SOUTHEND, a parish, in the district of Cantyre,
county of Argyll, 7| miles (S. by W.) from Campbelltown;
containing, with the island of Sanda, 1594 inhabitants.
This place takes its present name, which it has
had only since the Reformation, from its position at the
southern extremity of the peninsula of Cantyre. It
consists of the ancient parishes of Kilcolmkill and Kilblaan,
the former name signifying " the cell or church
of St. Columba, the founder of churches," and the latter
" the church of St. Blaan." On the east and south it is
bounded by the Firth of Clyde and the North Channel,
on the west by the Atlantic, and on the north by the
parish, town, and harbour of Campbelltown. Besides
the mainland portion, it comprehends the small island
of Sanda, at a short distance on the south-east, and the
much smaller islands of Glunamore and Sheep Isle, both
of them close to the former. The parish extends eleven
miles in extreme length, measures about five miles at
its greatest breadth, and comprises 3'2,318 acres, of
which one-fourth are computed to be under cultivation
as arable and pasture, the proportion of the arable to the
pasture being one to five. Of wood, natural and planted,
there are not more than from 100 to 150 acres.
The line of coast is about nineteen miles in extent;
and though sandy towards the east, on the side opposite
the Atlantic it is bold, rocky, and commanding in its
aspect. It contains numerous caves, some headlands,
and several bays girt with coral rocks, of which the bays
affording the best anchorage are Dunaverty, Carskey, and
Machririoch. The Mull of Cantyre, the Epidium Promontorium
of the Romans, is the chief headland, and the
nearest point of land in Britain to Ireland, the distance
from the promontory to Tor Point, in the county of
Antrim, being only eleven miles and a half. This rocky
projection is well known for its lofty and imposing appearance,
exhibiting an assemblage of massive pillars
that overhang the ocean in dreary solitude: the rocks
are of a singular variety of forms, and of magnificent
grandeur, bidding defiance with unbroken front to the
most furious storms. Adjoining is the mountain of
Knockmoy, the highest in the district, rising 2036 feet
above the level of the sea, and forming a noted landmark
to all vessels coming from the west. Its summit commands
one of the most striking and diversified views in
the upper districts of Scotland, embracing, in the midst
of the fine clear swell of the adjacent deep, the islands
of Islay, Rathlin, Jura, and (iigha, and, in the distance,
the mountains of Mull. Towards the east, the expanse
of the Firth of Clyde appears with great cflTect, with the
towering hills of Arran, the Ayrshire coast, and the
moimtains of Carrick and (ralloway, the horizon being
bounded by the picturesque isle of Ailsa. The island of
Sanda, separated from the main land by a channel three
miles in breadth, is of irregular form, about four miles
in circumference, and being covered with good pasture,
serves the purpose of a large sheep-farm. It has passed,
at different times, iindcr different names, but its present
appellation is considered the most ancient, on the authority
of Adomnan, Abbot of lona, who wrote the life
of St. Columba in the year 680. During the visits of
the Scandinavians to these coasts, and their attacks upon
Cantyre and the adjacent islands, Sanda, according to
the historian Buchanan, was an important station for
their fleets. When the Danish fleet assembled here the
isle was called Avona Porticosa, and by the natives it is
still termed Aven. The sound is much frequented for
its anchorage by small vessels sailing up the Firth of
Clyde, which has about twelve fathoms of water at three
miles from the shore.
The navigation on this coast requires great experience
and caution, on account of some remarkable eddies and
dangerous sunken rocks. One of the former, a rapid
current resembling a whirlpool, runs about a mile and
a half from the Mull, and often drives vessels on shore
by taking a strong course to the east when the tide
flows westward. A very dangerous rock also, called
Paterson's Rock, nearly 300 yards in length, lying eastsouth-
east of Sanda, and always covered at high water,
has been the occasion, partly through the force of the
current, of many shipwrecks. A lighthouse, called the
Mull of Cantyre lighthouse, was commenced in 1*^6, and
finished two years afterwards: the light, which was
first exhibited on the night of the 1st of December,
1788, appears as a star of the first magnitude at the
distance of six or seven leagues. This beacon, so important
for the secure navigation of the channel between
Scotland and Ireland, is one of the number built by the
Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses, who were appointed
by act of parliament in the year 1786, with a
jurisdiction extending along the entire coast of Scotland
and the Isle of Man. The structure stands on a cliff
280 feet above the level of the sea, and near the rocks
usually known as "the Merchants." It is bounded by
a shore composed of gigantic masses of mica-slate and
quartz-rock, continually lashed by the tremendous waves
that are almost always in action in this quarter; while
inland nothing is to be seen but mountains and morasses,
the nearest habitation being five miles distant.
A new road was formed to it through the mountains, in
ISSS, to increase the facilities of communication j^required
in the transmission of the necessary articles.
