A vision of Britain through time
A vision of Britain from 1801 to now.
Including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions.
A vision of Britain through time
A vision of Britain from 1801 to now.
Including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions.
Southend, a village and a parish at the southern extremity of the peninsula of Kintyre, Argyllshire. The village stands 9½ miles S by W of Campbeltown, under which it has a post and telegraph office. The parish, comprising the ancient parishes of Kilcolmkill and Kilblane, includes the island of Sanda and the adjacent islets, and has been called Southend since the Reformation. It is bounded N by the parish of Campbeltown, and on all other sides by the sea. Its utmost length, from E to W, is 10¾ miles; its breadth, from N to S, varies between 2 7/8 and 6 1/8 miles; and its area is 31,160 acres, of which 277½ are foreshore and 81½ water. The coast, 20½ miles in extent, is slightly indented by three or four little baylets capable of affording anchorage to vessels, and terminates on the SW in the bold broad promontory of the Mull of Kintyre. It is chiefly sandy in the E, but high, bold, and very rocky in the W, and in its high bold parts abounds with caves, and presents a striking appearance as seen from the sea. The interior exhibits a picturesque variety of heights and hollows, pastoral hills and arable vales, low grounds and heathy eminences. Chief elevations, from E to W, are Kerran Hill (775 feet), Tod Hill (610), Cnoc Mor (399), *Cnoc Odhar (907), Beinn na Lice (1405), and *Cnoc Moy (1462), where asterisks mark those summits that culminate on the northern border. The last, Cnoc Moy, commands a magnificent panoramic view. Two brooks, Conieglen Water and the Breackerie Water, which drain the surface southward to the sea, are subject to sudden inundating freshets, and sometimes cut out for themselves reaches of new channel. Mica slate, trap, Old Red Sandstone, and limestone are the principal rocks; and the trap has been quarried for masonry, the limestone worked for manure. The soil on the eastern seaboard is a light loam mixed with sand or gravel; that on the slopes of the hills is mostly a light gravel incumbent on till. The proportion of arable land to pasture is nearly as 1 to 15. Antiquities, other than that noticed under Dunaverty Castle, are remains of Scandinavian forts, some ancient standing-stones, and ruins or vestiges of three pre-Reformation chapels. Mansions, noticed separately, are Carskey and Keir; and the Duke of Argyll owns nearly five-sixths of the entire rental, 2 others holding each an annual value of more, and 2 of less, than £500. Southend is in the presbytery of Kintyre and the synod of Argyll; the living is worth £232. The parish church was built in 1774, and contains 600 sittings. A U.P. church, originally Relief, was built in 1798. Two public schools, Glenbreackerie and Southend, with respective accommodation for 45 and 161 children, had (1884) an average attendance of 35 and 72, and grants of £29, 11s. 6d. and £63, 13s. Valuation (1860) £10, 291, (1885) £14, 010, 8s. Pop. (1801) 1825, (1831) 2120, (1861) 1214, (1871) 1044, (1881) 955, of whom 121 were Gaelic-speaking.—Ord. Sur., sh. 12, 1872.
(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)
| Linked entities: | |
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| Feature Description: | "a village and a parish" (ADL Feature Type: "populated places") |
| Administrative units: | Southend ScoP Argyll ScoCnty |
| Place: | Southend |
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