Olrig, a coast parish of N Caithness, containing Castletown village, 5 miles E by S of the post-town, Thurso. It is bounded N by Dunnet Bay, NE by Dunnet parish, SE and S by Bower, and W by Thurso. Its utmost length, from WNW to ESE, is 5¾ miles; its breadth varies between 2¾ furlongs and 4 5/8 miles; and its area is 15 3/5 square miles, or 10,336 2/3 acres, of which 32 2/5 are water and 289 1/3 foreshore. The coast, 3½ miles in extent, to the E comprises some sandy links; near Castlet own has a small but commodious harbour; and in the W is indented by small Murkle Bay. The interior is partly flat and partly hilly; forms, for some distance from the coast, a continuous expanse of fertile cultivated land; and rises, towards the S, into gentle, verdant, finely-pastoral uplands. Olrig Hill (463 feet), 2 miles SW of Castletown, is crowned with vestiges of an ancient watch-tower, and commands a view of the southern Orkneys, great part of Caithness with the Sutherland hills beyond, and nearly all the Moray Firth away to the coasts of Elgin, Banff, and Aberdeen shires. Durran Hill (388 feet) is 2¾ miles S by W of Castletown; Durran Loch, to the NE of Durran Hill, has long been drained, rich meadow-land and pits of marl now occupying its former bed. The rocks are Devonian, and, including abundance of sandstone and limestone, supply vast quantities of pavement-flag for exportation. The soil of the cultivated lands is good, principally a deep clay, with occasional patches of sand or till. Great improvements in the way of draining, fencing, and reclaiming, have been effected on both the Ratter and Olrig estates-on the former by Sheriff Traill in the first half of this century. Fully three-fifths of the entire area are in tillage; some 20 acres are under wood; 500 are links or moss; and the rest is capital pasture. Antiquities are six Picts' houses, the watch-tower on Olrig Hill, and the sites of a nunnery on Murkle estate, off St Trothan's chapel to the S of Castletown, and of St Coomb's Kirk on the Links of Old Tain, which last is said to have been overwhelmed by sand. Olrig House, 1 mile SSW of Castletown, is the seat of James Smith, Esq. (b. 1832; suc. 1853), who holds 2734 acres in the shire, valued at £2325 per annum. Four proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 1 of from £50 to £100, and 12 of from £20 to £50. Olrig is in the presbytery of Caithness and the synod of Sutherland and Caithness; the living is worth £270. The parish church at Castletown is a handsome edifice of 1841, designed by Mr Cousin of Edinburgh. There are also Free and Original Secession churches; and four schools- Castletown public, Murkle public, Tain District public, and Olrig female-with respective accommodation for 200, 116, 60, and 168 children, had (1883) an average attendance of 87, 86, 22, and 88, and grants of £73, 18s., £102, 14s., £23, 3s., and £65, 15s. Valuation (1860) £.7320, (1884) £8879, 17s. Pop. (1801) 1127, (1831) 1146, (1861) 2059, (1871) 2028, (188l) 2002.—Ord. Sur., sh. 116, 1878.
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