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

DES
3U
DEV
teinds £74 16s. Id. The church adjoins the site of
Deskford tower. There is no date on the church,
but one pew bears the date 1627, another 1630.
Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4id., with £12 fees.
There is one private school.
DESKRY (The), a tributary to the river Don.
This rivulet rises to the south of the Don, and runs
northwards through a glen of 2 miles in length and
about ^ a mile in breadth, in the parishes of Towie
and JVIigvy, till it falls into the Don at the north-
western extremity of the glen, where the parish of
Migvy lies on both sides of the water. There is a
stone bridge of one arch across it at Rippachy, on
the highway from Strathdon to Aberdeen. The
trout of Deskry water are small but excellent.
DEUCALEDONES. See Caledonians.
DEUCALEDONIAN SEA, the name given by
Ptolemy, and the ancient geographers, to the ocean
which washes the western coasts and isles of Scot-
land.
DEUGH (The). See Carsphairn.
DEVERON (The), or Doveran, a river which
has its main head-stream in the parish of Cabrach, in
Aberdeenshire, and after a course of about 60 miles
through fertile and highly cultivated plains, falls into
the ocean at Banff. It forms the boundary betwixt
Aberdeenshire and Banff for many miles, and in its
course receives many rivulets, particularly the Bogie,
which falls into it at the town of fitintly [see
AucHiNDont] and the Isla a little above Rothiemay :
see article Isla. Upon its banks are found frequent
specimens of plumbago, and symptoms of lead-ore
have been observed. It is well-stored with trout
and salmon. There is a shifting bar at the mouth
of the river which varies with gales of wind. In
1834 the mouth was entirely shut up by it, but broke
out 600 yards further to the eastward. Hence arise
frequent disputes amongst the cruive owners as to
the line of the bed of the river. The produce both
of the upper and lower fisheries of the Deveron has
greatly decreased of late years.
DEVON (The), a small river which rises in the
western part of the Ochils, a little to the east of
Sheriffmuir, and in the parish of Blackford, Perth-
shire. Its course is at first in an easterly direction.
After flowing for about 2 miles through the par-
ish of Blackford, and immediately on being joined by
another streamlet from the south, it forms the boun-
dary between the last-named parish and those of
Tillicoultry and Glendevon. It then enters the
parish of Glendevon, near Cleugh burn, and continues
its eastward course till it arrives at the small village
of Miltown at the eastern extremity of Glendevon.
A little below Miltown it makes a decided bend
toward the sowth-east, forming the boundary of the
parishes of Glendevon and Muckhart on the west,
and the parish of Fossaway and the shire of Kinross
on the east, till it reaches the village known by the
name of Crook of Devon, where, turning abruptly
to the south-west, it flows onward in this direction,
between the parishes of Muckhart and Fossaway,
through those of Dollar and Tillicoultry, along the
southern boundary of Alloa, and finally entering
Alloa parish, and making a sharp turn to the south,
it falls into the Forth a little above the town of
Alloa, after a course of fully 30 miles in length.
The Devon has been celebrated by Burns, and from
the romantic scenery which adorns its banks, it is
indeed well-worthy of being honoured in the poet's
song. Its waters are beautifully pure, and the scenery
at the Rumbling bridge and the Caldron linn, near
the Crook of Devon, where several remarkable cata-
racts are formed, is of the most sublime and extra-
ordinary kind Passing through the village called
the Crook of Devon, we keep the river on our right
for about a mile, and then descend along its rocky bed,
when we soon approach the Falls of the Devon, — the
first of which, called the Devil's mill,* is heard, but not
seen. This forms the least considerable of the falls.
The Devon here falls into an excavation in the solid
rock with a noise resembling that of water falling
on a mill-wheel. Near this spot is a cavern named
the Pigeon's cave. About 350 yards lower down the
Devon, is a small arch, spanning a deep and gloomy
chasm, called the Rumbling bridge. It is so named from
the hollow brawling of the water while forcing its way
among huge fragments of impending rocks; and as
it hurries along, boiling and foaming in wildest
tumult, the whole scenery adjacent is characteristic
of that fantastic rudeness which Nature delights in
exhibiting amid the roar of cascades and the thunder
of cataracts. On looking down the Devon from the
bridge, — a giddy height, — the prospect beneath the eye
is truly sublime. The high, projecting, and impend-
ing precipices on either hand are wooded in all the
capricious varieties of form and ramification of hazel,
willow, birch, and mountain-ash: from among which,
midway among the craggy steeps, daws, kites, and
other birds that delight in solitude, are seen sailing
in security and freedom. The southern bank of the
Devon forms the middle ground, and a peep of the
Saline hills closes in the distance. The whole is
exceedingly picturesque and magnificent. In order
to command a view of the wooded cliffs over which
the Rumbling bridge is thrown, it is necessary to
come round by the south bank of the river. The
best station is about a gunshot from the brink of the
water, on a gentle eminence immediately opposite
the bridge. Here the deep and gloomy chasm through
which the Devon forces its way is seen in one vast
cleft, torn as it were asunder by some terrible con-
vulsion of nature. The small arch, half-seen through
the hanging branches which wave wildly over the face
of the rugged steeps, gives an air of grandeur suit-
able to the solemn dignity of the scene. The whole
is striking and impressive. + From the Rumbling
bridge to the Caldron linn, or linns, the Devon glides
gently along; until, about a mile below the former,
the bed of the river suddenly contracts its channel,
and as we approach the falls, the distant roar of the
waters becomes imposing and awful. The upper fall
is inconsiderable, yet sufficient to arrest the atten-
tion. Soon after comes into view the chasm through
which the river boils and foams from caldron to
caldron, — for such are the circular excavations called
which the incessant workings of the waters in the
course of ages have caused. In the upper caldron,
the water has so much the appearance of boiling,
that it is difficult to divest one's self of the idea that
it is really in a state of violent ebullition. From this
caldron the water finds its way into a circular cavity,
in which it is carried round and round, though with
much less violent agitation: this second caldron is
always covered with a foam or froth. From this
* "The couatry people," says Garnett, "rail it the Devil's
mill, because it pays no regard to Sunday, and works every day
alike." The noise it makes is supposed to be occasioned by the
water falling over a small cascade into a deep cavity in the rock
below. The water tossed round with great violence, and con.
staotly heating on the sides of the rock, causes a clacking noise,
similar to that of a mill at work, which is very distinctly heard
when the water has force enough, by its quantity, to beat on
the rock with violence, and when it is not so high as entirely to
cover the cavity.
-f- Where the old arch is thrown across, the banks are S6 feet
above the water. The span of the arch is 22 feet, and its width
12 feet. It was built in the year 1713, by William Gray, a
native of the parish of Saline. Having tit) parapet defences, it
required some fortitude to walk across this bridge even in the
day-time ; yet it was used, for upwards of a hundred years, by
persons both on foot and horseback, by night and by day. lu
1316 a substantial modern bridge was built over the old arch —
which still remains — the height of which from the water is 120
feet. Titere is au excellent inn in the immediate vicinity of the
Bridge