Dyke, a village of NW Elginshire, and a parish partly also in Nairnshire. The village stands on the left bank of the Muckle Burn, 1 mile NE of Brodie station on the Highland railway, this being 6 miles E of Nairn and 3½ W by S of the post-town, Forres. On a rising-ground at the N end of the village is the new school, built in 1877 at a cost of over £1500, Elizabethan in style, with belfry and clock-tower.
The parish, containing also the villages of Kintessack and Broom of Moy, comprises the ancient parishes of Dyke and Moy, united to each other in 1618. It is bounded NW and N by the Moray Firth, E by Kinloss and Forres, SE by Edinkillie, S W by Ardclach, and W by Auldearn. Rudely resembling a triangle in outline, with southward apex, it has an utmost length from NNE to SSW of 91/8 miles, an utmost breadth from E to W of 47/8 miles, and an area of 15,464 acres, inclusive of 1496½ acres of foreshore and 257½ of water, but exclusive of 29 acres, to the E of the Findhorn, belonging to Nairnshire (detached). Roughly tracing all the eastern boundary, the Findhorn flows 6½ miles north-north-eastward to its mouth in the Moray Firth, just above which it is joined by the Muckle Burn, winding 10¾ miles north-eastward along the Auldearn border and through the interior. Buckie Loch (5½ x 1¼ furl.) lies close to the coastline, which, 6¾ miles long, is everywhere low, backed by the Culbin Sandhills (99 feet). Inland the surface is mostly low and level, near Loanhead attaining its highest point (134 feet) to the N of the railway, but rising S thereof to 105 feet at Feddan, 184 near Logiebuchany, and 500 at the southern extremity of the parish, near Craigiemore. Crystalline rocks prevail from Sluie to the head of the parish; and Devonian, with some belonging to later formations, in all other parts. The soil throughout the level central district is highly fertile; and elsewhere is of various character. Less than a fifth of the entire area is in tillage, about one-thirteenth is pasture, and the remainder is either waste or woodlands. The latter cover a very large extent, and include some of the finest trees in Scotland. Among those of Brodie, planted between 1650 and 1680, are three ash-trees (the largest 76 feet high, and girthing 21 at 1 foot from the ground), four oaks (do. 71, 16), five beeches (do. 81, 18), a sycamore (69, 127/8), and a Spanish chestnut (41, 15); among those of Darnaway, two ash-trees (the largest, 50 and 24½), five oaks (do. 65, 27¾), and a beech (65, 16¼)-these measurements being taken from tables in Trans. Highl. and Ag. Soc. for 1879-81. Hardmuir, a little WSW of Brodie station, is celebrated as the ' blasted heath, ' now planted, whereon Macbeth met the weird sisters of Forres. Mansions, all noticed separately, are Darnaway Castle, Brodie House, Dalvey, Moy, and Kincorth; and the parish is divided among 11 proprietors, 5 holding each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 1 of between £100 and £500, 2 of from £50 to £100, and 3 of from £20 to £50. Dyke and Moy is in the presbytery of Forres and synod of Moray; the living is worth £400. The parish church, built in 1781, contains 850 sittings. There is also a Free church; and Dyke and Kintessack public schools, with respective accommodation for 220 and 57 children, had (1880) an average attendance of 114 and 36, and grants of £100, 3s. and £31, 6s. Valuation (1881) £9059, of which £45 belonged to the Nairnshire section. Pop. (1801) 1492, (1831) 1451, (1861) 1247, (1871) 1238, (1881) 1236.—Ord. Sur., shs. 84, 94, 1876-78.
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errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from
the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be
different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original
text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity.
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