Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland .. - National Library of Scotland

—NI6QNIGGparish is traversed by tlie great coast road from Aberdeento Dundee, which, crossing the Dee by the bridgeat Torry, or by the Wellington Suspension Bridge fartherup the river, passes S through the centre ; whileanotlier branch, which crosses the Dee at Bridge of DeeSW of Aberdeen, runs along the western border. TheCaledonian railway passes northward along the coasttill close to Nigg Bay, whence it curves westward acrossthe Dee to Aberdeen, the total length of the Niggportion being 5 miles. There is a station at Cove.The only mansion is Loirston House.The parisli is in the presbytery and synod of Aberdeen,and tlie living is worth £256 a year. The presentchurch, near the centre of the parish, is a good granitebuilding, erected in 1829 at a cost of £1800, and containing900 sittings. It has a high square tower, whichis seen for a long distance all round. Cove public, Torrypublic, and Cove Episcopalian schools, with respectiveaccommodation for 111, 313, and 104 pupils, had (1883)an average attendance of 65, 214, and 59, and grants of£38, 8s. 8d., £183, 9s., and £34, 7s. 6d. Nine proprietorshold each an annual value of £500 and upwards,3 hold each between £500 and £100, and 2 hold eachbetween £50 and £20. Valuation (1856) £8559, (1884)£14,390, 14s., phis £2884 for railway. Pop. (1801)1148, (1831) 1684, (1861) 2074, (1871) 2348, (1881) 2935.— Ord. Sur., sh. 77, 1873.Nigg, a parish in the NE of Ross-shire, on the N sideof the entrance to the Cromarty Firth. It contains avillage of the same name. The parish is boundedNNW, N, and NE by Fearn, E and ESE by the MorayFirth, N by the entrance to the Cromarty Firth, W byCromarty-shire, and NW by Logie-Easter. Except onthe NNW, N, and NE the boundary is natural, thatalong the NW and W being formed by the burn thatpasses Shandwick House (Logie-Easter) and the channelcalled the 'Pot,' formed by the course of this burn overthe Sands of Easter Ross or the Sands of Nigg at lowwater. The greatest length of the parish, from Shandwickvillage on the NE to the ferry at the entrance tothe Cromarty Firth on the SW, is 5J miles the greatest;breadth, from the boundary with Logie-Easter parishSE to the Moray Firth, is 3 miles ; and the area is about9000 acres. The indentation of the Cromarty Firth tothe W of the parish, 4 miles across the mouth and 2miles deep, is known as the Bay of Nigg. At hightide the depth of water is from 4 to 8 feet, but at lowwater the whole area is laid bare and becomes dry,except where the burns continue their courses over thesand to the main firth. It is frequented by ships ofsmall burden bringing coals, lime, and slates, andexporting timber and potatoes. It abounds in shellsand shallow-water fish, and supplies bait for a verylarge proportion of the cod and haddock fishers alongthe shores of the Moray Firth. Along the Bay of Nigg,to the W and NW, the ground is flat and low, and fromthis it slopes gi-adually south-eastward to the Hill ofNigs, whence it again slopes, at first ruggedly and thenprecipitously, downward to the shore of the MorayFirth. The Hill of Nigg is a tract of high groundextending through the whole parish, along the shore ofthe Moray Firth, and about 5 miles in length and IJmile in breadth, with a height of from 300 to 600 feetabove sea-level. It is partly covered with stragglingpjlantations, and has on the side next the Moray Firth airont of lofty precipices, over 200 feet high. At the Send it terminates in the Northern Sutor of Cromarty,overhanging the entrance to the Firth of the same name.It belonged in ancient times to the Bishops of Koss, whohad a residence in the parish, and was then called ' theBishop's forest.' Of the whole parish about 3500 acresare under cultivation or wooded, and the rest of thearea is either pasture land or waste. The soil of thearable portions is a good black loam, becoming lighternear the coast, and from 1 foot to 4 feet deep. Alongthe Hill of Nigg the soil is thin and cold. The underlyingrocks are granitic gneiss. Old Red Sandstone, andon the coast at the NE corner, at Shandwick, are patchesof liasic shales and