Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

SONACHAN HOUSE
aid of the compass; and quicksands are occasionally
formed, and fitfully shift their localities, to the im-
minent peril of every intruder who has not watched the
impressions made upon the ground by almost every
successive tide.
The fisheries of the Solway are extensive and various.
Some curious particulars respecting their former con-
dition are furnished in Scott's novel of Redgauntlct.
The mode of fishing is principally by stake-nets, which
are wholly submerged by the tide, and which, when the
tide is out, contribute their lank proportions to the pre-
vailing dreariness of the landscape. Salmon, herling,
sea-trout, flounders, and codlings are taken in large
quantities; turbot and soles occur, but are not plenti-
ful; herrings at a former period were in some seasons
caught and cured in great abundance, but of late they
appear but occasionally, and not in large numbers; and
mussels and cockles are gathered along the shores by
poor persons, and carried weekly to the markets of
Dumfries and Carlisle. The fishings usually commence
early in March, and close before the end of September.
The Solway, in spite of the singular character of its
tides, and in spite of the opening of railways, is still
of value to Dumfriesshire and Kirkcudbrightshire for
its navigation; much more so, in proportion, than it
is to Cumberland. Not only the seaboard, but most
of the interior of the counties, is far distant from Scot-
tish coal of any sort, and especially from coal of good
quality, so is largely dependent on Workington, White-
haven, and other places near the mouth of the English
side of the Solway, for supplies of fuel. The amount of
tonnage in vessels employed in importing coals is, in
consequence, aggregately great. The export trade, too,
of the two counties, or the outlet for the produce of
their arable farms, their grazing-grounds, their sheep-
walks, their dairies, and their poultry yards, is mainly
with Liverpool and other English towns on the western
coast, and is largely carried on by the navigation of the
Solway. Ordinary tides rise about 10 or 12 feet, and
spring tides about 20; and they bring enough of water
up to the very head of the firth to let vessels of 120
tons move up the channel of the stream to the foot of
the river Sark. The Solway has long been gradually
receding from the land ; it once filled the large area now
occupied by Lochar Moss, and about the end of the
18th century covered lands which are now verdant or
arable 1 mile distant from its present high-water mark.
The Solway Railway Viaduct, described under Annan,
was reopened, after reconstruction, in 18S4.
Sonachan House, a mansion in Kilchrenan parish,
Argyllshire, on the SE shore of Loch Awe, 12 miles N
by W of Inveraray.
Sorbie, a village and a coast parish of SE Wigtown-
shire. The village stands 2| miles W of Garliestown
and J mile S by E of Sorbie station on the Wigtown-
shire railway (1875-77), this being 6 miles N by W of
Whithorn and 6J S of Wigtown. It has a post and
railway telegraph office, a neat little Free church with
belfried gable to the street, a handsome public school
erected in 1875-76 at a cost of more than £1000, and a
large creamery; but its damask factory, established
about 1790, and long famous through many parts of
Britain for the quality of its goods, is now a thing of
the past. Pop. (1891) 179.
The parish, containing also the seaport village of
Garliestown, consisted anciently of two divisions,
Great and Little Sourbie, each with a church ; and now
comprises the ancient parishes of Sourbie, Cruggleton,
and Kirkmadrine, united about the middle of the 17th
century. It is bounded NW and N by Kirkinner, NE
and E by Wigtown Bay, S and SW by Whithorn, and
W by Glasserton. Its utmost length, from E by N to
W by S, is 6 miles; its utmost breadth is 5| miles; and
its area is 11,366£ acres, of which 1608J are foreshore
and 147 water.* The coast, with a total extent of log
* According to the Ordnance Survey, but this water-area has
been almost reduced to ml by the draining in lS6tf-63 of Dow Al-
ton Loch, at the meeting-point of Sorbie, Kirkinner, and Glasser-
ton parishes
SORN
miles, is low and flat on the NE, fringed by the broad
expanse of the Baldoon Sands; but on the E is rocky
and precipitous, in places rising to over 100 feet, and
pierced near Palmallet Point by two curious caves, the
larger of which is 120 feet long, 100 high, and 36 wide.
