Torosay, a parish in Mull Island, Argyllshire, containing the hamlet of Lochdonhead, 8½ miles W of Oban, under which it has a post office (Auchnacraig), with money order, savings' bank, and telegraph departments. Communication is held with the mainland by steamers passing through the Sound of Mull. The parish is bounded NE by the Sound of Mull, E, SE, and S by the Firth of Lorn, W by Kilfinichen and Loch-na-Keal, and NW and N by Kilninian. Its utmost length, from E to W, is 12½ miles in direct line, but 18½ by the shortest road; its utmost breadth, from N to S, is 10 miles; and its area is nearly 146 square miles or 94,049 acres, of which 1307 lie detached, and 14076/7 are water, 20186/7 foreshore, and 29 tidal water. The coast, on the Sound of Mull and the Firth of Lorn, measures, exclusive of sinuosities, about 22 miles; has headlands of various shapes-some rounded, some acutely angular; and is indented with the sea lochs of Don, Spelvie, and Buy, and the bays of Duart, Craignure, Macalister, Cornahenach, Macallister, and Pennygown. The interior is mainly mountainous, yet contains the three vales of Glenmore, Glen Forsa, and Glen Cainail, and comprises a considerable aggregate of low-lying land. A chain of peaked mountains extends along its centre from end to end, has mostly a common base, and attains a maximum altitude of 3185 feet in Benmore. Several minor chains strike laterally from the main one, rise from common bases, and run nearly parallel to one another; and Ben Buy (2352 feet), a splendid mountain, stands by itself at the head of Loch Buy. A series of small lakes lies in Glenmore, and several others are scattered over the rest of the parish. One considerable rivulet issues from the Glenmore lakes; another issues from Loch Ba; and another traverses Glenforsa. The predominant rocks are trap, sandstone, and a coarse limestone; and the most noted minerals are rock-crystals, calc-spar, and fluor-spar. The soil of the arable lands is chiefly gravelly or mossy, and partly sandy, loamy, or clayey. Less than one-thirteenth of the entire area is in tillage, but about one-twentieth more is capable of reclamation. The chief mansions are Duart House, Glenforsa House, and Lochbuy House. A principal antiquity is DUArt Castle; and other antiquities are a tower at the head of Loch Buy, and ruins of three pre-Reformation chapels. Four proprietors hold each an annual value of more than £500. Giving off all KinlochsPelvie and part of Salen quoad sacra parish, Torosay is in the presbytery of Mull and the synod of Argyll; the living is worth £212. The parish church was built in 1783, and contains 280 sittings. There is a Free church of Torosay: and four public schools-Crogan, Kinloehspelvie, Lochdonhead, and Lochbuy-with respective accommodation for 28, 39, 70, and 50 children, had (1884) an average attendance of 14, 25, 33, and, and grants of £24, 10s., £20, 12s. 3d., £45, 14s. 11d., and £. Valuation (1860) £6871, (1885) £8902, 11s. 10d. Pop. (1801) 1764, (1831) 1889, (1861)- 1380, (1871) 1254, (1881) 1102, of whom 392 were Gaelic-speaking, and 396 were in Torosay ecclesiastical parish.
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