either of landlord or Government; a poor law assessment, or, worse than either, a summary and universal ejection. Yet, relying on the wealth and patriotic feelings of the Noble proprietor, and on the skill and intelligence of his agents, he confidently expects that these sore evils will be prevented, and that the next Statistical Account will have to record an improvement in the aspect of the parish, and an amelioration in the condition of the people, which will be alike profitable and honourable to all parties. January 1841.

PARISH OF LOTH. *

PRESBYTERY OF DORNOCH, SYNOD OF SUTHERLAND AND
CAITHNESS.

THE REV. DONALD ROSS, MINISTER.

I. TOPOGRAPHY AND NATURAL HISTORY.

Name.-THIS parish appears to have taken its name from the farm on which the church stands, now known as Loth-more, to distinguish it from the neighbouring farm of Loth-beg. Until the beginning of the seventeenth century, these two farms bordered upon two lakes, which were formed by the river of the Glen of Loth being retarded in its progress to the sea, and hemmed in, in hollow spaces of the low flat grounds, by a rocky eminence that runs parallel to the sea shore. A new course for the river was cut in a direct line to the sea, and through the solid rock, at the above period; and since that alteration, the spaces occupied by the lakes have been converted into rich arable land, although the extent and banks of the lakes can still be traced. The present name of Loth, which in Gaelic is still pronounced Logh, is, therefore, believed to be a corruption of the word Loch, which, in the Scotch dialect, is descriptive of a sheet of water, in the same sense as the word in old German signified,—namely, apertura, hiatus, or cavitas rotunda; or, as Cambden has it, "a place where rivers are stopped." This etymology also agrees with the spelling of the name in ancient writings; and thus, in a Crown charter of the year 1451, the present Loth-more,-the site of the church and

* Drawn up by George Sutherland Taylor, Esq. Golspie.

manse,—is called "Ville de Estirloch," the same being situated to the eastward of Loth-beg. The glen, also, through which the river of Loth flows is, in old writings, called " the Glen of Loth," and not Glen-Loth, as it is now most frequently named; thereby denoting that the glen was an appendage to the farm of Loth, instead of having a descriptive or distinct name of its own.

It may be added, however, as a remarkable fact connected with this name, that Ptolemy places the Logi along the sea coast, of which the south boundary of the present parish of Loth forms a part; the Ila flumen (the river Ullie or Helmsdale) being in their country, which seemed to extend between Verubium promontorium (the Ord of Caithness) and Ripa alta, (the Ardross range of mountains towards Tarbetness). And Richard of Cirencester, in his description of Caledonia, assigns the same locality to the Logi, and says, after naming the Cante, and Promontorium Penoxullum, (the high ground of the present Oykill,)" Huic ordine proximus est fluvius Abona (the Dornoch Frith) ejusdemque accolæ Logi. Hinc Ila fluvius," &c.

Boundaries, Extent, Topographical Appearances.-The parish extends in a straight line from west to east, about eleven miles in length; and its breadth, where broadest, from Ben-Uarie to the sea, is about five miles. The boundary line, if taken at the sea shore at the Bay of Kintradwell, proceeds northward to the top of Kollieben, and thence along a ridge of high hills, and in a half-circular sweep, by west and north, to the top of Ben-Uarie, (1923 feet high,) and then eastward by the summit of the high ground between the Strath of Kildonan and the glen of Loth, and, intersecting the top of the Crask, on to Ben Veallich, (1888 feet high,) and to the top of Knock Elderaboll; thence, down to the plane of the Strath of Kildonan and the river Helmsdale, at a point about three miles above the mouth of that river. Thereafter, following the river downwards for about one mile, the march ascends the east side of the valley, and, running nearly parallel with the line of sea coast, and at a distance of about two miles from it, terminates to the north of the Hill of the Ord, at the march with the county of Caithness. From this last point to the sea, the boundary between Sutherland and Caithness forms also the eastern boundary of the parish, and runs southward to the steep front of the Ord at the sea, and is marked out by a low turf wall, erected about thirty-five years ago, when this part of the march between the two counties, as to which there existed some

differences, was finally adjusted and fixed by arbitration. From the Ord to the Bay of Kintradwell, the sea shore is the southern boundary. The parish of Loth is therefore bounded on the west by the parish of Clyne; on the north by the parish of Kildonan ; on the east by the parish of Latheron; and on the south by the German Ocean, or rather by that part of it distinguished as the Moray Frith, which is here about forty miles broad.

The whole length of the parish along its northern boundary is distinguished by a ridge of high hills, which slope down towards the south with a steep descent, except at the contracted opening formed by the Strath of Kildonan, where the march crosses the low grounds of the valley from the summits of the hills that enclose it. This lofty range is placed nearly parallel with the line of sea coast which limits the parish to the south, and at a distance of from one to three miles from it; the intervening space between the hills and the sea being either gently sloping ground, partially cultivated, and otherwise yielding sound natural pasture; or a level flat of rich alluvial soil, all arable, and in a high state of cultivation; but at the eastern extremity of the parish, the huge headland of the Ord leaves no intermediate space between the mountain and the sea, but forms a sheer and abrupt wall, rising with great majesty from, and towering above, the ever-heaving and deep sea, whose only strand, at the lowest tides, is the perpendicular face of the rock.

