Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland .. - National Library of Scotland

TheFEITSEIELeither record or any distinct tradition. There are like-Tvise in the parish two motes, and four very large cairns.For ii miles at the upper end, the parish has no road ;for 5J more it has only one along the Scar, but elsewhereit is tolerably well provided. Its southern margin istraversed by the road from Thomhill to Moniaive ; andall its south-eastern district has near access to the Thornhilland Carronbridge stations of the Glasgow and South-Western railway. The Duke of Buccleuch owns sixseventhsof all the parish, 3 other proprietors holdingeach an annual value of between £100 and £500,2 of from £50 to £100, and 12 of from £20 to £50. Penpontis the seat of a presbytery in the synod of Dumfries; the living is worth £461. The parish church,built in 1867 at a cost of £3000 from plans by the lateCharles Howitt, architect to His Grace, is a handsomeGothic edifice, said to be one of the finest parish churchesin Scotland, with 500 sittings, an organ, and a spire 120feet high. The East Free church dates from Disruptiontimes ; the West (1791 ; 500 sittings) till 1876 wasReformed Presbyterian ; and the present Reformed Presbyterianchurch was built in 1875, and contains 300sittings. At Btjrnhead is a U.P. church (1800; 700sittings) ; and two public schools, Penpont and Woodside,with respective accommodation for 210 and 41 children,had (1883) an average attendance of 121 and 37,and grants of £120, 8s. 6d. and £40, 13s. Valuation(1860) £7123, (1884) £8738. Pop. (1801) 966, (1831)1232, (1861) 1326, (1871) 132-3, (1881) 1176.—Orci. Sur.,shs. 9, 15, 1863-64.The presbytery of Penpont, meeting at Thornhill,comprises the quoad civilia parishes of Closeburn, Durisdeer,Glencairn, Eeir, Kirkconnel, Morton, Penpont,Sanquhar, and Tynron, and the quoad sacra parish ofWanlockhead. Pop. (1871) 13,171, (1881) 12,932, ofwhom 1379 were communicants of the Church of Scotlandin 1878.—The Free Church also has a presbyteryof Penpont, with churches of Closeburn, Glencairn,Penpont, Sanquhar, and Wanlockhead, which sixchurches together had 1636 members in 1883.Penshiel. See Whittingham.Penston, a collier village in Gladsmuir parish, Haddingtonshire,3 miles S of Longniddry station, and 2JE by S of Tranent. The barony of Penston, lyingaround the village, belonged towards the close of the13th century to William de Baliol, nephew of JohnBaliol of Barnard Castle, the fatlier of King John Balioland passed to his descendants, the Baillies of Laming-TON. It had, near the village, a strong old mansion,now represented by only the garden ; has been famous,since the 14th century, for excellent coal ;yielded coal,in the time of Oliver Cromwell, under a yearly rental of£400 ; and, in 1834, when its old mines seemed to benear exhaustion, had a new pit sunk in another quarter.—Ord. Sur., sh. 33, 1863.PentlaJid, an ancient but suppressed parish near thecentre of the county of Edinburgh, and containing thehamlets of Pentland and New Pentland, which standon or near the road from Edinburgh to Peebles byLiberton, and 4J miles S of Edinburgh. The namehas, probably, notwithstanding the author of Caledoniato the contrary, been taken from the adjoining hills,the old name of which, as well as of the Firth, seems tonave been Petland or Pictland. This title they arenow supposed to have acquired from having formed thedebatable ground or boundaries to the S and the Nof the Pictish territories. The parish church, whichstood at the village of Pentland, seems to have beengranted to the monks of Holyrood at the founding ofthat abbey, and was confirmed to them in 1240, butbefore the death of Alexander III. it was an independentrectory, which in the 14th and two followingcenturies was under the patronage of the earls ofOrkney and barons of Roslin. The parish was suppressedafter the Reformation, and the northern partannexed to Lasswade, while the southern, comprehendingthe barony of Falford, was united to the parish ofSt Catherine, now Glencorse.Pentland Firth, a strait along the E portion of the N178;'PENTLAND FIRTHcoast