Gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

452
F Y V I E.
well be imagined that such a system of govern-
ment is about the worst that could be devised
for the improvement of the town and port. A
branch of the Aberdeen bank is situated in the
town. In 1 590, Lord Saltoun procured a char-
ter from the crown, empowering him to institute
a college at Fraserburgh, and a building for
this end was partly reared and still exists, but
the plan was ultimately abandoned. There is
a large episcopal chapel in Fraserburgh, the
present incumbent of which is the Right Re-
verend Dr. Jolly, the bishop of the diocese of
Moray. The fast-days of the kirk are gene-
rally the first Thursdays of May and Novem-
ber Population of town and parish in 1821,
2831.
FRESWTCK (WATER OF), a small
river in the north-eastern part of Caithness,
running into the German Ocean at Freswick
Bay. On the south side of the bay is Fres-
wick House, and still farther south is the pro-
montory called the Point of Freswick.
FREUCHIE, (LOCH) a small lake in
the parish of Dull, in the mid part of Perth-
shire, from which flows the small river Bran,
a tributary of the Tay.
FRODA, an islet on the west coast of
Skye.
FRUCHIE, a small village in the parish
cf Falkland, lying on the south side of the
Howe of Fife, above a mile east from the
parish town. Its inhabitants are nearly all
weavers. It has a meeting house of the United
Secession Church.
FUDIA, or FUDAY, a small fertile is-
land of the Hebrides, lying betwixt Barray and
South Uist.
FUR A, an islet lying off the west coast
of Ross-shire, four and a half miles west of
Udrigill Head, on the east side of Loch
Broom.
FYNE, (LOCH) an arm of the sea in
Argyleshire, commencing at the north end of
Arran, and projected into the country in a
north-easterly course for thirty-two miles,
bounding the district of Cowal on the west,
and terminating at a point not far distant from
the ridge of hills which divides Dumbarton-
shire from Argyleshire. At first, for about
fourteen miles, its breadth is nearly three miles.
It then, as it inclines towards the east, becomes
generally only half that breadth, and occasional-
ly only a mile. It receives many small tribu-
tary streams. Half way up, on the west side,
it sends out a creek called Loch Gilp, from
which, to the Sound of Jura, across the pen-
insula of Kintyre, is cut the Crinan Canal.
There is a public road along, or not far from
both its shores, from the head to the foot. Its
banks are more commonly flat than hilly, and
are embellished with many fine plantations,
pleasure-grounds, seats, and villages. Within
five miles of its head, on the west side, occu-
pying a beautiful situation on the edge of a
bay, stands the town of Inverary. The Loch
forms many romantic interesting peninsulae,
and a few islets. Loch Fyne enjoys the re-
putation of furnishing the best herrings of any
found on the coasts of Scotland, and this is a
character by no means of modern acquisition.
It is known to have been, for many ages, fre-
quented by innumerable shoals of herrings, at a
particular season of the year, when the wa-
ters exhibit a very lively spectacle from the
number of boats engaged in catching them.
Their chief peculiarity is the smallness of
their gut or internal matter. From twenty
to thirty thousand barrels are drawn every
year, but it is highly probable that double that
quantity, the produce of other and less famous
seas, are palmed on the public as " genuine
Loch Fyne Herrings."
FYVIE, an inland parish in Aberdeenshire,
of about thirteen miles in length, by eight in
breadth, intersected by the river Ythan, bound-
ed on the north by Montquhitter, on the east
by Methlick. on the south by Old Meldrum,
Daviot, and Rayne, and on the west by Auch-
terless. The surface is irregular, and in the
low grounds the land is fertile, and in many
places beautifully planted. Amidst some fine
pleasure-grounds on the left bank of the Ythan,
stands Fyvie Castle, an edifice in the Gothic
taste. A short way down the stream, near
the parish church, are the ruins of a monastery
of the Tyronenses, which had a pleasant view
of the neighbouring woods. It was founded
along with the parish church in honour of the
Virgin Mary, by Fergus, Earl of Buchan, in
the year 1179, and was given to the abbey of
Arbroath. The road from Aberdeen to Banff
passes through the parish, along the right bank
of the Ythan. There are two episcopal
chapels, one at the village of Woodhead, and
another at Meiklefolla. — Population in 1821,
3002.