Carloway

(Carlabhagh)

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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Carloway, a district in the N of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Ross-shire, extending from the upper part of Lochs parish north-westward to the Atlantic, and from Loch Roag north-eastward to the boundary with Barvas. Its coast is penetrated, 3 miles east-north-eastward from the mouth of Loch Roag, by a sea-inlet called Loch Carloway; and its interior is more mountainous than almost any other part of Lewis, and has numerous intersections of soft and moorish tracts and fresh-water lakes. The arable lands form a small proportion of the entire area, lie chiefly along the shore, and are low and sandy. A circular Scandinavian fort here is larger and more entire than almost any other antiquity of its class in Scotland, and has a strong stone, turf-covered rampart 30 feet high. A village called Carloway stands at the head of Loch Carloway, and has a Free church. The father of blind Rory, the harper, mentioned in one of Sir Walter Scott's novels, resided in the district, and was the original translator of the Psalms into Gaelic. Pop. of registration district (1861) 2204, (1871) 2702, (1881) 2974.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

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

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