Kilmuir-Easter, a coast parish of NE Ross and Cromarty, containing Delny and Kildary stations on the Highland railway, 35/8 and 53/8 miles NE of Invergordon. Within it are also the coast village of Barbaraville, 2¼ furlongs SSE of Delny station; Balintraid Pier, 1¼ mile SSW of Delny station; and Parkhill post office, near Kildary station, with money order, savings' bank, and telegraph departments. It is bounded N by Edderton and Logie-Easter, NE by Logie-Easter, SE by Nigg Bay and the Cromarty Firth, and SW and W by Rosskeen. Its utmost length, from NW to SE, is 77/8 miles; its width varies between 5 furlongs and 37/8 miles; and its area is 10,999 acres. The shore, 41/8 miles in extent, is low and flat, fringed at low water by the broad Sands of Nigg; and inland the surface for from 1½ to 2 miles at no point exceeds 200 feet above sea-level, but beyond it rises to 1000 feet at *Kinrive Hill, 1301 at *Cnoc Corr Guinie, and 979 at Druim na Gaoithe, where asterisks mark two summits that culminate on the SW border. The only stream of any consequence is the Strathrory or Balnagowan river, entering from Rosskeen, and winding 10¾ miles east-south-eastward, till it falls into Nigg Bay, ¾ mile ESE of Tarbat House. Sandstone, underlying the lower district, includes a fine white variety, which resembles the Craigleith stone near Edinburgh, and has been worked at Kinrive; whilst a reddish inferior sort has also been quarried in several places. The soil is generally light but fertile along the seaboard, highly improved by art since 1850; on the hills it grows poorer and poorer, till at last it passes into barren moor. All the lower grounds, as far as Kinrive Hill, are beautifully wooded. New Tarbat and Delny were once the seats of the Earls of Cromarty and of Ross; on Kinrive Hill are two cairns and the site of a stone circle. Mansions, noticed separately, are Balnagowan, Kindeace, and Tarbat; and 5 proprietors hold each an annual value of more, 1 of less, than £500. KilmuirEaster is in the presbytery of Tain and synod of Ross; the living is worth £295. The parish church, 9 furlongs NE of Delny and 9 SW of Kildary station, was built in 1798, and contains 900 sittings. A new Free church, ¼ mile NW of Delny station, is an Early French Gothic edifice of 1875-76, erected at a cost of £1500, and containing 500 sittings. Kilmuir-Easter and Tullich public schools, both built in 1876, with respective accommodation for 160 and 80 children, had (1881) an average attendance of 121 and 35, and grants of £86, 6s. 6d. and £31, 2s. Valuation (1860) £4423, (1881) £6767. Pop. (1801) 1703, (1831) 1551, (1861) 1295, (1871) 1281, (1881) 1146, of whom 518 were Gaelic-speaking.—Ord. Sur., shs. 94, 93, 1878-81.
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