CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



eldest daughter of James II. in the year 1474. A 

 road sweeping round the east shore of the island 

 leads to Brodick Bay, at the bottom of which 

 there is a beautiful tract of low and sloping 

 ground, ornamented with some fine wood, con- 

 taining a hamlet, which forms a favourite resort 

 for sea-bathing. On the adjacent height, amidst 

 old woods, is the ancient chateau of Brodick. 

 From this place a road strikes across the island, 

 and opens up some magnificent scenery. Two or 

 three miles to the southward of Brodick, the shore 

 forms the more spacious recess of Lamlash Bay, 

 at the bottom of which is a village of the same 

 name, while it is landlocked in front by Holy 

 Island, a small isle which formerly contained a 

 monastery. Lamlash Bay is of great importance 

 to the navigation of the Clyde and Irish Channel, 

 as a harbour of safety. 



Loch Fyrte, a long narrow estuary, having the 

 ridgy promontory of Kintyre on the one side and 

 the district of Cowal on the other, opens up much 

 fine scenery. In sailing up the loch, the first 

 remarkable place is Tarbert, a fishing village, j 

 situated at the bottom of a beautiful small bay, 

 with a ruined fortalice of the Argyll family 

 perched on a rock by its side. Farther up 

 the loch is Inveraray. Between Inveraray and 

 the inn of Tarbet, on Loch Lomond, a road 

 opens up a splendid tract of mountain scenery, 

 the most striking being comprehended in the 

 valley of Glencroe. Another road, proceeding 

 in a northerly direction, leads to Loch Awe, an 

 inland lake possessing many fine features, and 

 upon which stands the ruined castle of Kilchurn, 

 once the chief stronghold of the Breadalbane 

 family. The loch is overhung by Ben Cruachan, 

 a mountain 3689 feet in height, on the skirts of 

 which King Robert Bruce gained a victory over 

 his powerful enemy, the Lord of Lorn. 



The northern portion of Argyllshire, where it 

 is bounded by the Western Ocean and its many 

 inlets, contains much fine scenery. In a sheltered 

 situation on the west coast stands the neat and 

 cheerful town of Oban, a point of rendezvous for 

 the numerous steamers permeating these seas, 

 and a kind of entrepot for the rural produce of 

 the wide district around it In front is the isle of 

 Kerrera, where Alexander II. died in the course 

 of an expedition to the Western Islands. On the 

 coast, a little to the north of Oban, is Dunolly 

 Castle ; and a little way farther north is Dun- 

 statlnage, an ancient seat of the Caledonian kings. 

 The Callander and Oban Railway connects this 

 Highland town with the southern railway systems. 



Loch Linnhe, opening between Lorn and Mor- 

 ven, and the commencement of the chain of salt 

 and fresh water lakes formed into the Caledonian 

 Canal, presents on both sides scenery of a most 

 romantic character a mixture of bold rocky fore- 

 lands, on many of which are perched the eyrie-like 

 fortresses of the rude chiefs of the olden time, and 

 green smiling hollows, within bays, with many 

 pleasant modern residences. The long island of 

 Lismore, in the mouth of this estuary, was the 

 ancient appanage of the bishops of Argyll, and 

 temporarily the site of a college for Catholic 

 priests, after the French seminaries were closed 

 by the Revolution. Opposite to its upper ex- 

 tremity, Loch Creran, a sub-estuary, branches off 

 into the land of Lorn, opening up much beautiful 

 scenery. On the south shore of Loch Linnhe, to 



250 



the north of the opening of Loch Creran, is the 

 district of Appin, previous to 1765 the property of 

 a race of Stewarts, descended from a natural son 

 of the last Lord Lorn, and for four centuries con- 

 spicuous in Highland history. From Ballahulish 

 Ferry, on Loch Leven, noted for its great quarry 

 of slate, the road from Fort- William to Glasgow 

 runs for a number of miles nearly east through 

 the wild vale of Glencoe, emerging at the solitary 

 inn of King's House, in the desolate district of 

 Rannoch. 



Glencoe is a narrow strip of rugged territory, 

 along which hurries the wild stream of Cona, 

 celebrated by Ossian, who is said to have been 

 born on its banks. ' Anything,' says Charles 

 Dickens, ' so bleak, and wild, and mighty in its 

 loneliness, as the whole country, it is impossible to 

 conceive. Glencoe itself is perfectly terrible. . . . 

 Through the whole glen, which is ten miles long, 

 torrents were boiling and foaming, and sending 

 up in every direction spray like smoke of great 

 fires. They were rushing down every hill and 

 mountain side, and tearing like devils across the 

 path, and down into the depths of the rocks. 

 Some of the hills looked as if they were full of 

 silver, and had cracked in a hundred places 

 others as if they were frightened, and had broken 

 out into a deadly sweat. In others there was no 

 compromise or division of streams, but one great 

 torrent came roaring down with a deafening noise, 

 and a rushing of water that was quite appalling.' 

 ' Even,' adds Dickens' biographer, ' where he ex- 

 pected to find Nature in her most desolate 

 grandeur, in the dreary waste of an American 

 prairie, his imagination went back with a higher 

 satisfaction to Glencoe.' 



Inverness-shire The Great Glen. 



Between Loch Linnhe on the west coast, and a 

 point on the Moray Firth near Inverness, there is 

 a remarkable natural phenomenon, in the form of 

 a glen or hollow, passing in a perfectly straight 

 line for 60 miles through a mountainous region, 

 and the bottom of which is nowhere more 

 than 90 feet above the level of the sea. It is 

 called by the Highlanders Glen-more-nan- Albin 

 (the Great Glen of Scotland). A chain of lakes 

 extending along this extraordinary hollow sug- 

 gested the formation of a canal which should 

 admit of navigation between the seas on the two 

 sides of the island, and save the dangerous pas- 

 sage round by the Pentland Firth ; and this, 

 under the name of the Caledonian Canal, was 

 formed between 1803 and 1822, under the care of 

 Mr Telford, at an expense of ^800,000. 



The canal commences at Clachnaharry, in the 

 outskirts of the town of Inverness, and, after six 

 miles, enters the first of the chain of lakes, Loch 

 Ness, a grand piece of water, nearly 23 miles 

 long, amidst stupendous and sterile mountains. 

 The waters of Loch Ness never freeze, but they 

 are often agitated simultaneously with the occur- 

 rence of earthquakes in distant parts of the 

 world. On an elevated rock projected into the 

 north-west margin of Loch Ness, are situated the 

 remains of Urquhart Castle, consisting of a great 

 square keep and several exterior walls of defence. 

 It was besieged in 1303 by the officers of Edward 

 I. and with great difficulty taken ; it afterwards 

 was a royal fortress ; and finally, in 1509, it be- 

 came the property of Grant of Grant, ancestor of 



