Snizort, a parish in the N of Skye, Inverness-shire, whose church stands towards the head of Loch Snizort Beag, 62/3 miles NNW of Portree, under which there is a post office of Snizort. Containing also the post office villages of Skeabost and Uig, it is bounded N by Kilmuir, E by the Sound of Raasay, SE by Portree, SW by Bracadale, and W by Duirinish and Loch Snizort. Its utmost length, from N to S, is 15 miles; its utmost width, from E to W, is 8 ¼ miles; and its area is 84 square miles or 54,285 5/8 acres, of which 7891/3 are foreshore, 177 3/5 water, and 38½ tidal water. The E coast measures 5¾ miles, and the W coast no less than 23, following all the ins and outs of Uig Bay and Loch Snizort Beag; and both are generally bold and rocky. Loch Leathan (7 x 4 furl.; 436 feet), on the Portree boundary, is much the largest of four fresh-water lakes; and the principal streams are the Snizort, the Haultin, the Romesdal, the Hinnisdal, and the Conon, all running to Loch Snizort Beag or Loch Snizort. The surface is everywhere hilly or mountainous, chief elevations from N to S being Biodha Buidhe (1523 feet), Beinn Edra (2003), Baca Ruadh (2091), the Storr (2360), Beinn a Chearcaill (1817), and Beinu Grasco (768). Of these the huge and lofty ridge that bears the name of the Storr sends up a chief cluster of torn and precipitous summits, which, rising to a height of several hundred feet above the adjacent masses, shoot up from the bosom of a fog like a series of air-borne spires, towers, and walls-a faraway city on the clouds. Much of the parish is irreclaimable waste, 47, 439 acres being ranked as moorland by the Ordnance Survey; but much of this moorland is occupied in the rearing of black cattle. The rocks are principally traps, partly overlying stratified formations; and the soil of the arable grounds, though various, is principally a gravelly loam on a cold clay. On an islet formed by the river Snizort, and now used as a cemetery, are the ruins of an old cruciform church, which probably was once the parent church of Skye. In various localities are cairns, tumuli, and vestiges of stone-circles. The Old Man of Storr is a natural obelisk of uncommon magnitude, measuring 360 feet around the base, swelling below the middle to a larger girth, and thence tapering away to nearly a sharp point at an altitude of 160 feet. On the boundary with Portree is a beautiful cascade over a precipice about 90 feet high. Beneath it, and nearly opposite its middle, an arched hollow path passes across the rock, so broad that five or six persons may occupy it abreast, and so situated that they are secure from the body of water which rolls over them, and looks like a thick curved pillar of smoke. Kingsburgh House, near the E shore of Loch Snizort Beag, 2¾ miles NNW of the parish church, is gone; but some venerable plane trees mark the site of its garden. Hither, disguised as ' Betty Burke,' Miss Flora Macdonald's muckle Irish maid, came Prince Charles Edward, on 28 June 1746; here he made a hearty supper, drank a bumper of brandy, smoked a pipe, and enjoyed, for the first time for many weeks, the luxury of a good bed. Hither, too, in 1773, came Dr Johnson. ` To see,' says Boswell, ` Dr Samuel Johnson in Prince Charles's bed, in the Isle of Skye, in the house of Miss Flora Macdonald, struck me with such a group of ideas as it is not easy for words to describe. He smiled and said, " I have had no ambitious thoughts in it." ' Lord Macdonald is chief proprietor, but 4 others hold each an annual value of more than £500. Snizort is in the presbytery of Skye and the synod of Glenelg; the living is worth £158. The parish church, built in 1805, and enlarged in 1839, contains 750 sittings. There is a Free church of Snizort; and five schools-Bernisdale, Glenhinnisdal, Kensaleyre, Uig, and the Macdiarmid foundation-with respective accommodation for 120, 33, 60, 134, and 64 children, had (1884) an average attendance of 90, 14, 28, 49, and 36, and grants of £35, 4s. 6d., £9, 15s., £18, 7s. 6d., 32, 1 4s. 6d., and £16, 3s. 5d. Valuation (1860) £4187, (1884) £5418. Pop. (1801) 2144, (1831) 3487, (1861) 2639, (1871) 2326, (1881) 2120, of whom 2055 were Gaelic-speaking, and 17 were in Stenscholl quoad sacra parish.
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