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Lairg

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"LAIRG, a parish in county Sutherland, Scotland. It contains a small village of its own name, 16 miles N.W. of Dornoch. Its size is 30 miles by 12. Its surface is mountainous, Ben Clybric attaining a height of 3,200 feet above the level of the sea. The greater portion of the parish is in sheep pasture. It is traversed by the river Shin, and is varied by a loch of the same name, also by a number of small lakes. Granite, trap, and sandstone are the chief rocks. The parish is in the presbytery of Dornoch, and synod of Sutherland and Caithness. The minister's stipend is £166. The parish church was erected in 1846. There are a Free church and a school in connection with it. J. Mackay was once minister of this parish, whose son Hugh fell at Assaye, and another, William, wrote the account of the Juno's shipwreck, referred to in "Don Juan." At Knock-achath are a number of tumuli, said to commemorate a battle between the Mackays and Sutherlands. The Duke of Sutherland is the chief heritor."

Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)

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Churches

Presbyterian / Unitarian
Lairg, Church of Scotland
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Description & Travel

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Gazetteers

Topographical Dictionary of Scotland, Samuel Lewis - 1851

LAIRG, a parish (large), in the county of Sutherland, 19 miles (W. by N.) from the village of Golspie; containing 913 inhabitants, of whom 69 are in the village of Lairg. The name is generally supposed to be derived from the Gaelic word Lorg, signifying " a footpath ", and to be descriptive of the situation of the parish, which lies in the direct line from the northern to the southern part of the county, and the way through which was only a footpath till the present high road was constructed. Some, however, derive the name from the compound term ia-ri-Leig-, "bordering on the lake ", in allusion to the extensive and beautiful sheet of water called Loch Shin. The parish is not remarkable for any events of historical importance. There are several cairns still remaining, concerning the origin of which very little is known, the people of the country, when questioned upon the subject, merely repeating the tradition that they were built by the Fingalians. At a place called Cnoek a chalk, " the hill of the fight ", a number of tumuli are visible, which are reported to be the graves of those who fell in an encounter between the Sutherlands and the Mackays.

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Maps

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference NC486173 (Lat/Lon: 58.11831, -4.571023), Lairg which are provided by: