The Farish of Dornoch -.- The Parish of Dornoch in the County of Sutnerland may be described as a peninsula, bounded on the South and Last by the Ugrnoch Firth and on the North iast by the Little Ferry and Loch Fleet. On the kest and I~orth hest lie the Parishes of' Creich and nogart. The Parish lies s.ii,:;ci;l ;o cnc Sor:tk: 01' 33i. ar~ajusc to the i;eSL oi' +A. ~t is 1 j mil-es long, ti. mi.Zes br\>aa ana in area 33,012 acres. Name.- The name Dornoch cannot be derived with accuracy. In previous Statistical Accounts it is stated that "the Town and Parish of Uornocn derive thei-r name from the Gaelic words Uorn - filch, which signify a horse's foot or hoof 'I. I'his derivation relies upon the tradition that at the uattle of ~rnbo fought about the middle of the 13th century by the ~ocal inhabitants under the leadership of Richard ~.~urray,brother C of Bishop Gilbert (1 222-1 245) , and the Earl of Sutherland, against the Danes, the Earl singled out the Danish Commander for combat and dispatched the Commander with the leg of a horse he found on the battlefield. heraldry, in the horse shoe in the Arms of the hoyal durgh of Oornocii, supports this tradition. The great obstacle to this derivation springs from iiistory before which iieraldry and Tradition must give way. ~h&name l)ornoCqs mentioned in a Nandate of king 3avia I over 100 years before the dattle of'r;mbo.. The nanle may well , have a r:orse orijtir;. At any rate 3s recently as last - . +! summer the Town Clerk 01' Uornoch received a lettar f~tm1 Scandinavian country and the post-marl< showed Mat i$r sent from a plsce callea Uornzch. In byegone by@ of this parish was spelt in that way. Ufst,ricts .- ihe parj sh is divided into varipus district % fins wi~,hir,i I, it07:il 5urgh, t:~i%.3ul6:,;i~ 01' JOT1 it. d@~,%iE@$... the ?own of bol-noch tile f o-iob;j.tl:- c;ic cl-j c cs have bee! Lis kea for ~fi'icialpurposes, namely:- (1 1 iimbo, iiilton, and ,f. Bsllacbepy , (2) Skibo , Overskibo! Clashmu~achand arrhmte, \ (3) Cyderhall, Cuthill, Lonemore and avoenfin, (41 khin .f hchley, Proncynain, Sroncy Croy, Bvelix and Ca~re,(5) Ccul, ' !r j akelbo, Pourpenny, 'l'rentham -.nu Poles, . (61 'I'orball , &qm Cmbusavie, Balvraid, and hdininish, (7) near'q'whar, B$~fdk@~g Ach~srrichand Achormlarie ; -.tion The population of this parish with 2%~om bwn ,: seven districts 1% 1,421 . when it is stated ,tWtin 'I8831 the population was 3,380 it will be seen that a vexy serious depopulation has taken, place here. Fifty yeam $g& ,&he population was 2,794 and never has the parish since . ., statistics were first noted, fallen below 2,000 until 1991, This depletion applies to the landward part of the par5 ah, fop the population'of the burgh has considerably inem~s~d. sin- 1884. In 1881 the population of the burgh stwd at - r. , - 497, ir: 1951 the number was 725. 'the cause 01' this depletion is usually attributed to the difficulty of living , in these remote parts and in particular the disadvantages I arising from the lack of such alnenities as adequate transport, ! water suppl-ies, reasonable housing and the like. Any real 1 1 appreciation of the cause howcver must take into account that 1 in the iritercensal nerjod frorn 1931 -1 951 very grezt progress has beer] made in provitiir~gamenities in the burgh an12 parish especially with regard to transport, housing, electricity and that during that period the de'crease in population continues never-the-less. Until 1902 Dornoch was without modern transport of qny kind.' host of the local agricultural proauce went to the markets oy sea from the Little Ferry ancj I much merchandise came into the parish in the same way. In 1902 the Dornoch light railway was opened and so the town and parish of Dornoch were connected with the main railway line from Wick to Inverness. Within the las't 25 years however great strides have been made in. the development of amenities. Upon this development some comment is necessary. peve1o~ment.- Between 1930 and 1940 in the town and parish great changes came in transport. 'dus services to Pnverness and to Wick began with the result that travellers no longer had to rely upon the one railway link to the kound of Sutherlad. The motor ,transport has how been developed so that goods as well as passengers travel by road, and Dornoch burgh is no sf the win mrth and south roads PP~*&rsp;Pe -1 The afstrjcts mainly affected are:-l%nb and l$%p% . A.. -;.! - Suen .;Farisport f~cilfties are o?. course ha6e possj.k&e @'*itxi.