The chief indentations are Garliestown Bay and Rigg
or Cruggleton Bay, which are flanked on the N by
Eagerness Point, on the S by Sliddery or Cruggleton
Point. Both bays are very convenient for shipping,
and well adapted for the prosecution of the fisheries.
The interior, attaining a maximum altitude of 225 feet
at the Gallow Hill, is prettily diversified with gentle
eminences and fertile vales ; and from several standpoints
one gains a superb prospect of the Irish Sea, the Solway
Firth, and their far-away mountain screens. One of the
vales runs eastward through the centre of the parish,
from the bed of Dowalton Loch to the head of Garlie-
stown Bay. The rocks are chiefly Silurian; and the
soil, a heavy clay in some of the vales, is elsewhere
mostly of dry brownish earth mixed more or less with
till or gravel. The old Tower or Place of Sorbie, 1 mile
to the E of the village, is a mass of ruin 60 feet high,
which forms two sides of a quadrangle, and has been
four storeys high. It has lost its pepperbox turrets,
and the fine old trees which till lately surrounded it
have nearly all been felled. From the beginning of the
16th till the latter part of the 17th century, it was the
seat of the Hannays, one of whom, Patrick, served the
'Winter King' in the Thirty Years' War, and published
a very scarce volume of Poems (1622). Another minor
poet, Robert Cowper, M.D. (1750-1818), was born at
Balsier Farm. The antiquities of Cruggleton, Eager-
ness, and Kirkmadrine are noticed separately, as also
is Galloway House, whose owner, the Earl of Gallo-
way, is chief proprietor. Sorbie is in the presbytery of
Wigtown and the synod of Galloway; the living is worth
£271. The parish church, successor to one at Sorbie
village, is situated at Millisle, 1J mile WNW of Gar-
liestown. Built in 1S74-76 at a cost of £2500, it is a
cruciform Early English edifice, with 450 sittings, a
SW tower and spire over 60 feet high, and a stained E
window in memory of the late Earl of Galloway. In
1890 the church was renovated and a new manse built.
There are tile works at Millisle. Two public schools,
Garliestown and Sorbie, with respective accommodation
for 188 and 160 children, have an average attendance
of about 155 and 120, and grants amounting to over
£160 and £115. Pop. (1801) 1091, (1831) 1412, (1861)
1814, (1871) 1667, (1881) 1696, (1891) 1563.— Orel. Sur.,
shs. 4, 2, 1857-56.
Sorn, a village and a parish in the NE of Kyle dis-
trict, Ayrshire. The village stands on the right bank
of the river Ayr, 2J miles ENE of Catrine, and 4J E of
Mauchline, under which it has a post office. The Sorn
Constitutional Club was erected and presented to the
Sorn Constitutional Association by James Somervell,
Esq., of Sorn Castle. Pop. (1861) 363, (1871) 393,
(1881) 354, (1891) 302.
The parish, containing also the town of Catrine, was
disjoined from Mauchline in 1692, and bore for some
time the name of Dalgain. It is bounded N by Gal-
ston, NE by Avondale in Lanarkshire, E by Muirkirk,
S by Auchinleck, and W by Mauchline. Its utmost
length, from E to W, is 6j miles; its utmost breadth,
from N to S, is 6J miles; and its area is 30 square miles
or 19,300 acres, of which 116£ are water. A small
detached part of the parish, situated at Garfield and
comprising 11 acres, was transferred by the Boundary
Commissioners in 1891 to the parish of Mauchline, by
which it had been surrounded. The river Ayr, flowing
between steep, bold, copse-clad banks, has here a west-
by-southerly course of 9| miles — for the first 3 § furlongs
along the Muirkirk, and for the last 7 J along the Mauch-
line boundary. Cleugh Burn runs 4 miles south-west-
ward to the Ayr between Sorn Castle and the parish
church, and makes several romantic waterfalls; whilst
Cessnook Water, rising on Auchmannoch Muir, runs 4 J
miles south-westward, till it passes off into Mauchline
on its way to the river Irvine. The surface sinks in
1493