Scourie, a village in Eddrachillis parish, W Sutherlandshire, at the head of a small bay of its own name, 43½ miles NW of Lairg, under which it has a post office, with money order and savings` bank departments, and with which it communicates by a daily mail-gig.
The township, except where it looks out upon the bay, is quite surrounded by an amphitheatre of rugged ledges of rock; and the land is comparatively verdant and arable, in fine contrast to the sterile and rocky surface of the mountain-screens. Scourie Bay is 7 2/3 furlongs in length by 5 across the entrance, and opens upon the romantic island of Handa. In the 16th century a branch of the Mackays took possession of the south-western part of what came to be called Lord Reay's Country, and, adopting Scourie as the seat and centre of their influence, assumed the designation of the Mackays of Scourie. One of this race was Lieutenant-General Hugh Mackay, the celebrated commander-in-chief in the reign of William and Mary. He was to have been ennobled by the title of Earl of Scourie, but lost favour at court through the intrigues of his rival, Mackenzie of Cromarty.—Ord. Sur., sh. 107, 1881.
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