230 Kintail and Glenelg, ivith Notices of the Brocks. [Sess. 



buildings known variously as Brochs, Duns, Burghs, and 

 Pictish Towers. 



Dornie is situated in the parish of Kintail, Eoss-shire, and 

 lies on a flat strip of ground, almost at the point where Loch 

 Alsh loses its identity by merging into the wilder Loch Duich, 

 which in turn throws off another offshoot in the shape of a 

 sinuous arm of the sea, called Loch Long. Accurately speak- 

 ing, the village is built on the eastern shore of the latter loch, 

 and consists of a long row of substantial houses, some slated, 

 others thatched, but displaying on close inspection a more or 

 less decayed and battered look, that seems to betoken departed 

 greatness. In a measure this is correct, as in the palmy days 

 of the Loch Duich herring -fishing Dornie was a bustling, 

 thriving little township ; but since these erratic inhabitants of 

 the deep liaA^e vanished Dornie's prosperity has gone likewise, 

 and now both village and inhabitants show unmistakable signs 

 of having run to seed. The main and in fact only street lies 

 between the houses and the sea-shore, but bordering the latter 

 are plots of garden-ground, protected from the rising tide by 

 strong, roughly built stone walls ; and immediately behind the 

 dwellings little irregular patches of cultivated ground, alter- 

 nately green or yellow according to the crop, and reminding 

 one of a badly made chess-board where no two squares are the 

 same size or shape, fill up the gap between the village and the 

 base of steep mountains that rise to a considerable height, and 

 gradually swell into immense masses that culminate in the 

 giant peaks of Ben Attow, Scour Ouran, and the Five Sisters 

 of Kintail. At the east end stands the handsome Eoman 

 Catholic convent, chapel, and priest's house, built by the 

 Duchess of Leeds, principally from stone quarried in Wales — 

 a circumstance that strikes one as savouring slightly of ab- 

 surdity, considering the vast quantity of equally serviceable 

 material that is to be had in the vicinity. At intervals along 

 the shores of Loch Long, which is narrow and tortuous, are 

 scattered little fishing and crofting townships, most of them, 

 from their tumble-down, weather-beaten appearance, objects of 

 interest to the artistic eye. Carelessly-kept scraps of vege- 

 table gardens, with here and there a few flowers and trees 

 scattered in desultory fashion ; small fields of oats and pota- 

 toes, divided by broken-down, overgrown dykes ; great rows of 



