Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

ALS
ALT
and on the east by the parish of Rosskeen ; and
stretches 12 miles inland, in a north-west direction,
along the course of the water of Ness and the Alt.
The kirk-town is situated near the coast, at the
junction of the road running along the north side of
the frith of Cromarty — whose undulating waters al-
most bathe the road — with that running north, by
Altdarg, to the frith of Tain. In the higher part of
the parish, surrounded by wild and uncultivated hills,
are two fine fresh water lochs, Loch Moir, and Loch
Glass, both of which are fed by tributaries descend-
ing from Rama-Cruinach, and the former of which
discharges itself by the water of Ness, and the other
by the Alt burn, both running south-east into the
frith of Cromarty. The former stream is crossed by
the bridge of Alness, and the ferry of Alness is near
its mouth. Navar, the seat of Sir Hector Munro, is
a fine building, 2 miles south-west from the bridge
of Alness. Patron of the parish, the Hon. Wm.
Mackenzie. Stipend £230 19s. lid., with a manse,
and a glebe valued at £10. Schoolmaster's salary
£28, with £20 fees, and some other small emoluments.
Scholars 60. There are three private schools at-
tended by about 90 scholars. In July 1834, there
were 200 persons in the parish «ho could not read.
The language generally spoken is an unclassical
dialect of the Gaelic. Population, in 1801, 1,072;
in 1831, 1,437. Houses 309. Assessed property
£4,277. Iron and silver ores have been found in
this parish. Miss Spence, while residing at the
manse of Alness, in the month of July, thus describes
the effect of twilight : " You can imagine nothing-
half so beautiful as the summer-evenings in Scot-
land. The dark curtain of night is scarcely spread in
this northern hemisphere, before
. l Jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain's top.'
The firmament retains a glow of light, often bril-
liantly heightened by the aurora borealis — here called
the merry dancers — which has a grand effect ; and,
when the softer shades of evening prevail, and throw
into partial gloom the sleeping landscape, it is even
at midnight, during the months of May, June, and
July, only like our evening-twilight, when every ob-
ject is indistinctly visible. The grandeur of the
mountains, the pellucid tranquillity of the rivers,
and the deep gloom of the dark fir woods, altogether
form a scene no person who has not beheld it can
picture."
ALSH (Loch), a narrow and irregularly-shaped
arm of the sea, stretching between the south-east
point of Skye and the mainland ; and penetrating in-
land into the district of Kintail in Ross-shire by two
arms, — the one running 4 miles north-north-east under
the name of Loch Loung ; and the other one, called
Loch Duich, stretching about 6 miles south-east.
The entrance to Loch Alsh, from the west, is by the
Kyle Haken, or Kyle Akin ; that from the south, by
the Kyle Rhee, or Kyle Rich. The latter strait is
considerably narrower than the former, and its scenery
is very beautiful. Macculloch thus describes it :
" Profound and shadowy ravines, rude, broken, and
diversified by rocks, mark the passage of waters that
are scarcely seen till they have reached the shore ;
their banks being sprinkled with wood, which, dense
below, gradually diminishes in ascending, till a single
tree is at last seen perched high aloft, the last out-
post of the rude forest. These declivities often ter-
minate in the sea by precipices, in which the oak and
the birch are seen starting from every crevice ;
sometimes nearly trailing their leaves and branches
in the water which they overhang, and almost de-
ceiving us into the feeling that we are navigating a
fresh-water lake, — a deception maintained by the
manner in which the land closes in on all sides."
As the strait narrows, the sides become more rockv
and precipitous, seeming to oppose an impenetrable
barrier to the navigator, while the tide rushes through
it with great rapidity. But, the kyle once cleared, all
tide is at an end for a time, and we instantaneously
find ourselves in the calm wide basin of Loch Alsh.
The Kyle Haken is remarkable for its irregular tides.
At its mouth there is an excellent ferry. A good
road leads to this point from Broadford in the isle of
Skye ; and there is a road leading from the other
side of the ferry, northwards, to the ferry of Strome
on Loch Carron, a distance of 14 miles ; and another
branching off from it, and running eastwards to the
Dornie ferry on Loch Loung. Kyle Haken or Moil
castle is a small ruined fortalice on the shore ot
Skye, at the eastern end of the kyle. Balmacarra,
the seat of the late Sir Hugh Innes, is a tine man-
sion on the northern shore of Loch Alsh. On the
small rocky islet of Donan, at the point of confluence
of Loch Loung and Loch Duich, stands Ellandonan
castle, once the manor-place of the ' high chiefs of
Kintail.' It is a magnificent ivy-clad ruin, backed
by a noble range of hills. This castle was originally
conferred on Colin Fitzgerald, son to the earl of
Desmond, in 1266, by Alexander III. In 1331 it
was the scene of a severe act of retributive justice
by Randolph, Earl of Murray, then warden of Scot-
land, who executed fifty delinquents here, and placed
their heads on the walls of the castle. In 1537,
Donald, fifth baron-of Slate, lost his life in an attack
on Ellandonan castle, then belonging to John Mac-
kenzie, ninth baron of Kintail, and was buried by
his followers on the lands of Ardelve, on the western
side of Loch Loung. William, fifth earl of Seaforth,
having joined the Stuart cause in 1715, his estate
and honours were forfeited to the Crown, and his
castle burnt. The attack on Ellandonan castle, by
the baron of Slate, is the subject of a ballad by Sir
Walter Scott's friend, Colin Mackenzie, Esq. of
Portmore, published in the ' Scottish Minstrelsy,'
[Vol. IV. pp. 351—361, last edition.] In the intro-
duction to this ballad it is erroneously stated that
Haco, king of Norway, after his defeat at Largs in
1263, was overtaken in the narrow passage which
divides the island of Skye from the coasts of Inver-
ness and Ross, and slain, along with many of his
followers, in attempting his escape through the west-
ern kyle ; and that these straits bear to this day
appellations commemorating these events; the one
being called Kyle Rhee, or the King's Kyle, and
the other Kyle Haken. It is matter of familiar
history, that Haco's fleet, in its flight from the
Clyde, succeeded in douiiling Cape Wrath, and
reached Orkney on the 29th of October ; and that
here, Haco, overcome by the feeling of his disgrace,
and the incessant fatigues of his unfortunate campaign,
fell sick, and died on the 15th of December.*
ALTAVIG, or Altbheig, the southernmost of a
group of flat islets — to which it usually gives name —
on the north-east coast of Skye, between the point
of Aird and Ru-na-braddan. Martin says there is a
little old chapel on it dedicated to St Turos ; and
that herrings are sometimes so plentiful around a
small rock at the north end of the isle, that " the
fisher-boats are sometimes as it were entangled
among the shoals of them 1"
* Macculloch, who notices this historical error, asserts that
the proper name of the Bouthern kyle is Kyle Rich, that is,
'the swift strait;' while the name of the western kyle is fre-
quently written Kyle Akin. The orthography, however, of
names throughout this district appears very uncertain. There
we have Loch Long, Lock Loung, and Loch Ling; Ellan-
donan, and Ellandonnan, and in the journal of a recent tra-
veller, Lord Teigumouth, Ennan-dowan ; GienShiel,and Glen
Shetil i Stent, and Slate. Native authorities afford us little aid
here, each Gaelic writer having an urthogniphy of his own-