CROSS, or Ness, a quoad sacra parish (for a time), in
the parish of Barvas, county of Ross and Cromarty,
2~ miles (N. W.) from Stornoway; containing 1810 inhabitants.
The district is about ten miles in length,
and seven in breadth, and surrounded on all sides by the
.Atlantic, except on the south, where it is bounded by
Barvas and Stornoway. It forms the most northern
part of the island of Lewis, and its shores are bold and
wild: in many parts it is hilly, abounds in lakes, and
its large moors are deep and wet. The population is
employed a good deal in cod and ling fishing. The parish
was in the presbytery of Lewis, synod of Glenelg:
the stipend of the minister was £120, with a manse, and
a glebe of the annual value of £3; patron, the Crown.
The church, situated about two miles from the Butt of
Lewis, was erected in 1829, by the Parliamentary Commissioners,
and is a good and substantial, but plain edifice.
All the population adhered in 1843 to the Free
Church of Scotland. There are two or three schools.
Here are the ruins of a place of worship, supposed to
have been a chapel before the Reformation.