Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 2

INCH.
especially if the temperature be below the average,
Decome the resort of immigrant swans from Ireland.
Those of Soulseat and Castle-Kennedy are beautiful
sheets of water, and possess, in a marked degree, the
gentler features of fine lake scenery. The loch of
Soulseat, | of a mile long, and a of a mile broad, was
formerly called the Green loch, and, during part of
the year, is sheeted over with a green granular sort
of substance, which gives an appearance of watery
verdure. " On a calm summer morning," says the
writer in the New Statistical Account, " the banks
of the loch of Soulseat present an appearance not a
little curious. What seem to be pillars of cloud, ap-
pear here and there, rising to a height of 50 feet or
more. A stranger, viewing them at a distance, might
suppose them to consist of vapours of smoke ; but
on a nearer approach, they are found to consist of
living creatures, engaged in ceaseless action, perform-
ing the most graceful evolutions ; and, on listening,
will be heard the rush of their little wings, and the
piping of their tiny voices. These flies have, I be-
lieve, their nativity in the water, from which they
emerge to an ephemeral existence in the region of air.
One species of them go through a very singular pro-
cess — throwing off the skin. They fix themselves
to a tree or bush, or any resting-place, and literally
crawl out of their skin ; and, having left behind them
their exuvice, hie themselves off with freshened agi-
lity to their aerial dance. On remaining for a short
time by the water-edge, I have found myself covered
with the filmy skins of these gay ephemera?." The
loch is of the form of the arc of a circle, and has its
concavity or peninsula covered with wood ; and ap-
pears to have anciently had a deep fosse or trench
stretching like a chord between its projecting points.
In its vicinity stood an ancient abbey : See Soul-
seat Abbey. Castle-Kennedy loch is cut so very
deeply by injecting peninsulae, and is so slenderly
continuous by a connecting thread of waters, as some-
times to be reckoned rather two lakes than one. The
parts run parallel to each other, the one a mile, and
the other li mile in length, from north-west to
south-east, and are each about i a mile in breadth.
A peninsula J of a mile long, and j of a mile broad,
runs down between them on the north-west; an-
other peninsula, of a half-moon form, about j of a
mile in radius, and J of a mile in length of chord,
sends up its convexity on the south-east ; and be-
tween the peninsulse stretches the water-line, which,
in a sense, makes the two lakes one. In each sec-
tion of the lake is an islet ; resting on the bosom of
the waters, or skimming their surface, or playing
" in the lift" above them, are herons, sea-mews, and
numerous species of water-fowl ; on their banks are
two rookeries ; and, above all, in the long north-
western peninsula, are the romantic edifice and de-
mesne of Castle- Kennedy, the property of the Earl
of Stair. Castle- Kennedy, in its original form, was
a spacious, stately, square edifice, built probably in
the reign of James VI. It belonged at first to the
Earls of Cassilis, who had extensive possessions in
Wigtonshire ; but, in the reign of Charles II., it
passed, with its adjacent property, into the hands of
Sir John Dalrymple, younger of Stair. The castle
was burnt by accident in 1715, and, down to 1839,
continued, with walls 79 feet in height, to be unin-
habitable and ruinous. The grounds and plantations
around it were planned by Marshal Stair ; and, if
destitute of the graces which adorn more modish de-
mesnes, possess attractions nearly peculiar to them-
selves — Along Lochryan, the parish has a coast-line
of about 8 miles. This includes most of the south-
ern part, or head of the loch, and the whole of its
west side, till within 2^ miles of its opening into the
sea : See Lochryan. In the northern part, the
shore is bold and rocky, and is perforated with seve-
ral caves, which run 80 or 100 yards under ground ;
but elsewhere it is flat, and covered with sand or
gravel. The loch has an extensive fishery of sal-
mon, haddock, whiting, cod, flounders, herring, and
excellent oysters. A slate quarry is wrought on the
estate of Lochryan, the property of Sir Alexander
Wallace. Repeated but vain attempts have been
made to find coal. Granite occurs in detached blocks.
Sepulchral cairns are very numerous in the uplands
of the parish ; on the average, about 60 feet in dia-
meter, and 7 feet in height ; having a considerable
cavity in the interior, in which — as has been proved
by the exploration of several — are deposited urns en-
closing ashes and burnt bones ; and consisting of
stones which, in the case of many, must have been
fetched from a distance of several miles. On a moor-
land farm, called Cairnarran, are 9 of these cairns
within the range of a Scottish mile. Burrows or
tumuli occur in the lowlands, of exactly similar cha-
racter to the cairns, except that they are formed of
earth instead of stones ; and they have the same in-
terior cavity and sepulchral contents, and are sup-
posed, in common with the cairns, to be monuments
of the British tribes who inhabited Galloway during
the early centuries of the Christian era. On the
farm of Innermessan, on Lochryan, 2i miles north-
west of Stranraer, stood the ancient Rerigonium, a
town of the Novantes, and in more modern times, the
town and castle of Innermessan. Symson, in his
' Description of Galloway,' says " Innermessan was
the greatest town thereabouts till Stranraer was
built." Only faint vestiges of it, however, now re-
main, — such as cannot be detected except with the
aid of a cicerone. In its vicinity rises a beautiful
moat, 336 feet in circumference at the base, 60 feet
in perpendicular elevation, 78 feet in sloping ascent,
with a fosse encincturing its base, and an esplanade
shaving off its summit, and commanding a fine view
of the expanse and shores of Lochryan. " On the
24th November, 1834," says the Rev. James Fergus-
son, the minister of the parish, in his report in the
New Statistical Account, " I caused a hole 3 feet
deep to be dug in the centre of the plain on the top.
After passing through a fine rich mould, we came to
a stratum consisting of ashes, charred wood, and
fragments of bone. In the days of the ancient No-
vantes, this was probably the public cemetery of
the adjacent town, Rerigonium." On the farm of
Larg, near Main water, are remains of an old cas-
tle, once the property and seat of the Lyns of Larg.
The Castle of Craigcaffei, formerly the seat of the
extinct family of the Nelsons of Craigcaffei, is still
entire, and has been transmuted into a farm-house.
The only village is Cairn, or Cairnryan : which see.
The monthly Stranraer cattle-market, held from
April to October, has for its arena a spot within the
western limits of Inch. The parish is traversed along
the whole of its western border by the mail-road be-
tween Glasgow and Portpatrick, and across its south-
ern division, by the mail-road between Dumfries and
Stranraer ; and, in its lowlands, it has abundant ra-
mifications of subordinate roads, but, in its uplands,
offers hardly an ingress to a wheeled vehicle. Sir
John Ross, the celebrated arctic navigator, is a native
of the parish, and adopts it, at his residence of North
West Castle, as the home of his advanced years.
Population, in 1801, 1,577 ; in 1831, 2,521. Houses
481. Assessed property, in 1815, £1 1,275.— Inch is
in the presbytery of Stranraer, and synod of Gallo-
way. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £263 15s. 7d. ;
glebe £15 15s. The parish-church was built about 74
or 84 years ago, and has never been much altered.
Sittings 400. A preaching-station connected with
the Establishment was commenced in 1836 at Cairn-