DRAINIE, a parish, in the county of Elgin; including
the villages of Lossiemouth and Stotfield, and
containing 1515 inhabitants, of whom 16 are in the
hamlet of Drainie, 4 miles (N.) from Elgin. This parish
consists of the ancient parishes of Kinnedar, a parsonage,
and Ogston, a mensal church; of which latter the
Bishop of Moray received the great teinds. Ogston was
disjoined from St. Andrew's, and annexed to Kinnedar,
in 1642. The name of Drainie, belonging to an estate
on which a new church was built about the year 1666,
was after that event applied to the whole parish. The
parish is partly a peninsula, as the ancient name Kinnedar
implies, and is bounded on the north by the Moray
Firth, on the east by the river Lossie, and on the
south by the lake of Spynie, a piece of fresh water three
miles in length and one in breadth, well stocked with
eels and pike, and the resort of numerous aquatic birds.
Drainie is about four miles long and two broad, and
comprises 44S0 acres, of which 3385 are in tillage, 365
under wood, and the remainder uncultivated. The coast
is bold and rocky; and at the distance of a mile from
the shore, opposite to the Coulard and Causea hills, is
a dangerous reef, the dread of mariners, the centre of
which, however, being always above water, serves as a
beacon for avoiding the lower branches, stretching along
unseen to a considerable distance on each side. There
are two harbours, one at Stotfield, the other at the
mouth of the river Lossie; and the numerous caves and
fissures near the hamlet of Causea or Cove-sea, constitute
a distinct and interesting feature in the scenery.
The whole of the rock in this latter direction is a continuous
mass of freestone, the softer parts of svhich, by
the action of the winds and waves, have been wrought
into a great variety of arches and pillars. A little to the
west is a cave, once the cell of a hermit, and used by
Sir Robert Gordon in the rebellion of 1745, for concealing
his horses, when the followers of Prince Charles
were ravaging this district; and farther in the same
direction are many other caverns, but the coast is too
rugged and dangerous to allow them to be explored.
All the low lands in the parish were formerly covered
by the sea, which, when it receded, left a beach of stones,
from about eight to twenty feet in height above the level
of the lands under tillage, and which is beneficial as a
protection against storms from the north. The interior
is flat, and the soil of great diversity of quality, good
and bad alternating with each other in rapid succession
throughout. The low drained grounds consist of a rich
loam or clayey marl, and produce fine crops; the higher
lands have a lighter soil, resting upon a gravelly bed or
on white sand, and a portion in the centre is of the worst
description, having been denuded of its surface for the
purpose of fuel. The usual white and green crops are
raised, in some parts of superior quality, and the sixshift
course is followed; but husbandry is in a comparatively
low state, very little land having undergone the
process of draining, and some of the modern improvements
being only partially in operation. The annual
value of real property in the parish is £5208. The
Causea quarries supply abundance of freestone, which
has been extensively used for ornamental work in the
mansions of this and several adjacent counties; and in
the fluor-spar rocks of the Coulard hill, lead of superior
quality has been discovered, near which is a bed of limestone.
A vein of lead was found and worked about the
close of the last century, but the operation was discontinued,
the return being inadequate to the expense.
The plantations, of limited extent, consist of firs or pine
irregularly scattered about the waste tract in the middle
of the parish, and one or two clumps of firs in the southeast.
The mansion of Gordonstown, on the estate of
that name, is a large structure in the Dutch style, repaired
and enlarged in 1730; it is now the seat of .the
Cummings, and was for several centuries the residence
of the Gordons of Gordonstown.
Ecclesiastically the parish is in the presbytery of Elgin,
synod of Moray, and in the patronage of Sir William
Gordon Gordon Gumming, of Altyre and Gordonstown,
Bart.; the minister's stipend is £242, with a manse,
and a glebe of six acres. The present church was built
in 1823, nearly in the centre of the parish, but somewhat
inconveniently for the villages, where the bulk of the population,
which is rapidly increasing, is located. Drainie
parochial school, in the w-estern portion of the parish,
affords instruction in the usual branches; the master
has a salary of £36, with £6 fees, and also participates
in the benefit of the Dick bequest. A charitable fund,
raised by subscription in 1806, for the benefit of the families
of twenty-one seamen who lost their lives in a
storm, afforded relief to the objects for whom the collection
was made, by an annual distribution of the proceeds;
but this fund is now exhausted. There is a burying,
ground at the west end of the parish, covered with
grave-stones; it contains a stone cross eight feet high,
and at one time formed the site of the ancient church
of Ogston: here now stands the splendid mausoleum of
the Gordon family. About half a mile to the east is the
ruin of the church built in 1666. A mile farther eastward
is the burying-ground of Kinnedar, where stood
the church of that name, the foundations of which are
now scarcely discernible: adjoining are the remains of
the castle of Kinnedar, a very strong and extensive
fortification, called also the episcopal palace, where
Archibald, the tenth bishop of Moray, and other bishops,
resided before the cathedral was fixed at Spynie. On
the summit of the Causea hills is a range of artificial
conical mounds of earth styled the "warlike hills", at
nearly equal distances, and from twenty to thirty feet
in height, constructed for signal stations, and used at
different periods by the possessors of the lands for communicating
important information, and various other
purposes.