Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

OVERTOUN
Glasgow and South-Western railway, 3J miles E of
Irvine. Pop. (1871) 308, (1881) 413, (1891) 381.
Overtoun, an elegant modern Gothic mansion on the
W border of Old Eilpatrick parish, Dumbartonshire, 2
miles ENE of Dumbarton. Its owner, John Campbell
White (b. 1843; sue. 1884), was raised to the peerage
of the United Kingdom in 1893 under the title of Baron
Overtoun of Overtoun.— Ord. Sur., sh. 30, 1866.
Overtown, a large village in Cambusnethan parish,
Lanarkshire, near a station of its own name on the
Caledonian railway, li mile SE of Wishaw, and 3A
miles NW of Carluke. Lying amid a rich mineral
country, and inhabited chiefly by workers in the mineral
field, it has a post office with money order, savings
bank, and telegraph departments under Wishaw, a
school of the Coltness Iron Co., a Roman Catholic
school, and a quoad sacra parish church. The latter,
built in 1874-75 at a cost of over £2000, is an Early
English edifice, with a bold square tower 80 feet high,
and 600 sittings. The parish is in the presbytery of
Hamilton and the synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Pop.
(1861) 364, (1871) 1517, (1881) 1293, (1891) 1385; of
q.s. parish (1891) 2180.— Ord. Sur., sh. 23, 1865.
Oxcar, a rock in the Firth of Forth, SE of Inchcolm,
with a lighthouse (1884-86) 73 feet high.
Oxenfoord Castle, a seat of the Earl of Stair, in Cran-
ston parish, Edinburghshire, near the left bank of the
river Tyne, 1 J mile N of Ford, and 4 miles ESE of Dal-
keith. Remodelled towards the close of the 18th cen-
tury by Robert Adam, and subsequently much enlarged
by William Burn, it is a magnificent edifice, with ex-
tensive and beautiful grounds. It contains a fine
library, and portraits and paintings by Jameson,
Angelica Kauffmann, Thomson of Duddingston, etc.
The estate, called formerly Oxfurd, from 1661 till 1706
gave the title of Viscount Oxfurd, in the peerage of
Scotland, to the family of Macgill, whose heiress,
Elizabeth, in 1760 married her cousin, Sir John Dal-
rymple, Bart., of Cousland, a great-great-grandson of
the "first Viscount Stair. Their son, Sir John, in 1853
succeeded as eighth Earl of Stair.— Ore?. Sur., sh. 33,
1863. See Lochinoh, and John Small's Castles anal
Mansions of the Loiliians (Edinb. 1883).
Oxna, an island in Tingwall parish, Shetland, 3^ miles
SW of Scalloway. It has an utmost length of 6£ and
5f furlongs, and rises at Muekle Ward to 115 feet above
sea-level. Pop. (1871) 29, (1881) 30, (1891) 31.
Oxnam (anc. Oxenham), a hamlet and a parish of
SE Roxburghshire. The hamlet lies upon Oxnam
Water, 4J miles SE of Jedburgh, the nearest town and
railway station, and under which it has a post office.
The parish is bounded W and NW by Jedburgh,
NE by Eckford, E by Hounam, and SE and S by
Northumberland. Its utmost length, from NHW to
SSE, is lOf miles; its utmost breadth is 5A miles. In
order to unite the two detached portions of the parish
of Jedburgh with the main portion of that parish, a
part of the parish of Oxnam that abutted on these was
transferred by the Boundary Commissioners in 1891 to
Jedburgh; but to make up for this a part of the latter
parish lying east of the Oxnam Burn was transferred to
Oxnam. Oxnam Burn, rising at an altitude of 695 feet,
runs 5£ miles NW' through the interior, then about 2
miles along the Jedburgh boundary; and after quitting
this parish it winds 3 miles NW through the parish
of Crailino, till, after a total course of 9f miles and a
total descent of 455 feet, it falls into the Teviot at a
point J mile NNE of Crailing village. From \ mile
below its source, Kale Water (here Long Burn) runs
h\ miles north-north-eastward, mainly across the south-
eastern interior, but partly along the Jedburgh and
Hounam boundaries. The Coquet, a stream belonging
almost wholly to England, flows along the Northum-
berland border for the first J mile of its course ; a tribu-
tary of Jed Water traces 3 miles of the south-western
border; and the Jed itself, after receiving that tributary,
runs 2f miles north-north-westward along the same
boundary. The surface is hilly, sinking in the extreme
N to 340 feet above sea-level, and rising southward
1272
OYNE
thence to the rounded pastoral Chbviots. Chief eleva-
tions, from N to S, are Bloodylaws Hill (809 feet),
Cunzierton (1100), Birkenside (763), Peg Law (932),
Lawsuit Law (825), Dod Hill (977), Plenderleith (1198),
Hindhope Hill (1349), Brownhart Law (1664), Grind-
stone Law (1535), and Hungry Law (1643), of which
the three last rise on or close to the English Border.