This headland of the Ord has been at all times an object of great interest to strangers; and before the present Parliamentary road from Sutherland into Caithness was formed, in the year 1811, the path for it did not deserve the name of a road—along the

The oldest name of the Ord, with the exception of Verubium promontorium of Ptolemy, to be found in ancient writings, is Mons Mound, which appears in the curious geographical fragment headed " De Situ Albaniæ," and which has been attributed to Andrew Bishop of Caithness, who died in 1185. He divides Scotland into seven parts, and, no doubt, alluding to the Diocess of Caithness, which included the counties of Sutherland and Caithness, says: "Septima enim pars est Cathanesia citra montem et ultra montem ; quid Mons Mound dividit Cathanesiam per medium." In the geographical collections in the Advocates' Library, called Macfarlane's MSS., several references are also made to the Ord. Thus: "All that tract of land which lies betwixt Port-na-couter (the Dornoch Frith) and Dungsbay, (Duncansbay head,) was of old called Cattey. That part of it which lies eastward from the hill Örd was named Catteyness, and afterwards Cathness, the Promontory of Cattey. That on this side the Ord, was called simply Cattey, and afterwards, for distinction's sake, South Cattey and Sutherland, which to this day, in the language of the natives and Highlanders, retains the name of Cattey, as the Sutherland men were called Catteigh, and the Earl of Sutherland Morvar Cattey." And again,-" Sutherland is separated and divided from Catteyness by the brook or stripe called Aldituver, (should be Ault-in-uder,) and by the hill called Ord or Mond, with a range of other hills which do stretch from the south sea to the north ocean."

outer edge of the rock, and without any protection from the precipice that overhangs the sea, could not, with any degree of safety, be passed in stormy weather, and never failed to inspire individuals not accustomed to such passes, with great dread; and among other travellers of the last century who describe the terrors of the passage across the Ord, the Rev. John Brand, in his Description of Orkney, Shetland, and Caithness in the year 1701, says, "The Ord which divideth Caithness from Sutherland is a high mountain, as the name Ord, which in Irish signifieth an height, doth imply, down which our way from Caithness to Sutherland doth lie. The road is but narrow, and the descent steep, and if any stumble thereupon, they are in hazard of falling down a precipice into the sea at the bottom of the rock, which is very terrible to behold; but who pass it for the more security, use to lead their horses to the foot of the hill, which is about a short mile in length, and no other way there is from Sutherland to Caithness, or from Caithness to Sutherland, but this, except we go 12 miles about."

The Glen of Loth is a narrow opening of about three miles in extent, surrounded by the highest hills in the parish, and is one of those wild glens, characteristic of a Highland district, which the superstition of former ages invested with traditional tales of wonder and terror. The glen, at the foot of an abrupt and prominent hill called Drumderg, was the scene of a bloody conflict between the men of Strathnaver and those of Loth in the sixteenth century; and it possesses several objects to which the traditions of the country have given celebrity. Thus, a large cairn, called Cairn-Bran, marks the place where Ossian's dog Bran is said to have died, and been buried. At Cairn-in-uag, an ancient hunting-house stood. Tober Massan is the name of a well of excellent water, which, in former ages, was resorted to as a specific for almost all diseases, provided silver or gold was left in the water for the officiating priest. Clach Mac-meas is a huge upright stone, which a precocious youth, at the tender age of one month, in that interesting period of the world's history, when "giants of mighty bone and bold emprise," dwelt in the land, hurled to the bottom of the glen from the top of Ben-Uarie. Carriken-cligh are four stone pillars on an elevated barrow, that point out the resting-place of some leading men of a remote period; and connected with this glen, and forming the very close and singular sides of a small burn that runs into it, are the lofty cliffs called Craig-Boddich and Craig-Bhokie, remarkable not only for their

towering and perpendicular height, but for the very narrow space that separates them.*

The arable portion of the parish, between the hills along its northern boundary and the sea, is generally flat, and its naturally rich and fertile soil is well cultivated. The ravines formed by mountain streams, which intersect the south side of the hills at distances of two or three miles, are striking features in the landscape; particularly one of them, Aultkollie, which is a remarkably deep, tortuous, and romantic gully. The sea coast is, with the exception of a few low rocky headlands, sandy and shallow, from the western extremity of the parish to Port-Gower; and thence to the Ord, the shore is one continued line of rock or rough gravel; but no part of the coast affords any natural protection for shipping.

Meteorology.-The changes of the atmosphere have not been registered or ascertained by continued observations in this parish. The complete range of high hills that forms the northern and eastern boundaries of the parish, affords great shelter from the cold and piercing winter, and spring winds from these quarters; and consequently, during the prevalence of such winds, the greater mildness of the atmosphere in this parish, compared with that along the more exposed sea coast on the Caithness side of the Ord, is often remarked by persons travelling between the two counties. The opening of the Strath of Kildonan at Helmsdale may be an exception to this remark, for there the wind, when high and coming down from the strath, is felt with peculiar violence. The parish is decidedly healthy, and instances of longevity are common; and at present, a small tenant and his wife, whose ages are not correctly known, have been united in marriage for the long period of eighty years. There are no distempers peculiar to the parish; but in 1832, Asiatic cholera appeared very suddenly, and for the first time north of Aberdeen, at Helmsdale, during the busiest period of the herring fishery, and in that town and neighbourhood between thirty and forty persons died of it. This mysterious disease was believed to have been introduced into the parish by some fishermen who then arrived at Helmsdale from the Frith of Forth, where the disease was raging at the time; and it is certain that the first person who was seized with it in the parish, was a female while in the act of washing clothes, belonging to

The writer of this report furnished notices of the forest traditions connected with the Glen of Loth for Mr Scrope's Art of Deer Stalking, which are inserted in that work.