Books › The imperial gazetteer of Scotland; or, Dictionary of Scottish topography, compiled from the most recent authorities, and forming a complete body of Scottish geography, physical, statistical, and historical, 1861 › scan 149
Scan 149
The imperial gazetteer of Scotland; or, Dictionary of Scottish topography, compiled from the most recent authorities, and forming a complete body of Scottish geography, physical, statistical, and historical, 1861
18 lines. Read by computer on 29 August 2026. Printed page 103. See the scan on archive.org.
1length of course, expanding into two lakes, and terminating at the head of Loch Inchard, in the parish of Edderachillis, in Sutherlandshire. Its direction is north-westerly. It affords good salmon fishing, and is bestridden above its mouth by a large bridge, conveying over it the great west coast road.
3INCHBARE, a small scattered village, with about a dozen houses, in the parish of Strickathrow, Forfarshire.
5INCHBELLY, a locality on the nothern border of the parish of Kirkintilloch, 1½ mile east-north-east of the town of Kirkintilloch, in the detached district of Dumbartonshire. Here is a bridge over the Kelvin, on the road from Glasgow to Falkirk. This locality, together with Inchbreck in the same parish, and Inchterf, Inchwood, and Netherinch in the parishes of Campsie and Kilsyth, owes the prefix part of its name to its having been originally an island in the expanse of water which formerly occupied the great transverse valley, that now traversed by the ship-canal, between the Forth and the Clyde.
7INCH-BRAYOCK, or ROSSIE ISLAND, a low flat islet of about 34 acres superficial area, in the channel of the Forfarshire South Esk, between Montrose basin and the German ocean. It belongs to the parish of Craig, but was included by the boundary-bill within the burgh of Montrose, and is becoming the site of a suburban appendage to that town. At its east end is a dry-dock. The currents which pass along its sides, owing to the narrowness of their channels compared with the expanse of Montrose basin, which is filled and emptied at every tide, are very rapid. Till the latter part of the last century, the great north road along the east coast of Scotland was continued across the South Esk only by the incommodious expedient of a ferry below Inch-brayock, at Ferryden; but now, by means of connecting bridges, it is carried across the island, and cuts it into two nearly equal parts. The bridge on the south side—where the channel has greatly less breadth than that on the north side—is a work of solid and massive stone masonry. The original bridge on the north side was one of timber,—a great work of its kind, but constantly needing repair, and too fragile to resist fully the careering tide; and about 26 years ago, it was substituted by a suspension-bridge, which, if it want the intrinsic magnificence and the circumjacent splendour of scenery which distinguish the famous Welsh bridges across the Menai, is at least one of the most interesting public works in the lowlands of Britain. See MONTROSE.—Inch-brayock, together with some adjacent territory, was anciently a separate parish, but in the year 1618 was united with that of St. Skeoch or Dunninald to form the parish of Craig. The ancient church and cemetery were on the island; and the latter continues to be in use for the united parish. Inch-brayock, or Inis-Breic, means 'the Church or chapel island.' Population, 212. Houses, 35.
9INCHBRECK. See INCHBELLY.
11INCH-CAILLIACH, an islet in Loch-Lomond, 7 furlongs in length and nearly 3½ furlongs in breadth, ¾ of a mile north-west of the mouth of the river Endrick, in the parish of Buchanan, Stirlingshire. Its name signifies 'the island of old women.' Amidst the green and the golden islands of a landscape unsurpassed in its beauties by the most fairy districts of Scotland, Inch-Cailliach is one of the most beautiful. It is the property of the Duke of Montrose, exquisitely wooded, and turned to some account in husbandry. In ancient times it was the site of a nunnery, whose inmates are alluded to in its name; and down to a more modern period, it gave name to the parish which now wears the usurped title of Buchanan, and was the site of the parish-church and cemetery.
13INCH-CLAIR, or CLAIR-INCH, an islet in Loch-Lomond, ½ a mile from the eastern bank, in the parish of Buchanan, Stirlingshire. It is ¼ of a mile long from north-east to south-west, and runs parallel with Inch-Cailliach, about ¼ of a mile distant from it on its south-east side. The islet is finely wooded, and resembles in general appearance the larger and very beautiful islet in its vicinity.
15INCHCOLM, an island belonging to the parish of Aberdour in Fifeshire. It lies in the frith of Forth, 5 furlongs south of the nearest part of the mainland, 2 miles south-south-west of the village of Aberdour, and 3½ miles east-north-east of North Queensferry. It is scarcely a mile in length, and is of a bleak appearance, though partly arable. "A considerable portion of it is composed of greenstone, exhibiting either the earthy, syenitic, or common appearance, and which, by the felspar being replaced by steatite, frequently passes into an imperfect serpentine. On the south side of the island, a variety of greenstone occurs containing numerous scales of pinchbeck-brown mica; it is traversed by a number of contemporaneous veins of greenstone, which frequently passes into steatite. This mineral occurs also in minute strings without exhibiting any such transition, and in them sometimes there may be observed threads of amianthus. On the south of the island, where a junction of the trap and the sandstone is exposed, the latter dips to the north at 52°; while the greenstone, as it approaches the sandstone, passes into a compact yellowish-white claystone, a vein of which occurs running parallel with the strata. With the exception of a body of sandstone, which is enveloped in the greenstone, the western half of the island is entirely composed of trap, having in some places a slightly columnar disposition." The island is inhabited by only one family.
17Inchcolm, though destitute of scenic beauty, is rich in historical associations, and contains the ruins of an extensive monastic establishment. The ancient name of the island was Æmona, which in Celtic means 'the Island of Druids;' so that it would appear that before the introduction of Christianity the Druids had a place of worship here. After Christianity had been introduced, the island seems to have been taken possession of by some of the followers of St. Columba, who here erected a small chapel dedicated to that saint; and from that circumstance the present name of the island is derived. About the year 1123 Alexander I., in consequence of having found refuge here from a terrible tempest while he was crossing the frith, and in fulfilment of a vow made by him at the crisis of his peril, founded on the island, and richly endowed, a monastery for Augustinian canons-regular, dedicating it to St. Columba. Allan de Mortimer, Lord of Aberdour, gave to the monks the moiety of the lands of his town of Aberdour for a burying-place to himself and his posterity in their church. Walter Bowmaker, abbot of Inchcolm, was one of the continuators of John Fordun's Scoti-Chronicon. He died in the year 1449. James Stewart of Beith, a cadet of Lord Ochiltree, was made commendator of Inchcolm, on the surrender of Henry, the abbot, in 1543; and his second son, Henry Stewart, was, by the special favour of King James II., created a peer, by the title of Lord St. Colm, in the year 1611. The ruins of the monastery were described as follows in 1789 by Grose, and are now little different from what they were then:—"Great part of the monastery is still remaining. The cloisters, with rooms
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