limestones. There is a fine section116of the Old Red Sandstone exposed along the NorthernSutor containing two beds with fossil fishes, which were,like all those in the Cromarty district, discovered byHugh Miller :— 'Selecting,' he says in the Cruise of theBetsy, 'as a hopeful scene of inquiry the splendidsection under the Northern Sutor, I set myself doggedlyto determine whether the Old Red Sandstone in thispart of the country has not at least its two storeys oforganic remains, each of which had been equally a sceneof sudden mortality. I was entirely successful. Thelower ichthyolite bed occurs exactly one hundred andfourteen feet over the great conglomerate, and threehundred and eighteen feet higher up I found a secondichthyolite bed, as rich in fossils as the first, with itsthorny Acanthodians twisted half round, as if still inthe agony of dissolution, and its Pterichthyes stillextending their spear-like arms in the attitude ofdefence. The discovery enabled me to assign to theirtrue places the various ichthyolite beds of the district.Those in the immediate neighbourhood of the town[of Cromarty], and a bed which abuts on the lias atEathie, belong to the upper platform ; while those thatappear in Eathie Burn, and along the shores at Navity,belong to the lower. 'The chief interest of the discovery,however, arises from the light which it throws uponthe condition of the ancient ocean of the Lower OldRed, and on the extreme precariousness of the tenureon which the existence of its numerous denizens washeld. In a section of little more than a hundred yardsthere occur at least two platforms of violent deathplatforms inscribed with unequivocal evidence of twogreat catastrophes, which, over wide areas, depopulatedthe seas.' The liasic shales of Shandwick are also richlyfossiliferous. The Hill of Nigg was one of the huntinggroundsof the Fions, who used to leap across theCromarty Firth on their hunting-spears, but whose racebecame extinct in consequence of all their women andchildren having been burned to death in Glen Garry,while the men were here engaged in hunting. Twomiles along the shore, northward from the NorthernSutor, is the King's Cave ;while a path above, leadingto the top of the precipice, is called the King's Path.It is said to take its name from the shipwreck near it ofa traditional king of Denmark. His three sous, whoaccompanied him, were drowned, and one was buriedat Nigg, another at Shandwick, and another at Hilltonof Cadboll in Fearn parish, and it was at their gravesthat the sculptured stones at these places were erected.The Nigg stone originally stood near the gate of theparish burying-grouud, but having been blown down in1725 was afterwards fixed to the eastern end of thechurch. One side has a cross, with the usual knottedsculpturing and various figures of men and animals.That at Shandwick stood on the brow of an eminence,behind the village, but was blown down during a violentgale in 1847, and broken into three pieces. This alsobears on one side a cross, and is very similar in style tothe Nigg stone. A mile and a quarter SW of Shandwickvillage is a green mound, with a so-called Danish camp onthe top. Near the brow of the Northern Sutor is a littlegreen knoll called Dunskaith, on which it is said that afort was erected by William the Lyon in 1179. Theview from this point is very fine, the entire Firth ofCromarty and the rich country around lying spread outas if on a map. From other points also, along thesummit, the view of the Moray Firth and its shores isequally good.The drainage of the parish is carried off by a numberof small streams. The principal mansion is BayfieldHouse. Besides Nigg village, at the church, the parishcontains, on the extreme NE, the fishing village ofShandwick, and on the extreme SW the fishing villagesof Balnabradich and Balnapaling. In 1882 Shandwickhad 10 first-class, 6 second-class, and 2 third-class boats,with 45 resident fisher men and boys, while the last twohad 2 first-class, 3 second-class, and 3 third-class boats,with 25 resident fisher men and boys. There is a ferry1 mile wide connecting the S of the parish with Cromarty,and a road passes from the landing-place northward