The surface of the interior is in some parts pleasingly
diversified with rising grounds, and with valleys
traversed by their respective streams, the chief of which
are the valleys of Coniglen and Glenbreckry, lying nearly
parallel with each other. The stream of the Breckry,
which runs along the latter, issues from Knockmoy, and
loses itself in the sea at Carskey bay; while the Coniglen,
the larger of the two streams, and which is often suddenly
swollen, after flowing some distance in a southeastern
course joins the Firth of Clyde at Dunaverty
bay. The general scenery is wild and dreary; and the
extensive ranges of rocky mountains contain large and
cheerless peat-bogs, the depositories of immense trunks
of trees, constituting the remains of ancient forests.
The more cultivated portions of the parish, however,
are frequently picturesque: but the great scarcity of
wood deprives the surface of an important feature of a
fine landscape. The soil varies considerably. The
slopes generally exhibit a light gravelly earth, on a tilly
subsoil; while moss, clay, loam, and other varieties are
also to be seen in different places, with their usual
mixtures and modifications. Towards the sea, on the
eastern coast, the prevailing soil is of a light sandy
nature; and alluvial deposits of some depth are found
along the valleys, in which the cultivation has been continued
with least intermission. The crops are bear, oats,
beans, potatoes, and turnips; the soil, especially in the
eastern district, being considered too liglit for wheat
and barley: in some places, however, favoured with a
deep loamy earth, it is thought that these kinds of grain
might, with the security of good inclosures, be advantageously
raised. In general the land requires much
draining, and by this description of improvement the
arable ground has been increased nearly one-third within
the last few years; the Duke of Argyll has also straightened
and eml)anked the Water of Coniglen, at a cost of
£1600. Neither the sheep nor the cattle are remarkable
for their appearance or quality. The former, with the
exception of a few Leicesters lately introduced upon the
low lands, are an inferior variety of the native blackfaced,
with a mixture of Lintons; and the cattle are a
cross between the Irish and the West Highland, and
not to be compared with the original breed in the upper
country. The stock is perhaps deteriorated partly by
the nature of the pasture, whi('h, though sweet and
nutritious where the soil is dry and genial, is often the
reverse on account of a spongy, crude, and marshy subsoil.
On the whole the husbandry of the parish is well
conducted, and the houses of the superior tenants are
comfortable dwellings, some of them however roofed
only with straw; many of those occupied by the cottar
class are constructed of clay and turf, and are confined
and damp. There are two mills, one of them a cornmill,
the other for manufacturing starch from potatoes.
In this district the strata comprehend almost every
kind of rock, in various combinations, and in some
places embedded with minerals, among which are fluorspar
and rock-crystal. The prevailing rocks, however,
are sandstone, slate, quartz, and limestone; the first of
these predominates, and of the last, as well as of whinstone,
good quarries are in operation. Sanda consists
chiefly of sandstone of a reddish and a grey colour,
veined with slaty clay of different hues; it supplied a
large proportion of the material employed in erecting
the parish church, and has been used for several of the
principal mansions in the county. The rocks have an
ornamental appearance on some parts of the coast,
where, broken into different shapes, the lofty cliffs overhang
the sea, and form natural arches of considerable
size. Belts and clumps of plantations surround some
of the chief houses, and, being very uncommon in this
quarter, attract the eye with great effect. The estate of
Keil, a few years since a rude and uncultivated tract,
has, by the plantation of some thousands of larch, poplar,
and other trees, with the addition of good shrubberies,
assumed a very beautiful appearance; and the
grounds of Ballyshear, a handsome modern residence,
have also received the improvement of some well laid
out plantations of considerable extent. In the parish are
also the mansions of Keilcolm-Keil, Carskey, and Levenstrath,
the last surrounded by grounds ornamented with
several choice clumps of thriving trees. The produce
of the parish is usually sent for sale to Campbelltown,
where several annual fairs are held, and also a weekly
market for grain. From the neighbourhood of the same
place, coal of an inferior kind is brought for fuel.
The roads are well kept, and several good bridges have
been built. The annual value of real property in Southend is £8763.
Ecclesiastically this place is in the presbytery of Cantyre,
synod of Argyll, and in the patronage of the Duke
of Argyll. The minister's stipend is £158, of which
£91. 10. are paid by the exchequer; with a manse, and
a glebe of nearly eleven acres, valued at £15 per annum.
Southend church, accommodating 500 persons, was built
in 1774, and is now in good repair; it is pleasantly
situated on a rising ground, skirted by the stream of
the Coniglen on the south-east. There is also a place of
worship for the United Presbyterian Church. The parochial
school affords instruction in the ordinary branches;
the master has a salary of £34. 4., with the legal accommodations,
and £'27 fees: a new school-house has been
erected. A second school is supported by the Society
for Propagating Christian Knowledge; and there is
another, partly dependent on an annual gratuity from
the Duke of Argyll. The ruins of a religious edifice
dedicated to St. Columba are still in good preservation,
situate near the shore of Keil, where tradition says the
saint landed from Ireland. The ruins, also, of a religious
house dedicated to St. Coivin are to be seen; and
those of St. Catherine's chapel occupy the bank of a
stream in the retired vale of Glenadle, adjacent to a
cemetery, and a holy well frequented till lately by sick
persons. Obelisks and urns are to be found in various
parts: and there are remains of several Danish forts:
the principal one is near the Mull, on the summit of a
precipitous rock 180 feet high, and surrounded by three
walls.