-. ,,* nt in road conaitiuna in reoent y t nta ardhe outcme,cri Ulb idBa1'~~ $erms sf the opildcial p * p.sb of the parish is greatly impm+ @@ b$etria$s is banished, and. @~gjortunitMs&P b- parP&h paaea. In March of that year' ePw%&a%pm@ ,, 4 wxl the days of' the old syst@@sf %% . : ?, @id-&rmaR were ended. About 10 years W %,,&a tsled to interest the L ,h.S. kEAmy $m aec.' ftw I&&e supply o'f electricity to the't a w@P~fruitless. In 1932 hmmr the tom nt with the Eioss-shire &leetpieb$y whereby a supply 01' electrj.city woulu be giver. by means of a submarine cable across the Llornoch k'irtn at the Meikle r'erry. The town council was able to comply with the terms of the Agreement through the munificence of one of the citizens - Lord fiothermere. 3y a most generous gesture this worthy. citizen gave the burgh of' Dornoch advantages which only cane to nei,qnbourj.n,.: parjshes many years later. In the twenty years 1'011-o~ii:~?cile ir~tiaoduc ti Jn of' e1eci;r.j ciCjr into the burgh, great strides have been rnade in providing an adequate supply of electricity tp the rest of the parish. Due mainly to the encouragement given by the North of Scotland iiydco-Electric Board, electrtcity has been supplied to Embo, L Clashmore, Birichen, hearquhar , Balvraid, Evelix and Camore and to most of the large farms in the area. This advance ic the provision of modern facilities in which must be included - the telephonic facilities furnished by the numerous Aiosks throughout the parish, has had a ready response from the inhabitants. Now they look back upon the former days with little nostalgic sentiment but with great gratitude for the deliverance they have obtained. Besides the advance in transport and electricity, there has been a decided step forward in housing and in the provision of water supplies. Among the drawbacks of the landward of the parish the lack of adequate water supply has been prominent in the past. The burgh of Dornoch has had a fairly good supply for mdny years, ana in the year 1926 and in the '30s considerable improvements were ef'fected. Outside the burgh however only the village of Embo had a piped water supply - and this supply from Loch Laogh was very poor until about the year 1935. There is however no scarcity of water in the parish. The two large lochs to the west of the parish, Loch Laogh,and Loch 1 Lannsaidi.1 can accorciir~g to compe tcr~tte c~!nical>pinion miore than supply the whole parish wit31 piped water. At present . Loch Laogh supplies Embo, and Lo~hLannsaidh the burgh of ~rmch. Water supplies are in hand however for the whole landwax4 area of the parish.( The county council of a Butherland are, with the help of government grants given for rural water supplies, at present engaged in bringing a water supply to the agricultural. community of Hilton (Embo) . The -' .warla is Wer construction (find in a few months time, it is confidently. expected that this needy part of the parish will have a proper supply of water. The remainder of the parish is scheduled to be covered by 1956. It may be noted here however. that the Dornoch Watar Supply and the Embo Water S~pplyhave provided suppl,y to many houses, to farms, to se'hOdl% and to the one hospital atad in the parish at Cambusavie all outwith the bounds of both Dornoch and hb~. Bornoch Tam Council has been particularly generous in this respect. Indeed without the co-operation of the town council, the > county council could not at this stage provide a water supply for the rural district of Hilton ikmbo). - The local authorities, the town council and county council, have taken advantage of the various housing acts and housing schemes in the landward part of the parish and in the burgh have gre'atly improved the housing condition. The county I council has completed schemes in cmbo and irk Camore and the j towr! cobnc il has comple tec s cfiemes ir. sisn;):a'ielu, uornocn providing over 50 additional houses in the burgh. These modern houses in town and parish pave proved an incentive to crofters and cottars to avail themselves of the improvement grants that are offered for the improvement of their dwellings. (I There are 61 5 houses in the parish, 370 in the landward part and 245 in the burgh of Dornoch. There are very few shops in the landward area.but in the town of Uornoch there are 30 shops of various types.