Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

MISTYLAW HILLS
.our-storeyed building, erected in 1814 from designs by
Archibald Elliot, Esq., architect. It contains a valu-
able library and an interesting museum.
The earliest notices of the barony of Minto occur in
the 14th century, at which time it was in the possession
of the ancient and powerful family of the Turnbulls.
It passed from them to the Stewarts, and at length was
sold to Sir Gilbert Elliot, the great ancestor of the
present family of Minto. A curious circumstance re-
garding the church of Minto is, that in 1374 it belonged
to the diocese of Lincoln. Minto is in the presbj'tery
of Jedburgh and synod of Merse and Teviotdale; the
living is worth £429. The public school, with accom-
modation for 106 children, has an average attendance
of about 75, and a grant of,nearly £80. Pop. (1801) 477,
(1831) 481, (1861) 430, (1871) 431, (1881) 433, (1891)
430.— Ord. Sur., sh. 17, 1864.
Mistylaw Hills. See Lochwinnoch.
Miulie, Loch, or Loch a' Mhuilinn, a small lake in Kil-
morack parish, Glenstrathfarrer, NW Inverness-shire,
15 miles WSW of Beauly. An expansion of the river
Fahrek, it lies at an altitude of 416 feet, has an utmost
length and breadth of 7 and 3 furlongs, affords good
trout-fishing, and has near its foot a shooting-lodge of
Lord Lovat. To an islet in it the old Lord Lovat is
said to have retired after the Battle of Culloden, and
from a neighbouring mountain to have surveyed the con-
flagration of his mansion and the houses of his clans-
men.— Ord. Sur., shs. 82, 83, 1882-81.
Moan, Loch, a lake on the mutual border of Barr
parish, Ayrshire, and Minnigaff parish, Kirkcudbright-
shire, 7J miles ENE of Barrhill station on the Girvan
and Portpatrick section of the Glasgow and South-
Western railway. Lying 675 feet above sea-level, it has
an utmost length and breadth of 6i and 3 furlongs; is
deeply indented in outline and studded with four islets;
contains large pike ; and sends off the river Cree to the
head of Wigtown Bay.— Ore?. Sur., sh. 8, 1863.
Mochrum (Gael, magh-dhruim, 'ridge of the plain'),
a village and a coast parish in Machers district, SE
Wigtownshire. The village, 2 miles NNE of Port-
William and 8 SW of Wigtown, is a pleasant little
place, with two inns, a post office, the manse and
parish church, a public school, and a row of some twenty
houses.
The parish, containing also Port- Willi am and Eldrig
villages, is bounded NW by Old Luce, N by Eirkcowan,
E by Kirkinner, SE by Glasserton, and SW by Luce
Bay. Its utmost length, from NNW to SSE, is 11 J
miles; its utmost breadth is 5 J miles; and its area is
40 square miles or 25, 601 acres, of which 863| are fore-
shore and 666| water. The coast-line, 9| miles long,
over the first mile from the Glasserton boundary rises
steeply to a height of 100 feet sheer out of the water,
but elsewhere is fringed by an old sea-margin of flat
smooth gravel, 50 yards broad, with high grassy braes
beyond. A number of burns rising in the interior run
south-south-westward to Luce Bay; but the drainage is
partly carried eastward to the Bladenoch by head-streams
of the Water of Malzie. Of eleven lakes and lakelets,
mostly in the N and NW, the principal are White Loch
(4| x 1§ furl.), Eldrig Loch (4x1 furl.), Mochrum Loch
(l| inile x 3 furl. ), and Castle Loch (l| x J mile). The
last two, 6J and 8 miles NNW of Port- William, contain
a number of islets, with which, and its wooded head-
lands, Mochrum Loch has no common beauty. The
surface is everywhere hilly, chief elevations from N to
S being Oraigeach Fell (426 feet), the Doon of May
(457), Mochrum Fell (646), Bennan Hill (500), Eldrig
Fell (432), Milton Fell (418), and East Bar (450)—
heights that command a far-away view to the Isle of
Man and the mountains of Ireland and Cumberland.
