Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

SCALLOWAY
figured conspicuously in history. In 1568 its abbot,
along with some of the most distinguished men of the
kingdom, subscribed a bond obliging themselves to de-
fend Queen Mary.— Ord. Sur., sh. 3, 1856.
Scalloway, a seaport village in Tingwall parish, Shet-
land, 6 miles WSW of Lerwick. Its cottages are of a
better description than most in the northern islands;
and, arranged round a fine semicircular sweep of bay,
they combine with the sea-scene in front, and the old
castellated mansion of Scalloway towering above them
in the rear, to form a picturesque landscape. The har-
bour is naturally good, and is supposed to have given
to the locality the name of Scalloway, or ' the huts on
the bay' — Skali signifying 'a booth or shieling,' and
vagr, transmuted into way, 'a voe or roadstead.' The
village was anciently a burgh, and the capital of Shet-
land. In the 18th century most of the great Shetland
landowners had residences here. The great bulk of the
present population are fishermen and their families,
there being 57 fishing boats belonging to the place in
1894. The inhabitants are industrious and persevering,
and the fishermen very fearless. A large quay, ware-
houses, and a cooperage were erected a good many years
ago, for the accommodation of the fisheries; and Scallo-
way has a post office, with money order, savings bank,
and telegraph departments, a branch of the Union
Bank, a U.P. Church mission station, a Congregational
chapel, an Oddfellows' lodge, and a public school. Pop.
(1861) 448, (1871) 525, (1881) 648, (1891) 732.
Scalloway Castle, situated above the village, was
built in 1600 by Patrick Stewart, the tyrannical Earl
of Orkney. A previous mansion of the Earl, at Sum-
burgh, having given way in consequence of the sandiness
of its foundation, the despot compelled the inhabitants,
on pain of forfeiting their property, to find as many
men as were required for speedily building a new castle,
and to supply them gratuitously with provisions; and
he superintended and matured the execution of his
ignoble plan by means of a military force. The castle,
though now a mere shell, exhibits plentiful and dis-
tinct indications of its original condition. It is a
structure of three storeys, surmounted at each angle by
a small round turret. The windows are very large; but
the principal door is quite disproportionate and even
puny. On the ground floor are an excellent kitchen
and vaulted cellars, with a broad flight of ascending
steps; and above are a spacious hall and suites of ordi-
nary sized chambers.
Scalpa or Scalpay, an island in the Harris distriot
of the Hebrides, with a post, money order, and telegraph
office under Portree. It lies at the entrance of East Loch
Tarbert, £ mile from the N, and 3 miles from the S
headland. It measures 2| miles in extreme length,
and lj mile in extreme breadth; but is much indented,
and cut into small peninsulas, by the sea. It is low
and heath-clad, and consists of irregular protuberances
of gneiss. A bed of serpentine, generally placed at a
high angle, and often having a vertical position, tra-
verses a promontory in the extreme E. Near the W
extremity of the island are two of the best natural har-
bours in the Hebrides. At the SE extremity lies Glass
Island, with a lighthouse having a fixed white light
visible at a distance of 17 miles. Pop. (1841) 81, (1861)
388, (1871) 421, (1881) 540, (1891) 517.
Scalpay, an island of Strath parish, Skye, Inverness-
shire, separated from the E coast of Skye by Scalpay
Sound or Loch na Cairidh, which, at two points, is less
than J mile broad. It lies off the mouth of Loch Ainort
and is 7 furlongs SSE of Raasay, 9£ miles SSW of
Applecross, and 7A W by N of Kyle Akin. It is of
an irregularly oval shape of 4£ by 3 miles; and has
the longer axis from NW to SE. Most of its area is
occupied by a grassy mountain (994 feet) of uneven
summit and rounded outline, displaying much bare
rock, yet nowhere marked by asperities or wearing a
barren aspect. The descent in most places, but espe-
cially along the side towards Skye, comes down in
l?°°Sl ■ gentle decliT ities to the sea, but towards
the .Ni it terminates in bold though not very high
SCARBA
cliffs. The Sound of Scalpay is a noted rendezvous of
the herring fleet; and it abounds in oysters, some of
which, both fish and shell, are black, while others are
of a dingy blue colour. These oysters are supposed to
be only a variety of the common species, and to derive
their unwonted hue from the dark mud in which they
breed. On the island are vestiges of an ancient chapel
dedicated to St Francis. Pop. (1841) 90, (1861) 70,
(1871) 48, (1881) 37, (1891) 49.
