Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

SOUTHEND
Dinmont' in Guy Mannering. Mansions are Wolfe-
lee, Abbotrule, and Glendouglas. Giving off a por-
tion to Edgerston quoad sacra parish, Southdean is in
the presbytery of Jedburgh and the synod of Merse and
Teviotdale; the living is worth £351. The old church
stands in ruins on the right bank of Jed Water, 1J mile
S by E of Chesters. The present parish church, at
Chesters, successor to one of 1690, was built in 1876,
and is a tasteful Early English edifice, one of whose
stained windows is a memorial to the poet Thomson.
Two public schools — Glen Douglas and Southdean — with
respective accommodation for 77 and 110 children, have
an average attendance of about 55 and 50, and grants
of nearly £60 and £55. Pop. (1861) 759, (1871) 753
(1881) 724, (1891) 672.— Ord. Sur., shs. 17, 1864.
Southend, a village and a parish at the southern
extremity of the peninsula of Kintyre, Argyllshire.
The village stands 9J miles S by W of Campbeltown,
under which it has a post office, with money order,
savings bank, and telegraph departments.
The parish, comprising the ancient parishes of Kil-
colmkill and Kilblane, includes the island of Sanda and
the adjacent islets, and has been called Southend since
the Reformation. It is bounded N by the parish of
Campbeltown, and on all other sides by the sea. Its
utmost length, from E to W, is 10§ miles; its breadth,
from N to S, varies between 2g and 6 J miles; and its
area is 31, 160 acres, of which 277£ are foreshore and 81 J
water. The coast, 20$ miles in extent, is slightly in-
dented by three or four little baylets capable of affording
anchorage to vessels, and terminates on the SW in the
bold broad promontory of the Mull of Kintyre. It is
chiefly sandy in the E, but high, bold, and very rocky
in the W, and in its high bold parts abounds with caves,
and presents a striking appearance as seen from the sea.
The interior exhibits a picturesque variety of heights
and hollows, pastoral hills and arable vales, low grounds
and heathy eminences. Chief elevations, from E to W,
are Kerran Hill (775 feet), Tod Hill (610), Cnoe Mor
(399), *Cnoc Odhar (907), Beinn na Lice (1405), and
"Cnoc Moy (1462), where asterisks mark those summits
that culminate on the northern border. The last, Cnoc
Moy, commands a magnificent panoramic view. Two
brooks, Conieglen Water and the Breackerie Water,
which drain the surface southward to the sea, are sub-
ject to sudden inundating freshets, and sometimes cut
out for themselves reaches of new channel. Mica slate,
trap, Old Red Sandstone, and limestone are the prin-
cipal rooks; and the trap has been quarried for masonry,
the limestone worked for manure. The soil on the
eastern seaboard is a light loam mixed with sand or
gravel; that on the slopes of the hills is mostly a light
gravel incumbent on till. The proportion of arable
land to pasture is nearly as 1 to 15. Antiquities, other
than that noticed under Dunaverty Castle, are remains
of Scandinavian forts, some ancient standing-stones, and
ruins or vestiges of three pre-Reformation chapels, one
of which is said to have been founded by St Columba.
Mansions, noticed separately, are Carsket and Keil;
and the Duke of Argyll owns nearly five-sixths of the
entire rental. Southend is in the presbytery of Kin-
tyre and the synod of Argyll; the living is worth £193.
The parish church was built in 1774, and contains 600
sittings. There is a Free Church preaching station ; the
U.P. church, originally Relief, was built in 1798. Two
public schools, Glenbreackerie and Southend, with re-
spective accommodation for 45 and 150 children, have
an average attendance of about 40 and 75, and grants
of over £60 and £115. Pop. (1801) 1825, (1831) 2120,
(1861) 1214, (1881) 955, (1891) 844, of whom 116 were
Gaelic-speaking.— Ord. Sur., sh. 12, 1872.
Southerness, a village in Kirkbean parish, SE Kirk-
cudbrightshire, at Southerness Point, on the Solway
Firth, 10 miles SE of Dalbeattie, and 16 S of Dumfries.