Thus, with but small aggregate of level land, Mochrum
comprises large tracts of rocky eminence and mossy
swamp, bleak and barren in aspect, and thinly inter-
spersed with patches of good dry arable land. The
predominant rocks are Silurian, and the soil along much
of the seaboard is very fertile loam, either light or strong
and deep; on the lands towards the centre is thin and
MOFFAT
stony; and on the higher grounds is moorish. Some 200
acres are under wood; and a large extent of moorland
has been brought into cultivation. The lands of Moch-
rum were given in 1368 to Thomas Dunbar, second son
of Patrick, Earl of March. The Dunbars, his descend-
ants, who took title from Mochrum, and had their seat
at the Old Place or Castle of Mochrum, were a some-
what distinguished family. Cadets of the house founded
the families of Dunbar of Clugston and Dunbar of Bal-
doon. Gavin Dunbar, son of Sir John Dunbar of Moch-
rum, became prior of Whithorn about the year 1504,
was afterwards made preceptor to James V. , and became
in 1524 Archbishop of Glasgow, in 1528 Lord-Chancellor
of Scotland, and in 1536 one of the Lords of Regency
during the king's visit to France. The family was
raised to the baronetcy in 1694, and is now represented
by Sir Uthred James Hay Dunbar, Bart. (b. 1843; sue.
1889). Since the close, however, of the 17th century,
the Old Place and the estate of Mochrum have been held
by the Earls of Dumfries and Marquises of Bute.
Eugirt with ash-trees, and standing near the NE end of
Mochrum Loch, the Old Place consists of two square
four-storey towers, and dates from the last quarter of the
loth century. Since 1873 it has been carefully restored
by the present Marquis. On an islet in Castle Loch are
remains of an older castle: and the ruins of Myrtoun
Castle, the seat of the M'Culiochs, crown a mote-hill
near the shore of the White Loch. Other antiquities
are a large double-dyked fort on Barsalloch Brae, the
Mote of Boghouse near Mochrum village, the Carlin
Stone near Eldrig Loch, a vitrified fort on the Doon of
May, remains of Chapel Finian (by the country people
called ' Chipper-Finnan ' or ' the Well of Finnan ') on
the shore 5i miles NW of Port-William, Cairn Buy still
further Nff, etc. Monreith, noticed separately, is the
principal mansion; and Sir H. E. Maxwell, Bart., M.P.,
divides most of the parish with the Marquis of Bute.
Mochrum is in the presbytery of Wigtown and the synod
of Galloway; the living is worth £185. The parish
church is a plain edifice of 1794, and, as enlarged in
1S32 and 1878 contains 800 sittings. Free and TJ.P.
churches are at Port-William; and four public schools —
Culshabbin, Eldrig, Mochrum, and Port- William — with
respective accommodation for 60, 80, 132, and 220
children, have an average attendance of about 45, 40,
90, and 155, and grants amounting to nearly £45, £40,
£S0, and £165. Pop. (1801) 1113, (1831) 2105, (1861)
2694,(1871) 2450, (18S1) 2315, (1891) 2166.— Ord. Sur.,
shs. 4, 2, 1857-56.
Mochrum Loch. See Kirkoswald.
Moffat, a small village near Airdrie, in the parish of
New Monkland, Lanarkshire, with a paper-mill.
Moffat (Gael, out-vat, ' a long, deep, mountain hollow, '
or Irish inai-fad, ' a long plain '), a town in the N of the
Annandale district of Dumfriesshire, and a parish for-
merly partly in Dumfriesshire and partly in Lanark-
shire, but placed by the Boundary Commissioners in
1891 wholly in the former county. The town is situ-
ated at the southern base of the Gallow Hill (832 feet)*
on the left bank of the river Annan, 2 miles NNW of
the point at which Moffat and Evan Waters flow into
that river. It is distant 51 miles by road, but 63J by
rail, SSW of Edinburgh; 54 by road, but 66| by rail,
SE of Glasgow; 21 by road, but 30§ by rail, NNE of
Dumfries ; 15A by road N by W of Lockerbie, and 2 NNE
of Beattock station on the main line (1848) of the Cale-
donian. A railway line, 1§ mile long, which was opened
in April 1883, and is now owned by the Caledonian
Railway Company, connects Moffat with Beattock.
Omnibuses run between the hotels and the mineral well
every morning (except Sunday) during the season, and
coaches go thrice a week in summer to the Grey
Mare's Tail and St Mary's Loch, where are met con-
veyances from Peebles and Selkirk.
The town is built upon a gentle slope, which rises
* Prof. George Sinclair of Glasgow, who died in 1696, ascertained
the height of this hill hy means of the barometer— the earliest
instance probably of its application in Great Britain to this pur-
pose.
1165