BURGH-HEAD, a village and district, in the parish
of DuFFUs, county of Elgin, 9 miles ( N. W.) from Elgin;
containing 829 inhabitants. This place is equidistant
from Elgin and Forres, and is seated on the north
of a fine bay of the same name, said to be one of the best
roadsteads on the east coast of Scotland. The harbour,
which is commodious, was formed about 1811, and as
many as 400 vessels now enter it in the course of the
year; twelve vessels of the aggregate burthen of 738
tons belong to the port, and by these traders, and by
steam-ships, there is a regular communication with London,
Liverpool, Leith, and Aberdeen. The greatest
length of the district is five miles, and its greatest
breadth three. The village is very thriving, and has
several good houses, an excellent inn, a public readingroom,
and convenient baths for the accommodation of
summer visiters, who frequent it in great numbers. In
1846 an act of parliament was passed authorizing the
construction of a railway from Aberdeen to Inverness,
with branches to Burgh-Head and other places. A chapel
of ease was built in 1832, and in 1834 it was slightly
altered to increase the number of sittings, which are now
414; the minister's stipend is £70, paid partly by seatrents
and partly by two societies, with a house rent-free.
The members of the Free Church, and the United Presbyterian
Synod, have each a place of worship, and a
school is supported by the General Assembly. On the
promontory of Burgh- Head are considerable remains of
a regular Roman or Danish insulated fortification. The
works were divided into two parts, a higher and a lower,
and presented four strong ramparts, built with oaken
logs, directed towards the small isthmus upon which
the village now stands. A deep well, of extreme regularity
in its construction, and much too carefully formed
to allow of its being supposed to be Danish, was lately
discovered on the spot, and adds another link to the
chain of evidence adduced by General Roy, in his learned
work on Roman antiquities, to show that Burgh-Head
was a Roman station of very considerable importance.