of Edinburgh, Session 1878 - 79 . 
188 
to by Dr Milne Home, in his valuable paper on Glen Roy. Farther 
up the Nairn, near Farr House, stretches a long flat plateau of gravel 
and other debris, which stretches right across the valley, and through 
which the river has had to cleave its way in the narrow gorge below 
Flichity Castle. On this plateau is found another striking and 
numerous assemblage of huge blocks, well worth a visit, often of 
large size and peculiar forms, scattered singly and in groups, some 
of them standing erect like great pillars. Frequently these gneiss 
blocks have been left in remarkable places. On Craig-a-Chlachan, 
which overlooks the church of Dunlichity, on the west shore of 
Loch-na-Chlachan, near its top, on the edge of a steep precipice, 
is poised a block of gneiss 14 feet long, 10 feet in height, which 
catches the eye of the traveller from all points, and is known as 
Clach-na-Fhreiceadan or Faire , or the Stone of the Watch, on 
account of its elevated station (1120 feet), standing, as it does, like 
a sentinel, to guard the surrounding region. 
To the east of the Free Church of Farr, right on the peaked top of 
the highest hill seen from that part of the valley, may be observed 
what seems a shepherd’s cairn marking its summit. This provoked 
my curiosity for years, and this season I ascended the mountain and 
found that it consisted of a great block of gneiss split in two, and 
known, from this circumstance, as the Clach Sgiolte , or Split Rock. 
It has been originally a cube of stone, 9 feet square and 5 feet high, 
now split at two- thirds of its breadth, the larger part having remained 
in its original position and the smaller having fallen over. It stands 
nearly 1000 feet above the valley below, and nearly 1600 feet above 
the sea. Another Clacli Sgiolte , on or very near the top of the great 
mountain, overlooking the narrow gorge of Conaglen, near Dunma- 
glass, at the very head waters of the Nairn, called Ben Dhu Choire, 
at a height of 2260 feet. This block I have not yet ascended to.* 
Another striking example of these gneiss blocks is found beyond 
the inn of Flichity above Farr, on the north slope of the finely 
crested ridge that lies between the valley of the Nairn and Loch 
Ruthven. It is called Clach-a-Bhona.t, or the Stone of the Bonnet. 
This is a very large block, worth a visit. In this part of the valley 
of the Nairn, numerous other blocks occur singly and in groups in 
* There is another Clach Sgiolte, about If mile from the source of the 
Findhorn, called the Eskin, some 2070 feet above the sea. 