Several of these heights command a magnificent view
of Teviotdale and the Merse away to the German Ocean.
The southern district, to the extent of one-third of all
the area, is nearly filled with masses of the Cheviots,
dome-like hills, smooth and green; the northern i3
much diversified in surface, including offshoots of the
Cheviots, and abounding in ravines, picturesque defiles,
and romantic dells; and the banks of Oxnam Burn are
beautifully undulated, and rise into various slopes of
the adjoining heights. Limestone is found near the
Jed, but cannot well be worked; and sandstone, hard,
white, and thought to belong to the Carboniferous for-
mation, abounds in the S, intersected by a thick dyke
of trap. Transition rocks prevail throughout the N.
The soil of the arable lauds is loamy, clayey, or gravelly.
Less than one-sixth of the entire area is in tillage;
plantations cover some 600 acres; and the rest of the
land is pastoral or waste. The Cheviot breed of sheep
is in great favour, and has been brought to a condition
of high excellence. A weak chalybeate spring near
Fairloans enjoyed once some medicinal repute, but
went eventually into neglect. The Roman Watling
Street from Yorkshire to the Lothians, running 7j
miles along the eastern and north-eastern boundary,
remains throughout much of its length in good preser-
vation; is still used as a drove road; and once was a
favourite camping-ground of Border Gypsies. Other
antiquities are a fairly entire Caledonian stone circle,
remains of another stone circle, several circular camps,
vestiges of Dolphiston and two other mediaeval forta-
lices, and remains of a pre-Reformation chapel. The
Rev. Thomas Boston, one of the founders of the Relief
Church, was minister for some time prior to 1757.
Giving off a portion to Edgerston quoad sacra parish,
Oxnam is in the presbytery of Jedburgh and the synod
of Merse and Teviotdale ; the living is worth £307.
The parish church, built in 1738, and enlarged and
restored in 18S0, contains 280 sittings. A specimen
of the old jougs is fixed outside the S wall. Oxnam
public school, with accommodation for 130 children,
has an average attendance of about 50, and a grant
amounting to nearly £55. Pop. (1801) 688, (1831)
676, (1861) 627, (1871) 695, (1881) 683, (1891) 684, of
whom 607 were in the ecclesiastical parish. — Ord. Sur.,
sh. 17, 1864.
Ox Rocks, rocky islets of Kirkholm parish, Wigtown-
shire. See Aires.
Oxton or Agston, a village in Channelkirk parish,
Berwickshire, near the right bank of Leader Water, 5
miles NNW of Lauder, under which there is a post and
money order office. The parish church and a public
school are in the village, as also the Bovial Club and
a reading-room and library.
Oykell. See Oikell.
Oyne, a parish in Garioch district, central Aberdeen-
shire, having a post office, with money order and savings
bank departments, also a railway telegraph office, and a
station on the Huntly section of the Great North of
Scotland railway, 4 miles W by N of Inveramsay Junc-
tion and 24J NW of Aberdeen. It is bounded N by
Culsalmond, NE by Rayne, E by Chapel of Garioch, S
by Monymusk, W by Keig and Premnay, and NW by
Insch. Its utmost length, from N to S,"is 6J miles; its
breadth varies between 1J and 3J miles; and its area is
10, 141 acres, of which 10J are water. The Don flows
2j miles east-south-eastward along the southern, the
Ury 3 miles south-eastward along the north-eastern
boundary; and to the Ury run the Burn of Shevock
along the Culsalmond border, and Gadie Burn across
the interior. The surface sinks along the Don to 300,
along the Ury to 283 feet; and thence it rises to 415 feet
at the parish church, 558 at Ardoyne, 1698 at the Mither