Duror

   DUROR, lately a quoad sacra district, in the parish of Lismore and Appin, district of Lorn, county of Argyll, 6 miles (N. N. E.) from Appin; containing 1692 inhabitants. Duror is situated on an arm of the sea, called the Linnhe loch, into which a portion of the land projects in a kind of promontory; on the north is Loch Leven, and on the south stretches Loch Creran. It includes the district of Glencoe, is about twentyeight miles in length, and averages about seven in breadth; but of this extensive area scarcely a twentieth part is under cultivation, the rest being chiefly pasturage for sheep and black-cattle, and very thinly inhabited by shepherds. The greater number of the population are at Glencoe, where, and near the village, are considerable slate works and quarries, of which the material, of a blue colour, and much esteemed, is exported in large quantities to Leith, England, and even America. The surface around Glencoe is in many places wild, mountainous, and romantic, and the vale is celebrated as the birthplace of Ossian, and for the cruel massacre of its unsuspecting inhabitants in 1691. At Ballichulish and Ardsheal are good mansions, the former rather modern, and the latter somewhat ancient. The ecclesiastical affairs are under the controul of the presbytery of Lorn and synod of Argyll; the stipend of the minister is £120, with a manse, and a glebe of the annual value of £1.15.: patron, the Crown. The church, built about 1826, by the parliamentary commissioners, is a plain edifice containing accommodation for 323 persons, and was repaired in 1834. The members of the Free Church have a place of worship; and there is a Roman Catholic chapel, with an episcopal chapel and a mission church. Two parochial schools are supported, in both of which English and Gaelic, and the first elements of education, are taught; the salaries of the masters respectively are £18 and £8, with about £22 and £10 in fees. A mineral spring here was used for medicinal purposes for some time, but it lately fell into disrepute, and is now quite neglected.