one-fortieth of the entire area, is returned as 'arable, wood-
land, or rough pasture, ' the rest being all of it mountain,
moor, and deer-forest. So that Gairloch depends far
less on agriculture proper than on sheep-farming and the
fisheries of the streams and lochs of the neighbouring seas.
In 1823 Hugh Miller was sent to Gairloch village with
a party of fellow-quarryrnen, and chapters xii. and xiii.
of My Schools and Schoolmasters give a graphic descrip-
tion of his sojourn here. ' For about six weeks,' he
writes, ' we had magnificent weather; and I greatly en-
joyed my evening rambles amid the hills or along the
sea-shore. I was struck, in these walks, by the amazing
abundance of wild flowers, which covered the natural
meadows and lower hill-slopes. . . . How exquisitely
the sun sets in a clear, calm summer evening over the
blue Hebrides ! Within less than a mile of our barrack
there rose a tall hill (1256 feet), whose bold summit
commanded all the Western isles, from Sleat in Skye to
the Butt of the Lewis . . . The distaff and spindle
was still in extensive use in the district, which did not
boast a single spinning-wheel, a horse, or a plough, no
cart having ever forced its way along the shores of Loch
Maree. . . . They tell me, that, for certain, the
fairies have not left this part of the country yet. ' The
chief antiquities of Gairloch are described under Loch
Maree, which, from the 12th to the 19th of September
1877, received a visit from Queen Victoria. Mansions,
both noticed separately, are Flowerdale and Letter-
ewe; and Sir Kenneth Mackenzie owns rather more
than two-thirds of the entire rentaL In the presbytery
of Lochcarron and synod of Glenelg, this parish since
1851 has been ecclesiastically divided into Gairloch and
Poolewe, the former a living worth £222. Its church
was built in 1791; in the graveyard lies buried the
Gaelic bard, William Ross (1762-90), who was school-
master here for the last four years of his life. There
are Free churches of Gairloch and Poolewe; and ten
public schools — Achtercairn, Bualnaluib, Inverasdale,
Kinlochewe, Laide, Mellon Udregle, Melvaig, Opinan,
Poolewe, and Sand — with total accommodation for 820
children, have an average attendance of about 600, and
grants amounting to over £600. Pop. of civil parish
(1801) 1437, (1821) 4518, (1861) 5449, (1871) 5048,
625