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

BOL
151
BON
district : see that article. The celebrated Fall of
Foyers, near the seat of Frazer of Foyers, will be
described in a distinct article. The parish abounds
with lakes, which contain a variety of fish ; several
streams also intersect it, of which the principal are
the Oieh, and the Tarff. Loch Ness forms a sepa-
rate article in this work. The Caledonian canal
runs through this parish, and the old militarv road.
Granite of beautiful appearance is found in the hills;
and inexhaustible quarries of limestone are wrought
in several parts. There are two small villages in
this district, Cillchuiman and Balfrishel. The po-
pulation of the former, including the garrison of
Fort- Augustus, was 216 in 1831 ; of the latter, 159.
Population of the parish in 1801, 1,799; in 1831,
1,829. Assessed property, in 1815, £4,756. The
average gross amount of raw produce raised within
the parish is estimated in the New Statistical ac-
count, published in May 1835, at .£4,313. Houses,
in 1831, 360. This parish is in the presbytery of
Abertarff and synod of Glenelg. Patron, Fraser of
Lovat. Stipend, £23S 2s. 2d. There are two
churches, — one the parish-church of Boleskine, built
in 1777; and the other at Fort-Augustus, 11 miles
distant, where a missionary officiates. The mission
district comprehends the whole original parish of
Abertarff, comprising a population of 1,201, of whom
872 were in connexion with the Establishment, and
329 were dissenters, chiefly Roman Catholics, of
whom there is a small congregation here. The mis-
sionary has a house in the fort, and a salary of
about £80. The Catholic clergyman has about
£30. Parochial schoolmaster's salary £30, with
about £20 fees.
BOLFRACKS. See Fortingal.
BOLTON, a small parish in the shire of Had-
dington. It is very irregular in its boundaries and
dimensions; extending from north-east to south-
west, nearly 6 miles ; and in breadth, at a medium,
not above 1^ mile. It is bounded by Haddington
parish on the north ; on the east by that beautiful little
bi anch of the T\ ne called the Gifford or Coalstone
water, running north-west from Yester, and which
separates it from Haddington parish ; on the south
by Yester or Gifford parish ; on the west by Humbie
and Salton. The Boins water, one of the head-
streams of the Tyne, descending from the northern
skirts of West hill in the Lammermoor chain, se-
parates Bolton from Humbie parish. The valued
rent of the parish is £2,437 12s. 7d. Scots; the
real rent, in 1792, was about £1,400. It is now
nearly double that sum. Assessed property, in 1815,
£2,274. The number of acres is about 2,400, of
which there are about 300 planted ; most of the
grounds are enclosed with stripes of planting. Po-
pulation, in 1801, 252; in 1831, 332. Houses, in
1831, 63. This parish is in the presbytery of Had-
dington, and synod of Lothian and Tweeddale.
Patron, Lord Blantyre. Stipend £153 15s. 5d.,
with a glebe of the value of £18. Schoolmaster's
salary £34, with £40 fees. Average number of
pupils 75. In the little village of Bolton there
were, till recently, some vestiges of a house, with
a park on the west side of it still called the orchard,
which is said to have belonged to John Hepburn, a
friend of Both well's, who fled with him from Dun-
bar, when Bothwell escaped from the battle of Fal-
side. Chalmers says : — " The manor of Bolton was
early enjoyed by the St. Hilaries, who were suc-
ceeded by William de Vetereponte, who married
Emma de St. Hilary. Notwithstanding the terrible
disasters of the succession war, in which, as we learn
from Rymer and Prynne, this family was involved,
yet was Bolton, with lands in other districts, en-
joyed by it under Robert I. and David II. In the
reign of James II. it belonged to George, Lord Hali-
burton of Dirleton. It was at length acquired by
Patrick Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, after a long suit
in parliament with Marion, the lady of Bolton. In
1526 and 1543, Bolton was in possession of a cadet
of his family, by the name of Hepburn of Bolton.
In January 1568, John Hepburn of Bolton was exe-
cuted, as the associate of the Earl of Bothwell, his
chief, in the murder of Darnley. The manor of
Bolton, thus forfeited, was given to William Mait-
land, the well-known secretary Lethington. It was
confirmed to the Earl of Lauderdale in 1621.
Richard, Earl of Lauderdale, who died about the
year 1693, sold the barony of Bolton, and even the
ancient inheritance of Lethington, to Sir Thomas
Livingston, who was created Viscount Teviot, in
1696; and Sir Thomas transferred the whole to
Walter, Master of Blantyre, afterwards Lord Blan-
tyre, in 1702, in whose family the property remains."
BONA, in the shire of Inverness, formerly a rec-
tory, united to the ancient rectory of Inverness, and
now comprehended in that parish. The ruins of its
church still exist on the banks of Loch-Dochfour.
Service is reetllsirlv maintained in the school room
here by the Established ministers of Inverness. It
is 6 miles south-south-west of Inverness, at the
northern extremity of Loch-Ness, over which there
is a ferrv here. The population of the district, in
1831, was 1.363. On the east side of the Ness,
about 600 yards below its efflux from Loch-Ness,
and between it and Loch-Dochfour, there are the re-
mains of a Roman station, which, it is supposed, was
the site of the Banatia Urbs of Richard of Cirencester.
BON-ACCORD. See Aberdeen.
BONAR, in the shire of Sutherland, and parish
of Crieeh ; 12 miles west of Dornoch. The com-
missioners for Highland roads and bridges, in April,
1811, reported, that all the investigations of High-
land lines of road north of Inverness, had uniformly
designated the head of the Dornoeh-frith as a neces-
sary central point; and that the inconvenience and
danger experienced at the Meikle ferry, at the mouth
of the frith, and the circuitous rout by Portinlech, a
ferry at the head of the frith, rendered it' very desirable
to ascertain the most convenient place for crossing it
between these points. For this purpose, Crieeh and
Bonar appeared to possess nearly equal pretensions,
— the first being wider but nearer the coast, — the
other, narrower, but not affording so direct a road
towards the north east. In 1811, Mr. Telford re-
ported to the commissioners as follows : " Having
repeatedly examined this frith, I find that about 12
miles above Dornoch, at Bonar ferry, it is contract-
ed into the breadth of about 70 yards at low water
of a spring-tide ; at which time, 20 yards of that
breadth extending from the southern shore, is cover-
ed by water not more than 3 feet in depth ; and as
the spring-tides rise no more than 8 feet, I conceive
it is practicable to construct a bridge at this place
where the several roads, south and north of it, may
be made to centre without inconvenience. As con-
siderable quantities of ice float here in winter, and
the tides run with considerable velocity, it is ad-
visable to construct an iron bridge of one arch, 150
feet span, and 20 feet rise ; and by making the arch
to spring 3 feet above high water mark, no interrup-
tion can then take place. I accompany this with a
plan, in which I have endeavoured to improve the
principles of constructing iron bridges, and also their
external appearance ; the principal ribs have here
their parts all of equal dimensions, which, by cool-
ing equally, will avoid delects hitherto experienced
in structures of this sort ; the road-way, instead of
being supported by circles or perpendicular pillars as
formerly, is sustained by lozenge forms, which pre-