It was built some time after the middle of the 18th cen-
tury by Oswald of Auehencruive near Ayr, in the expec-
tation of its becoming a mining-village and depot for
coal; but the desired mineral having been vainly searched
for in the neighbourhood, the village became transmuted
SPEDDOCH
into a sea-bathing retreat. Southerness Point screens
the W side of the entrance of the estuary of the Nith,
and is crowned by a lighthouse that had been disused
for many years, but was restored in 1894 at an expense
of £250.— Ord Sur., sh. 6. 1863.
South Esk See Esk, Sotjth.
Southfield, a village in Dairy parish, Ayrshire, ljj
mile NE of the town.
Southfield, a village in Slamannan parish, Stirling-
shire, 5 furlongs W of Binniehill, and 1 mile W by S of
Slamannan station.
South Hall, a mansion in Inverchaolain parish,
Argyllshire, on a picturesque reach of the Kyles of
Bute, 5 miles NNW of Rothesay. Its owner is Col.
Duncan Campbell (b. 1814 ; sue. 1864). The woods
about the mansion-house were planted by a former pro-
prietor, General Campbell, to represent one of the inci-
dents of the battle of Waterloo, at which he fought as
an officer of a Highland regiment. The square patch
of Scotch firs in the centre of a large clump of larches,
at the end of the woods nearest Loch Striven, represents
the'Highlanders formed in square resisting the onslaughts
of Napoleon's cavalry. — Ord. Sur., sh. 29, 1873.
Southwick. See Colvekd.
Soutra, an ancient parish formerly on the SW border
of Haddingtonshire, and annexed since 1589 to the con-
tiguous parish of Fala in Edinburghshire, to which
county it was transferred by the Boundary Commissioners
in 1891. The hospital and church of 'Soltre' stood
near the top of Soutra Hill (1209 feet), 5f miles SE of
Pathhead, 6 E by S of Tynehead station (only 3| as the
crow flies), and 16| SE of Edinburgh. The hospital
was founded by Malcolm IV., in or a little before 1164,
for pilgrims, travellers, and poor folk, and was dedi-
cated to the Holy Trinity. Mary of Gueldres annexed
its lands to Trinity College, Edinburgh, in 1462; and
after the Reformation its church ceased to be maintained
as a distinct parochial charge, and the buildings fell
into ruin. About 1850 every vestige of wall and foun-
dations was dug up and carted away for building dykes
and farm steadings, with the exception of a small aisle,
which in 1686 had been appropriated as a burial vault
by the Pringles of Beadsman's Acres. Soutra Hill is the
most westerly ridge of the Lammermuirs, and commands
a view, over the Lothians and the Firth of Forth, to
the hills of Fife.— Ord. Sur., sh. 33, 1863. See David
Laing's Registrum Domus de Soltre (Bannatyne Club,
1861), and the Rev. J. Hunter's Fala and Soutra (1892).
Soya, See Soay.
Soyea, a pastoral islet of Assynt parish, W Suther-
land, off the mouth of Loch Inver, 2J miles W by S of
Lochinver village. It measures 5J by 1J furlongs,
and rises to a height of 110 feet. — Ord. Sur., sh,
107, 1881.
Spango Water. See Kirkconnel.
Spean, a river of Laggan and Kilmonivaig parishes,
Inverness-shire, issuing from Loch Laggan (819 feet),
and winding 20J miles westward till, after a descent of
728 feet, it falls into the Lochy at Bridge of Mucomir,
3 furlongs below the Lochy's efflux from Loch Lochy.
At a point 1J mile below Loch Laggan, the Spean re-
ceives from the S the large stream emitted by Loch
Ossian; and near Bridge of Roy it receives from the N
the Roy. Its other affluents, though numerous, are in-
dividually inconsiderable. Its salmon, sea trout, and
river trout afford capital sport. At Spean Bridge, west
of Bridge of Roy, there is a station of the West High-
land railway. On 9 Sept. 1873 the Queen, en route for
Inverlochy, ' drove along through Glenspean, which is
very fine and grand in some parts, the road looking
down upon the rapid, rushing, gushing river, as it whirls
along embedded in rocks, and overhung with wood, while
high ranges of hills, fine and pointed in shape, are seen
in the distance, rising peak upon peak. Along this road
I had driven when staying at Ardveeikib, but I had
forgotten it.'— Ord. Sur., shs. 63, 62, 1873-75.
Spean Bridge. See Kilmonivaig.
Speddoch, a mansion in Holywood parish, Dumfries-
shire, 10 miles WjSTW of Dumfries. Its owner is John
1495