Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland .. - National Library of Scotland

—Year.1S54. . .1S67, . .1877, . .1SS3, . .NAIRNSHIREGrass, Root Crops, etc.— Acres.Hay, Grass, andPermanent Pasture.10,69411,75812,418Turnips.44673S9340854133Potatoes.1642666785672while there are about 300 acres on an average annuallyunder beans, rye, vetches, fallow, etc. The permanentpasture not broken up in rotation is a little over 2000acres. There has been, as in most of the other northerncounties, a very great decrease in the area under wheat,and if the return for 1854 be correct, there has within thelast 30 years been a decrease of 3000 acres in the area undercultivation. The farms are mostly worked on the fiveshift system, and the average yield of wheat per acre is28 bushels ; barley, 32 to 40 bushels ; oats, 28 to 40bushels ; turnips, from 12 to 20 tons ; and potatoes, from4 to 5 tons, but the latter two are very variable.The agricultural live stock in the county at differentdates is shown in the following table :Tear. Cattle. Horses. Sheep. Pigs. Total.1854, . .1870, . .1877, . .1883, . .8304650665135676182611231247129228,23017,27816,97116,799148973393292639,84924,64025,66324,693The early returns seem again faulty. Not much attentionis given to the breeding of pure stock, and thecattle are mostly crosses. The sheep in the lowlandsare mostly Leicesters, though Cheviots are also kept ;those in the uplands are blackfaced. The farms aregenerally held on leases of 19 years. There were in thecounty, in 1881, 259 farmers employing 354 men, 90boj's, 67 women, and 147 girls. There were at the sametime 31 farms under 15 acres, 55 between 15 and 60acres, 59 between 50 and 100 acres, 92 between 100 and500 acres, and 21 of larger size. There are in theparishes of Ardclach, Auldearn, Cawdor, and Nairn, 15proprietors holding each an annual value of £500 orupwards, 23 holding each between £500 and £100, 30holding each between £100 and £50, and 63 holdingeach between £50 and £20. The principal mansions,most of which are separately noticed, are Achareidh,Boath, Cawdor Castle, Coulmony, Delnies House, FirHall, Geddes House, Glenferness House, Househill, Ivybank,Eilravock Castle, Kinsteary, Lethen House, Millbank,Nairngrove, Nairnside, Newton, and Viewfield.Manufactures there are practically none, except atBrackla Distillery, 3| miles SW of the town of Nairn ;and besides agriculture, and those connected with thetown and the coast fishings, the only industries are thesandstone and granite quarries—the latter at Kinsteary,opened up in 1872.Soads, etc.—The Perth and Forres section of theHighland railway touches the E border of the firstdetached section described, and the Forres and Invernesssection of the same system traverses the wholemain part of the county from E to W near the coastfor a distance of 8J mDes. The main coast road fromInverness to Aberdeen passes along near the line ofrailway from the town of Nairn ; a good road strikessouth-westward to Croy, and another south-eastward byBridge of Logie (Findhorn) to the road from Forres toGrantown. From a point 1 mile S of Bridge ofLogie a branch goes off to the NE and joins the Forresroad, while another passes S by W to Duthil. GeneralWade's military road from the Highland road to FortGeorge enters the county i mile W by S of LochanTutach, and, crossing the Findhorn at Dulsie, passesthrough the centre of the county in a north-westerlydirection till it enters Inverness-shire, 1 furlong SE ofFort George railway station. There are also a largenumber of good district roads.NAIRNSHIREThe only royal or police burgh is Nairn ; the onlyburghof barony or village with more than 300 inhabitantsis Auldearn ; and the principal smaller villages are-Cawdor, Delnies, and Newton. The civil county comprisesthe three entire quoad dvilia parishes of Nairn,Auldearn, and Ardclach, the greater part of Cawdor(shared with Inverness-shire), and smaller portions ofthe parishes of Dyke (shared with Elginshire), Moy,Croy, Petty and Daviot (also shared with Invernessshire),and Urquhart (shared with Eoss-shire). Theparishes of Ardclach, Auldearn, Cawdor, Croy, andNairn are ecclesiastically in the presbytery of Nairn,in the synod of Moray ; the portions of Daviot, Moy,and Petty, in the presbytery of Inverness and the synodof Moray ; the portion of Dyke, in the presbytery ofForres and the synod of Moray ; and the part ofUrquhart, in the presbytery of Dingwall, in the synod ofRoss. Within the limits of the county there are 5-places of worship connected with the Established.Church, 4 in connection with the Free Church, 1 in connectionwith the U.P. Church, 1 in connection with theScottish Episcopal Church, 1 in connection with theEnglish Episcopal Church, and 1 in connection with theRoman Catholic Church. In the year ending Sept. 1882there were 16 schools (15 public), which, with accommodationfor 2047 children, had 1590 on the rolls, and.an average attendance of 1173. Their staff consistedof 20 certificated and 8 pupil teachers. Nairnshire,with a constituency of 300 in 1883-84, unites with Elginin returning a member to serve in parliament. Thecounty is governed by a lord-lieutenant, 13 deputylieutenants, and 31 justices of the peace. It forms apart of the sheriffdom of Inverness, Elgin, and Nairn,but there is now no resident sheriff-substitute, the officebeing conjoined with that of Elginshire. Ordinary andsmall debt courts are held at Nairn weekly on Fridayduring session;justice of peace courts are held as required;and quarter-sessions are held at Nairn on thefirst Tuesdays of March, May, and August, and on thelast Tuesday of October. There is a police force of 7men (1 to each 1493 of the population) under a chiefconstable, with a salary of £135 a year. In 1883 thenumber of persons tried at the instance of the policewas 109, convicted 99, committed for trial 5, not dealtwith 38. The number of registered poor on the roll at14 May 1883 was 273, and of casual poor 43. Theexpenditure for Poor Law purposes in the sameyear was £2641. The Poor-law combination has beennoticed under the parish of Nairn. The proportion ofillegitimate births averages about 10 per cent. Thedeath-rate averages about 13 per thousand. Valuation(1674) £1264, (1815) £14,902, (1849) £20,156, (1S62)£25,982, (1884) £37,143, of which £2085 is for therailway. Pop. of registration county, which takes in thepart of Croy in Inverness-shire, but gives off all the otherportions of parishes, (1871) 8372, (1881) 8847 ; of civilcounty (1801) 8322, (1811) 8496, (1821) 9286, (1831)9354, (1841) 9217, (1851) 9956, (1861) 10,065, (1871)10,225, (1881) 10,455, of whom 4979 were males, 5476females, and 1980 Gaelic-speaking. In 1881 thenumber of persons to each square mile was 58, thenumber of families 2368, the number of houses 2094,and the number of rooms 8578. Of the whole population1288 men and 237 women were, in 1881, engagedin occupations connected with farming and fishing, ofwhom 950 men and 128 women were connected withfarming alone, whOe 992 men and 212 women wereengaged in industrial occupations ; and there were 1435boys and 1463 girls of school age.The county of Nairn seems to have been separatedfrom Inverness in the second half of the 13th century.Such separate history as the district has is noticed forgeneral purposes in the article Moray and separateincidents ;and the antiquities are noticed in the articleson the separate parishes, as well as in those on-CuLLODEN and Kilravock. During the clan periodthe ' laich ' was held by the Earl of Moray, and theupper districts by the Mackintoshes. In the middle ofthe 17th century Nairnshire was celebrated for its97