NOTES ON SUTHERLAND. 169 



Fiaukark who lived here, see Orkncyinga Saga, c. xlvii., and Torfaciis, a. u. 

 1 1 15, ct seq. 



Loch Buigh. — Salmon do still probably reach this locli by the ladder 

 erected for their ascent to the spawning grounds near. 



Loch Brora. — The Pictish tower on the Blackwater, called Castle Cole, 

 stands on the edge of a precipice overhanging the river, the bed of which is 

 there very rocky and wild. Gold has been washed out of the gravel and 

 clay farther down. A more entire specimen of the same sort of fortress has 

 recently been explored at Carrol, on Loch Brora. Stone cups, bronze 

 finger rings, archaic pottery, &c. , were found there. Close to this grows 

 the Viburnum Opulus, Guelder rose, rare in the north. Across the loch are 

 groups of sepulchral tumuli. Cinerary urns and shale ornaments have been 

 found there, and are now in Dunrobin Museum. Gold was found in the neigh- 

 bouring stream AUt Smeorail, and good pearls are got from the Alasniodon 

 Alargaritijcrus, which abounds in the loch. Near this, at Aschville, are 

 the remains of what seems to have been one of the largest Pictish settle- 

 ments in Sutherland. On an island stood a hunting-house of the Earls (znde 

 " Genealogy " p. 5). Its ruins are still traceable. On the plateau, to the 

 south-west, bounded on the side next to the loch by a steep cliff, there 

 was an ancient hill-fort, of which the walls were dry built and over six feet 

 thick ; the enclosed space, now overgrown with peat, extends to several 

 acres. A very finely finished arrow head of flint was found near. 



Loch Leum a Chlaiiihain. — A grand hill-fort, of apparently the same 

 date, occurs near this loch on the top of Bienn-a-Ghriam Beg. It includes 

 several hut-circles, and commands a wide view, including the Orkney 

 Islands. It is described as a deer-trap in Scrope's Days of Deerstalking. 



Loch Lundie. — '" Dunrobin Castle, the princely seat of the Duke of 

 Sutherland." One of its earliest names is Drum Raffn, Ratfn's Ridge. Its 

 present name may have been given in the time of Earl Robert, and means 

 Robert's Fort or Hold. Since 1235 it has been the residence of the Earls 

 of Sutherland, the present owner being the twenty-first Earl. Repaired and 

 enlarged at various dates, some of which are noticed by Sir Robert Gordon 

 in his Earldom. It must have been a place of great strength and import- 

 ance from early times. Between 1845 and 1850 such extensive additions were 

 made that it is now the largest castle in the north, and probably the most taste- 

 fully ornate and best appointed anywhere. For detailed description, see 

 Anderson's Il/'^hldiid Guide, 1863, p. 561, el se,/. The museum at 