Scalpay Sound. See Scalpay.
Scalpsie Bay, a bay (9 J x 5 furl.) on the SW coast of
the island of Bute. It penetrates the boundary between
the parish of Kingarth and the parish of Rothesay ; and
is screened on the N side by a small promontory called
Ardscalpsie Point (90 feet), 1£ mile ESE of the S end
of Inchmarnock.
Seamadale, Loch. See Kilninvee.
Scapa Flow, a large expanse of sea interspersed with
land in the southern parts of Orkney. Irrespective of
lateral recesses and outlets, it measures about 15 miles
in extreme length from N to S, 8 miles in mean
breadth, and 45 or 47 miles in circumference. In a
general view it may be regarded as having Pomona on
the N, Bun-ay and South Ronaldshay on the E, the
Pentland Firth on the S, the island of Hoy on the W,
and the small islands of Cava, Risa, Pharay, Calf, Flotta,
Switha, and Hunda in its bosom. In the extreme NW
it opens by Hoy Sound, 7 miles in length and 2 in mean
breadth, to the Atlantic Ocean; in the NE it opens by
Holm Sound, 3 £ miles by 2, to the German Ocean; in
the middle of the E side it opens by Water Sound, 4
miles by £ mile, to the same ocean ; and in the S it has
the island of Swona near the middle of the line where it
becomes identified with the Pentland Firth. This isle-
begirt sea abounds, in its numerous recesses, with safe
roadsteads and fine harbours. The chief is Longhope,
in Walls, quite landlocked, capacious enough for the
largest fleet, and possessing good anchorage and suf-
ficient depth of water for the largest ship in the British
navy; and others are Holm Sound, Widewall Bay, St
Margaret's Hope, and Panhope. The tide, at its entering
Scapa Flow from the SW, and through the Sound of
Hoy, flows with rapidity akin to its current through
the Pentland Firth; but it gradually slackens, till its
motion becomes scarcely perceptible. At one part of
the coast of Graemsay lying in the Sound of Hoy, the
current, in consequence of being intercepted by a reef
of rocks, runs 9 hours in one direction and 3 in the
opposite.
Scarba, an island in the Hebridean parish of Jura,
Argyllshire. It lies 1£ mile N of the island of Jura,
and 3J miles WNW of Craignish Point on the main-
land. Its length is 3J miles, and its greatest breadth is
2j; but its mean breadth is much less. Most of it con-
sists of a single mountain of an oblong conoidal form,
which towers aloft to a height of 1500 feet, and is con-
spicuous at a distance as much for its outline as for its
altitude. The shores on the S, the W, and the N are
generally high, rocky, and precipitous, and in some
places consist of a perpendicular face or sheer fall of
several hundred feet of the mountain. All these shores
and the high grounds, wherever not quite naked, are for
the most part covered with heath. But the E side of
the island is eminently beautiful ; it recedes in a semi-
circular curvature from the sea, so as to enclose a fine
bay in a magnificent amphitheatre; it rises up along
the seaboard with a uniform and quite practicable
acclivity; it has a subsidiary and comparatively low
ridge of rising ground along the skirt of the interior
mountain; it is sheeted over with verdure and with
natural woods, occasionally interrupted by projecting
rocks; and in all the magnificent sweep of its recess
from the bay, it commands a view of the variegated and
intricate channel of the Slate islands, with the sound of
Oban, and the distant ranges of mountains that extend
from Ben Oruachan to Ben Nevis. Quartz rock, dipping
towards the E in angles of 40 or 50 degrees, forms the
principal body of the mountain ; but it alternates with
and passes into micaceous schist; and both it and the
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