Lochalsh, a coast parish of SW Ross-shire, containing the village of Balmacara, which lies on the northern shore of Loch Alsh, 8 miles SW of Strome Ferry, 4 ENE of Kyle-Akin, 50 WNW of Invergarry, and 63 WSW of Beauly, and which has a branch of the Commercial Bank, an hotel, a steamboat landing-stage, and Lochalsh post office, with money order, savings' bank, insurance, and telegraph departments. Containing also the village and post office of Plockton (6½ miles N by W of Balmacara) and the Strome Ferry terminus of the Dingwall and Skye branch (1870) of the Highland railway-(53 miles WSW of Dingwall), the parish- is bounded NW by saltwater Loch Carron and Lochcarron parish, NE by Urray (detached), E by Kilmorack in Inverness-shire, and S by Kintail and salt-water Lochs Long and Alsh. Its utmost length, from ENE to WSW, viz., from the head of Loch Monar to Kyle-Akin Ferry, is 28¼ miles; its utmost breadth is 6 miles; and its area is 80½ square miles, or 51, 513½ acres, of which 10772/5 are water, 272/5 tidal water, and 877] foreshore. Loch Alsh, like a landlocked lake, with an utmost width of 2½ miles, strikes 7 miles eastward from Kyle-Akin to the vicinity of Ellandonan Castle, where it forks into Lochs Duich and Long, the latter of which curves 5¼ miles north-eastward, though its average width is less than ¼ mile. Issuing from Loch Cruashie (4 x 1½ furl.; 850 feet), the river Ling or Long flows 11 miles west-south-westward along the Kintail boundary to the head of Loch Long. Other lakes are Loch Monar (4¼ miles x 3¾ furl.; 663 feet), at the Inverness-shire border; Loch-an-Laoigh (1 x ¼ mile; 893 feet), on the Lochcarron boundary; and Loch Calavie (9 x 3 furl.; 1129 feet), Loch an Tachdaidh (5 x 3 furl.; 970 feet), and An Gead Loch (7 x 2 furl.; 960 feet), in the eastern interior. The surface is everywhere hilly or grandly mountainons, rising east-north-eastward to Carn na h-Onaich (1100 feet), *Meall Ruadh (1476), Beinn Dronaig (2612), *Lurg Mhor (3234), Beinn Bheag (2030), and *An Riabhachan (3696), where asterisks mark those summits that culminate on the confines of the parish. Some small vales and the slopes of the lower hills have a good arable soil, and the uplands are neither rocky nor heathy, but furnish excellent pasture. Not more, how. ever, than 1450 acres are in tillage; some 2000 are under wood; and the rest is either pastoral or waste. Balmacara House is the only mansion; and Sir Alexander Matheson of Lochalsh, Bart., M. P., is almost sole proprietor. (See Ardross.) Lochalsh is in the presbytery of Lochcarron and the synod of Glenelg; the living is worth £250. The parish church at Balmacara village was built in 1806, and contains 650 sittings. Other places of worship are a Government church at Plockton, and Lochalsh and Plockton Free churches; and four public schools-Auchmore, Earbusaig, Lochalsh, and Plockton-with respective accommodation for 50, 82, 90, and l30 children, had (1882) an average attendance of 30, 31, 53, and 79, and grants of £43, 11s., £38, 0s. 6d., £46, 9s., and £66, 12s. Valuation (1860) £4083, (1884) £5850, 16s. 9d. Pop. (1801) 1606, (1841) 2597, (1861) 2413, (1871) 2319, (1881) 2050, of whom 1840 were Gaelic-speaking.—Ord. Sur., shs. 82, 72, 81, 71, 1880-84.
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