Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland .. - National Library of Scotland

—MORAY. PROVINCE OF289,292 barrels were brought into Moray Firth ports,the smaller proportion being explained bj' the numberof boats that leave the district to fish at other stations.Of 3,666,596 cod, ling, and hake caught in 1882—ofwhich, however, 2,039,174 are from Shetland alone262,303 were brought into ports along this coast.The description and limits already given applies to thefirth in its widest extent, but the name is sometimesmore particularly confined to that portion which lies tothe SW of a line drawn from Tarbetness in Ross-shireto Stotfield Head near Lossiemouth in Elginshire. Thisinner portion of the firth measures 21 miles along theline just mentioned, and 89 miles in a straight linethence to the mouth of the Beauly river. It consistsof three portions, the outer running up as far as theprojecting points of Chanonry (Ross) and Ardersier(Inverness), and forming a triangle 21 miles across themouth, 23 in a straight line along the Ross-shireside, and 32 in a straight line along the Inverness-shire,Nairnshire, and Elginshire side. The points just mentionedproject about IJ mile beyond the generalline of the coast on each side and overlap one another,but so as to leave a passage at right angles to the mainline of the firth and f mile wide. This strait givesadmission to the much shallower portion known as theInner Moray Firth or Firth of Inverness, extendingfrom Fort George 8 miles south-westward to the mouthof the Ness, with an average breadth of from 2J to 3miles, with Munloehy Bay running oif on the NW sideand Petty Bay on the SE side. Immediately to the Wof the mouth of the Ness the waters of the firth arenarrowed by the projecting point at Kessock to 650yards, but they broaden out again into the BeaulyFirth, which extends westward for 64 miles, with abreadth of from IJ to 2 miles. This portion of thefirth is very shallow, and nearly the half of its wholearea is laid bare at low water. The fishing in the Invernessand Beauly basins is very poor except as regardsthe capture of garvies or sprats, which are found therein immense numbers, about 10,000 crans being sent tothe south markets every year. The three portions ofthe firth just described correspond to the ^stuariwmVararis of the ancient geographers.The coast-line along the firth varies considerably.From Duncansbay Head to Helmsdale, on both sides ofthe Cromarty Firth, between Burghead and Lossiemouth,between Buckie and Banff, and along a considerableportion of the Aberdeenshire coast, it is rocky,but elsewhere low. It is well cultivated, and the reachesto the W of Fort George are finely wooded.Moray, Province of, an extensive district lying to theS of the inner portion of the firth just described. It isalmost co-extensive with one of the seven provinces intowhich, during the Celtic period, we find the whole ofmodern Scotland divided. The northern boundary wasthe Moray Firth and the river Beault as far as KiL-MOEACK ; from this point the line passed to the S alongthe watershed between Glen Farrar and the streamsflowing to Loch Ness. After rounding the upper end ofGlen Clunie it turned eastward along the watershedbetween Glen Loyne and Glen Garry, and between theriver Garry and the streams flowing to the river Oich ;then SE by the lower end of Loch Lochy, as far as theSW end of Loch Laggan, aud on to Beinn Chumbann,whence it followed the line between the modern countiesof Inveeness and Perth, by Loch Ericht, the AtholeSow, and Carn-na-Caim, to Cairn Ealar. From that hillit followed the boundary of Inveeness-shike and Banffshire,along the Cairngorms, and down the Water ofAilnack. Here, however, it left the county boundariesand followed this stream to the Aven above Tomintoul,and then followed the course of the Aven to the Spey,and the latter river back to the Moray Firth. Theprovince thus included within its limit the whole of thecounties of Elgin and Nairn, the greater part of themainland division of the county of Inverness, and aportion of the county of Banfil'. In later times thesignification has sometimes been considered as ratherco-extensive with the sway of the Bishop of Moray, and62MORAY, PROVINCE OFso with the jurisdiction of the modern synod, but thismust hold true as applying more to ecclesiasticalauthority than to territorial limits. At one time theprovince must have stretched across the island from seato sea, for, in one of the statutes of William the Lyon,Ergadia, i.e., Arregaithel, or the whole district W ofthe watershed between the German Ocean and theAtlantic Ocean, and extending from Loch Broom on theN to Cantyre on the S, is divided into ' Ergadia, whichbelongs to Scotia, ' and Ergadia which ' belongs toMoravia. ' This part afterwards fell into the hands ofthe Earls of Ross. The Highland line, marking thedivision between the Highlands and the Lowlands,passed across the province in a general north-westerlydirection from the junction of the Aven and Spey to themouth of the river Nairn ; the part to the NE of thisline being peopled with Lowlanders, who suffered continuallyfrom thepeculiar ideas entertained by their Highlandneighbours regarding meum and tuum. Peopledby an alien race, whose introduction will be noticedafterwards, greatly more peaceable, and less acquaintedwith the use of arms than the inhabitants of the Highlanddistricts, the rich and fertile plain of Moray wasregarded by the Highland Caterans as open and everavailable spoilage ground, where every marauder might,at his convenience, seek his prey. So late in fact as thetime of Charles I., the Highlanders continually madeforays on the country, and seem to have encounteredmarvellously little resistance. In 1645 we find Cameronof Lochiel apologising to the laird of Grant for havingcarried off cattle from the tenant of Moyness, and givingthe reasons that he 'knew not that Moyness was aneGraunt, but thocht that he was ane Moray man,' andthat the spoilers did not intend to hurt the laird ofGrant's friends but to take booty from 'Morray landquhare all men take their prey.' The Moray people, ithas been remarked, appear to have resembled the quietsaturnine Dutch settlers of North America who, whenplundered by the Pied Indians, were too fat either toresist or to pursue, and considered only how they mightrepair their losses ; and the Celts, looking on the Lowlandersas strangers and intruders, thought them quitefair game, and could never comprehend how there couldbe any crime in robbing a Moray man. ' ' So late as1565, as appears from the rental of the church-lands inthat year, the inhabitants of the ' laich ' remainedentirely a distinct people from the Highlanders, and allbore names of purely lowland origin. Nearly all theinterest of Moray as a province, and often all theassociations of the name are connected with its lowlandsin the N. These have long been famed for mildnessanddryness of climate, though the rivers that windthrough them, having their sources among mountainshigh enough to arrest the moisture brought in from theAtlantic by the south-west winds, are sometimes liableto sudden freshets. The great floods of 1829, so admirablyrecorded in Sir Thomas Dick Lauder's The MoraijFloods, form an extreme example. Probably no part ofScotland, not even East Lothian, can compete withMoray in regard to the number of spontaneous testimonieswhich have been borne to the richness of itssoil. An old and common saying asserts that Morayhas, according to some versions, 15, according to others,40 days more of summer than most other parts of Scotland.Holinshed (practically an Anglicised form ofBellenden's translation of Boece's Chronicle) says, ' InMurrey land also is not onelie great plentie of wheat,barlie, otes, and suchlike graine, besides nuts andapples, but likewise of all kinds of fish, and especiallyof salmon.' George Buchanan extols the province assuperior to any other district in the kingdom in themildness of its climate and the richness of its pastures.'So abundant, ' he says, ' is this district in corn andpasturage, and so much beautified as well as enrichedby fruit trees, that it may truly be pronounced thefirst county in Scotland.' Whitelock, in Cromwell'stime, says, 'Ashfield's I'egiment was marched intoMurray-land, which is the most fruitful country inScotland.' William Lithgow (1583-1645), after glancing