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

DURNESS.
415
ish-church is a grand mausoleum of the Drumlanng
Douglasses. An aisle, surmounting the sepulchral
vault, has a marhle monument of multiform sculp-
ture, and imposing appearance, but in a style offen-
sive to modern taste, commemorative of James, se-
cond Duke of Queensberrv, and his Duchess. On
the sculptured wall, the ducal pair are represented as
lying on a couch, dressed in state. The Duchess is
stretched in the attitude of death, her hands folded
over her breast. The Duke appears behind her,
half raised on his elbow, wearing an enormous wig,
and contemplating the countenance of bis lady. The
tout-ensemble of the sculpture, however, is anything
but lugubrious ; and, but for the affecting suggestion
of the mutability and vanity of all human grandeur,
presents such an array of the trappings and grotesque
adornings of antique courtly apparel, as would be ir-
resistibly ludicrous. There are in Durisdeer 5
schools, 2 of them parochial. The salaries of the
parish schoolmasters amount to £51 6s. 6|d., with
£23 9s. other emoluments Durrisdeer, according
to one version of the old ballad, was the scene of
Johnie o' Breadislee's ' woeful hunting'
Johnie buskt up his gude bend bow,
His arrows ane by aite;
Aod he has gane to Durrisdeer
To hunt the duu deer down.
The " silly auld carle' tells the seven Foresters of
Hislington what he has seen ' atween the water and
the brae,' and a conflict, in which Johnie slays all
the seven, but is mortally wounded himself, issues:
Now Johnie's gude bend bow is broke,
And his gude graie dogs are slain ;
And his body lies dead in Durris deer,
And his hunting it is dune.
See article Braid.
DURNESS,* a parish in the county of Sutherland,
forming the north-western point of Scotland. It
comprehends the cultivated lands on the eastern side
of Loch Eriboll, commonly called Westmoine ; with
the tract denominated Strathmore, and intersected
by the river Hope ; Durness Proper, or the penin-
sular tract stretching between Loch Eriboll and
Durness bay and kyle ; and the Parf district, which
comprehends that portion of the parish lying between
the Atlantic and the kyle of Durness, and extend-
ing south to the Ashir district of Edderachybs. Its
length from east to west is about 25 miles ; its aver-
age breadth nearly 12 miles; and its superficial area,
including the numerous lochs or arms of the sea which
deeply indent its coasts, 300 square miles. On the
east its boundaries are coterminous with the parish
of Tongue, on the south, with those of Eddera-
chybs. The scenery of this parish is mostly wild and
mountainous. It is nearly "destitute of wood, and
considerable tracts are occupied by bleak mosses.
Towards the shore, however, where the peninsula of
Durness terminates in Farout-head, there is a series
of beautiful fields, and rich green pasture. On the
* " Various etymologies are assigned for the name of this
p irish. Among others, it is said that Dur is a contraction of
Durrin, [or Dorraiii,] or novrin, which signifies, in Gaelic,
'a Storm;' so that Durness would seem to mean 'the Ness or
Promontory of storms,*— an appellation to which the neigh-
bouring coast is not unentitled. But whatever may be the
meaiiingof the name, it is well-known, from tradition, that the
application of it to this parish took place, not from the nature
of the ground, hut in consequence .if the Bishop of Caithness
disponing of it to Morrison— Ay MacHormaid, as they call
him— a Lewis man, and a native of a place called Diurness
there, ou occasion of his being married to Ins natural daughter,
or— as such were usually termed in those days— his sister.'
This Ay Morrison gaye it its? present name, to commemorate
the place of his own nativity. Whatever its former name
might have been, it surely has been asheal, or summer-d .veil-
ing of old. belonging to the bishopric of Caithness." [old
Statistical Account. ]— In the New Statistical Account, it is
suggested that the name of this district may be derived from
Dunn, the principal township in the pari,h, and limit, 'a
Kreen patch or grazing,'— thus signifying un oasis in a desert.
sides of the hills, too, upon spots where shealings
have been occasionally erected to shelter the shep-
herds in summer and harvest when feeding their
flocks at a distance from their ordinary dwellings,
the sward is richly variegated with clover, daisies,
and other valuable grasses and wild flowers. Along
the shore a tract of flat land extends, in some places,
to the very verge of the ocean ; in others there is a
considerable extent of bare sands ; at the head-lands
piles of rocks tower to a vast height. The shores
themselves are almost everywhere rocky and des-
titute of vegetation. The tides rush in with great
rapidity and violence upon this coast, especially at
Cape Wrath, where their violence is increased by
means of a shoal, running out north by east from the
extremity of the cape for 5 or 6 miles, and covered
by a depth of water measuring from 16 to 24 fa-
thoms: see article Cape Wejth. About a mile
from the coast is the Staigs, a rock the top of which
is always above water, but which is nevertheless
formidable to ships approaching the cape by night ;
but a still more dangerous rock, the top of which
can be seen only in neap-tides, is said to lie 9 miles
due north from the cape. Loch Eriboll forms a
spacious harbour, in which even the smallest sloop
enjoys perfect safety. It penetrates the country in
a south-west direction, nearly 11 miles from the
Whiten-head, which lies on the left hand of the
entrance, and whose white and elevated rocks mar-
iners distinguish at a distance, even in the night.
On the west, or right hand of the entrance, is Ris-
pond, a small dry harbour used by the tacksmen of
the fishings and the kelp shores : see article Eriboll.
To the west of Farout-head is Durness bay, a large
shallow bay of rough sea, too open to afford shelter
for vessels. Its upper extremity is prolonged into a
narrow kyle running inland in a south-west direction
up Strathdinard. Between Durness bay and Cape
Wrath the ehffsf are very magnificent In the cave
of Smo, about 2 miles east of the parish-church,
sounds are distinctly repeated by a remarkable echo.
This cave is, indeed, in many respects an object
worthy of notice. It is, in some places, 100 feet
wide, and from 20 to 60 feet in height.J A short
way within its mouth there is a perforation in the
arch, through which a stream of water descends,
and is received into a subterraneous lake extending
to a length not ascertained. Tradition says, that
the only person who ever had courage to attempt to
explore it, was one Donald, Master of Reay, but that
the extinction of the lights, by foul air, obliged him
to return before he could advance to the extremity
of the lake or the boundary of the cave. Macculloch
notices a cave near the Whiten-head which, he says,
" exceeds in beauty, splendour, and subbmity of
effect, all the caves of Scotland except perhaps that
of Papa Stour." — The principal mountains in this
alpine territory are Benhope in Strathmore : see article
Benhope; Ben-Spionnadh, which has an elevation
of 2,566 feet ; Cranstachie in Durness Proper ; and
Fairbheinn and Bendearg in the Parf district. The
principal lake is Loch Hope : which see. This tract
of country, though extremely interesting to the geo-
logist, is not known to afford any uncommon min-
erals. There are numerous small lochs. Loch-Bor-
ley in Durness Proper, affords, in great abundance, a
species of char called ' Red Bellies,' and, in Gaelic,
Tarragan. They are caught only in October, when
they repair to the shallow water to deposit their spawn.
From Loch Dinard flows a stream of the same name,
which, after a north-east course of about 10 miles,
flows into the kyle of Durness. The Hone, flow-
t Figured in Daniell's ■ Coast Views.
t Some accounts of this cave substitute yards lor feet in these
admeasurements.