CHAPTER XVI. 



KYLE OF SUTHERLAND. 



RIVERS CARRON, OYKELL, CASSLEY, AND SHIN. 



ANGLING SEASON : February llth to October 15th. 

 NETTING SEASON: February llth to August 26th. 



District Fishery Board meets at Bonav Bridge. Clerk, John M 'Crone, Esq., Solicitor, 



Dornoch. 



THIS is a complex district, since of the various rivers contained 

 within its limits no one is pre-eminently the chief. One hesitates 

 to say the Shin is a tributary of the Oykell, or that the Oykell is 

 a tributary of the Shin. The Shin flows from its great loch, and 

 is a spring river; the Oykell, which is also a spring river, has a 

 long course, and receives the Cassley as a tributary, a stream which 

 is quite as long as Loch Shin, and perhaps more important from a 

 salmon fishing point of view. 



The outstanding feature of the district, as its name implies, is the 

 kyle, or narrow channel of tidal water. This forms the natural 

 estuary of all four rivers, and, in its lower or eastern section, forms 

 the Dornoch Firth. From the statutory limits of the estuary the 

 firth winds inland between Tain and Dornoch, past Skibo Castle and 

 the mouth of the little Evelix river, which holds salmon and sea- 

 trout in the autumn, and is now converted by Mr. Carnegie into a 

 loch at its mouth, up to Bonar Bridge, a distance of about 16 miles. 

 It is shallow with numerous sand banks. At Bonar Bridge the 

 river Carron enters from the south almost at right angles, and in 

 post-glacial times has brought down such an enormous amount of 

 detritus that the firth has been practically cut in two at this point. 

 The narrow channel which alone remains is bridged, is subject to a 

 rapid inflow and outflow of tidal currents, constitutes the most im- 

 portant part of the Kyle, and is the centre of local net fishing. 

 Through this part of the Kyle the waters of the neighbouring Carron 



