Kilninian and Kilmore, a united parish in Mull district, Argyllshire, containing the town of Tobermory and the village of Aros, each with a post office under Oban; and comprising the parts of Mull island N of Loch-na-Keal, and the islands of Ulva, Gometra, Calve, Little Colonsay, Staffa, and Treshinish. It is bounded NE and E by the Sound of Mull, SE by Torosay, S by Loch-na-Keal, which separates it from Kiltinichen and Kilvickeon, and on the other sides by the Atlantic Ocean. Its utmost length, from NW to SE, is 15 miles; its utmost breadth, within Mull island, is 13¾ miles; and its area is 77,737 acres, of which 21401/5 are foreshore, 13¾ tidal water, and 13164/5 water. The separate islands are separately noticed. The coast of the Mull island districots, even exclusive of minor ins and outs, has an extent of not less than 40 miles; and, containing good harbours at Tobermory and Aros, it exhibits much variety of shore and contour, with no small degree of picturesqueness, and is sufficiently noticed in our articles on Loch-na-Keal, Callioch, Tobermory, Aros, and the Sound of Mull. The interior is hilly, but hardly mountainous, and, rising from the coast in arable or verdant slopes, in heathy acclivities, in rocky cliffs, or in naked terraces, offers, for the most part, a mixture of pastoral surface with heath and moss, and displays in places basaltic dykes that stand like artificial walls or ruined castles. Basalt and greywacke, traversed with basaltic veins, seem to pervade the whole; and the greywacke affords many beautiful specimens of zeolite, and some of chalcedony and prehnite. The soil of the arable tracts is mostly either a light reddish earth or a shallow mixture of that with moss, and in places is very humid. Loch Erisa (5 miles x ¾ mile), the largest of five fresh-water lakes, sends off Aros Water to Aros Bay, and all the five abound with excellent trout. The principal antiquities are Aros Castle and a Caledonian stone circle above Kilmore. Calgary and Torloisk, both noticed separately, are the chief mansions; and 3 proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 2 of between £100 and £500, and 2 of from £50 to £100. Including the quoad sacra parishes of Tobermory and Ulva, with part of Salen, Kilninian and Kilmore is in the presbytery of Mull and synod of Argyll; the living is worth £270. The parish church of Kilninian stands on the shore of Loch Tuadh, 8 miles SW of Tobermory; another, Kilmore, is 7 miles to the NE; and both were built in 1754. The two ancient parishes were conjoined with several others at the Reformation into one vast parish of Mull, and were separated therefrom in 1688. There is a Free church of Kilninian and Kilmore; and Dervaig public, Fanmore public, Tobermory public, Ulva public, Dervaig female industrial, and Morinish schools, with respective accommodation for 70, 67, 244, 40, 90, and 56 children, had (1881) an average attendance of 13, 20, 115, 20, 30, and 16, and grants of £9, 15s., £26, 5s., £77, 15s., £35, 13s., £20, 8s., and £14, 4s. Valuation (1860) £8028, (1883) 14,293, 9s. 6d. Pop. (1801) 3601, (1831) 4830, (1861) 3433, (1871) 2739, (1881) 2540, of whom 2155 were Gaelic-speaking, and 819 belonged to the ecclesiastical parish.
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optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical
errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from
the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be
different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original
text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity.
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