of Caithness, separating the Orkney islands fromthe mainland of Scotland. Its length, from a linedrawn on the E from Duncansbay Head to Old Head atthe SE point of South Ronaldsay, to a line drawn onthe W from Dunnet Head to The Barry in Hoy, is 14miles. The width from Duncansbay Head to BroughNess in South Ronaldsay is 6J miles, and the widthfrom Dunnet Head to Tor Ness in Hoy is 7| miles. Inthe centre the width is greater, as a triangular projection,measuring 10 miles along the base from E to W and 4deep, is sent off to the N between the islands of SouthRonaldsay and Flotta and Walls, and passes by theSound of Hoxa into Scapa Flow. Three and a halfmiles WNW of Duncansbay Head is the island ofStroma, included in the county of Caithness, andseparated from the mainland by the Inner Sound (IJmile). Six and a half miles N bj' W of DuncansbayHead is the island of Swona, included among theOrkneys and belonging to the parish of South Ronaldsay,aud 4j miles NE of Duncansbay Head ; and at theeastern entrance to the Firth are the Pentland Sker-EIES, consisting of Muckle Skerry, with Little Skerry5 mile S by E, Louther Skerry f mile SE, and ClettackSkerry 1 mile E by S. The two last are tidal, and asthe whole group lies right in the middle of this muchfrequented passage, and at a point where approach toeither shore is dangerous from the strength of the current,it early became necessary to mark them by night,for which purpose a lighthouse was erected on the MucldeSkerry in 1794. The rocks are at present marked bytwo fixed lights placed in towers, one of which is 170feet, and the other 140 feet, high. These are 100 feetapart from SSW to NNE, and are visible at a distance of18 aud 19 nautical miles. The only inhabitants of theSkerries are the lighthouse keepers and their families,who numbered 19 in 1861, 14 in 1871, and 17 in 1881.Though the Pentland Firth is the most dangerouspassage in the British seas, it must be traversed by allvessels passing from the E of Scotland to the Atlantic,or from the W to the North Sea, except those smallenough to be accommodated by the Caledonian Canal,and hence over 5000 vessels pass through every year inspite of the danger and difficulty of the navigation.This danger and difficulty arises from the exti'emerapidity with which the tidal current here runs—from6 to 12 miles an hour—and from the eddies by which itis in many cases accompanied. The chief of these latter,which are caused either by turns of the tide-race or bysunk reefs forming obstructions along the bottom, arethe line of breakers off Duncansbay Head known as the' Boars' or ' Bores of Duncansbay ; ' the line of breakersoff St John's Point midway between Duncansbay Headand Dunnet Head, known as the Merry Men ' of Mey ;the whirlpool at the N corner of Stroma, known as the' Swelkie ' (see Orkney) ; and the whirlpool near Swonacalled the ' Wells of Swona. ' current during floodflows from W to E, and during ebb from I to W, andships have to wait at either end till the set of the streamis in the direction in which they wish to pass, as it isutterly useless to attempt to push on against the flow.The stream along the coasts flows in a direction opposite'to that of the central or main current. The floodtide,' says the writer of the account of the parish ofDunnet in the New Statistical Account, ' runs from westto east at the rate of ten miles an hour, with new andfull moon. It is then high-water at Scarfskerry [midwaybetween Dunnet Head and St John's Point] at nineo'clock. Immediately as the water begins to fall on theshore, the current turns to the west ; but the strengthof the flood is so great in the middle of the firth that ifcontinues to run east till about twelve. With a gentlebreeze of westerly wind, about eight o'clock in themorning, the whole firth seems as smooth as a sheet ofglass, from Dunnet Head to Hoy Head in Orkney.About nine the sea begins to rage for about 100 yardsoff the Head, while all without continues smooth asbefore. This appearance gradually advances towardsthe firth and along the shore towards the east, thoughthe effects are not much felt upon the shore till it