Lochmaddy

(Loch na Madadh)

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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Lochmaddy, a village and a sea-loch in North Uist island, Outer Hebrides, Inverness-shire. The village, on the W shore of the sea-loch, 19½ miles W of Vaternish Point in Skye and 65 SW by S of Stornoway, communicates regularly with Skye and the Scottish main. land by steamers, and is a centre of trade and commerce for the middle and southern portions of the Outer Hebrides. It comprises some poor huts, an inn, a sheriff's residence, and a court-house and prison, at considerable distances one from another; and has a post office, with money order, savings' bank, and telegraph departments, a branch of the Caledonian Bank, and a considerably frequented harbour. The sea-loch, opening on the E from the Little Minch, and expanding from an entrance only 1¼ mile wide to an interior width of 2¾ miles, penetrates the land to a length of 5½ miles, and includes, not one harbour, but many harbours, safe, capacious, and wanting nothing but sufficient trade to render them one of the finest groups of natural harbours in the world. About ¼ mile inward from the sea are two remarkable isolated rocks of columnar basalt, 100 feet high, called Maddy-More and Maddy-Grisioch, which serve as marks to mariners. The country around is all low, flat, and peaty country; and Loch Maddy itself is so beset with innumerable islets and intersected by multitudes of little peninsulas, as to present a perfect labyrinth of land and water. It does not cover more than 9 square miles with its waters, but its aggregate coast-line can hardly be less than 200 miles.

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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