Rosneath

"ROSENEATH, village and peninsulated parish in extreme west of Dumbartonshire. ... The parish contains also Kilcreggan, Craigrownie, Cove, Couplort, Clynder, and Rahane villages, and part of Garelochhead. Its length is about 7 miles; its greatest breadth 3¾ miles; its area 8461 acres. ... Pop., quoad civilia, 1994; quoad sacra, 1901. The eastern boundary is all Gare Loch down to its mouth at Roseneath point; the southern boundary is Firth of Clyde from that westward to Craigrownie; the western boundary is Loch Long from its mouth up to vicinity of Loch Goil; and the northern boundary is an isthmus of about a mile from Loch Long eastward to head of Gare Loch. The coast is variously sandy, sloping, and rocky; exhibits, over much of its aggregate, a fine display of handsome villages, villas, and ornate cottages; and includes, on the lower part of Gare Loch, the singularly good anchoring-place of Campsaile Bay. The southern part of the interior is a mixture of slope, swell, and dingle, contains Roseneath Castle, and has much embellishment; the middle and northern parts are chiefly a hill-ridge, culminating at 530 feet above sea-level, and commanding exquisite views; and the whole belonged, till the latter part of 15th century, to the Earls of Lennox, and passed then to the noble family of Argyle. Roseneath Castle, a seat of the Duke of Argyle, stands near the site of an ancient fortalice refitted as a noble residence in 1630, and destroyed by accidental fire in 1802; and it was erected in 1803-6, is in a mixed style of Gothic, Roman, and Italian, and has ornate offices and splendid grounds. The ancient fortalice is said to have been captured by Sir William Wallace; and a tract adjacent to it figures strongly, but quite out of character with its true topography, in Sir Walter Scott's Heart of Midlothian. The churches are 4 Established, 2 Free, and 2 United Presbyterian; and there are 3 public schools with about 317 scholars."

[From The Gazetteer of Scotland, by Rev. John Wilson, 1882.]