Gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 2

LOCHABER.
737
neighbouring paper-mills. It possesses the
advantage unusual in such a village of being
supplied with water brought in pipes. There
is a brewery and a Cameronian meeting-house
in the village.
LOCHABER, a district in the southern
part of Inverness-shire, bounded by Badenoch
on the east, Athole, Rannoch, and Argyleshire
on the south, on the west by Ardgower and
Moidart, and on the north by the lakes and
canal in the Great Glen of Albin. In it are
found the sources of the Spey, Loch Laggan,
and Ben Nevis. The district partakes of the
wildest mountainous character of Inverness-
shire. The " braes of Lochaber," it will be
remembered, are the subject of Scottish song.
LOCHALSH, a parish in the south-wes-
tern corner of Ross-shire, enclosed by the
sea on the west, north, and south sides. The
indentation of the sea called Loch Carron is
the northern boundary, and that of Lochalsh
the southern. The peninsula thus enclosed,
is, in its inhabited part, ten miles long, by five
broad. The district is of the usual pastoral
and hilly character of this quarter of the West
Highlands Population in 1821, 2492.
LOCHAR-MOSS, a morass of several
miles extent, lying to the east of Dumfries,
adjoining the Solway Firth, and divided into
two parts by Lochar water. The common
tradition respecting the origin of this waste is,
that it was originally a forest, that it was then
overflowed by the sea, and that by the recess
of the inundation, it finally became a peat-
moss. It is watered by a small river called
the Lochar Water. So late as the days of
Bruce it seems to have been in an impas-
sable state ; for it is recorded by tradition,
that, when that hero went from Torthorwald
Castle to meet Cumin at Dumfries, he went
round by the skirts of the Tinwald Hills, thus
making a considerable circuit along the upper
extremity of the moss. That it was once co-
vered by the sea, is proved by the quantity of
shells found beneath the stratum of moss, but
more unequivocally by several curraghs (or
boats of one piece of wood, used by the prime-
val inhabitants of this island) having been dug
up in the course of peat-casting, many miles
from the present shore of the Solway. The
origin of the road over Lochar-moss is remark-
able : A stranger, more than a century ago, sold
some goods upon credit to certain merchants
at Dumfries. Before the time appointed
for payment he disappeared, and neither he
nor his heirs ever claimed the money. The
merchants, in expectation of the demand, very
honestly put out the sum to interest ; and af-
ter a lapse of more than forty years, the town
of Dumfries obtained a gift of the money, and
applied it towards making this useful road.
Agricultural improvement is now gradually
diminishing the extent of the morass.
LOCHAR WATER,asmall dull stream
running through the above morass, falling into
the Solway at Lochar-mouth, near the village
of Blackshaws in the parish of Caerlaverock.
LOCHBROOM, a mountainous pastoral
parish in the western part of Ross-shire and
partly in the county of Cromarty. It is inter-
sected by a river and two arms of the sea call-
ed Loch- Broom and Little Loch- Broom, from
which it takes its name. They are described un-
der the head Broom (Loch). The parishis com-
puted to extend thirty miles in length and twenty
in breadth. Greinord lies to the south and its west-
ern boundary is washed by the Atlantic ocean :
Besides the mountainous and hilly parts, which
pasture a great number of black cattle, there are
many fertile pieces of arable land. At the head
of Loch-Broom stands the parish church. The
modern fishing village of Ullapool is situated in
the district on the north side of the same arm of
the sea — Population in 1821, 4540.
LOCHCARRON, a mountainous pas-
toral parish in the western part of Ross^shire,
lying betwixt Lochalsh on the south and Ap-
plecross on the north, extending fourteen miles
in length, by from five to six in breadth.
It takes its name from an arm of the sea,
which is projected inland in a north-easterly
direction. On its northern shore, near its inner
extremity, is the parish church. The small river
Carron falls into the loch at its head ; Loch-
carron is the seat of a presbytery Popula-
tion in 1821, 1932.
LOCHDUICH, an arm of the sea on the
west coast of Ross-shire, protruded from Loch-
alsh into the district of Kintail.
LOCHEE, a small village in the parish of
Liff, Forfarshire, about three miles from Dundee.
LOCHGELLIE, a village and small lake
of the same name, in the parish of Auchterder-
ran, Fifeshire. The village is eight miles
north-west of Kirkaldy and seven east of Dun-
fermline, and is inhabited principally by weavers.
It is entitled to hold three annual fairs. The
lake is in the neighbourhood, and extends to
5 B