Skipness

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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Skipness (Norse' ship point'), a village and a quoad sacra parish on the E side of Kintyre peninsula, Argyllshire. The village, lying on a small bay of its own name, at the northern entrance to Kilbrannan Sound, is 4½ miles by water NNW of Loch Ranza in Arran, and 12 by road S by E of Tarbert. It has a post and telegraph office; and 1¾ mile to the NE is a quay, erected at a cost of £3000. The old castle of Skipness stands 5½ furlongs E by N of the village and 3 WNW of low Skipness Point, which divides Kilbrannan Sound from the entrance to Loch Fyne. An imposing structure, of high antiquity, but in good preservation, it forms a square, with an inner court. The outer wall is 7 feet thick, 33 high, and 450 in circumference. The western side is flanked by a small central tower; whilst of two projecting towers, one at the SE and one at the NE corner, the former was known as Tur an t'sagairt (` the priest's tower'), and the latter was evidently the keep of the castle. A portcullis defended the entrance. Modern Skipness Castle is the seat of Robert Chellas Graham, Esq. (b. 1848), who is Lord of the Barony of Skipness, having purchased this property in 1867, and who holds 15, 000 acres in the shire, valued at £1876 per annum. The quoad sacra parish, forming the northern portion of the civil parish of Saddell and Skipness, and constituted in 1871, is in the presbytery of Kintyre and the synod of Argyll; its minister's stipend is £120. The church, on the left bank of Claonaig Water, 2¼ miles WSW of Skipness village, was built in 1756 at a cost of £300, and contains 288 sittings. Pop. (1871) 500, (1881) 470, of whom 362 were Gaelic-speaking.—Ord. Sur., sh. 21, 1870.

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Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical 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. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer