Muckairn, a quoad sacra parish in Lorn district, Argyllshire, forming the southern portion of the quoad civilia parish of Ardchattan and Muckairn, and containing Taynuilt station on the Callander and Oban railway (1880), 15 ½ miles E by N of Oban and 71 ¼ WNW of Stirling. It is bounded E by Glenorchy and Innishail, SE by Kilchrenan, SW and W by Kilmore and Kilbride, and N by the lower waters of Loch Etive, dividing it from Ardchattan. Its utmost length, from N to S, is 6 ⁵/8 miles; its utmost breadth, from E to W, is likewise 6 ⁵/8 miles; and its area is 21, 025 ¹/5 acres, of which 106 are foreshore and 175 ⁴/5 water. Loch Nant (7 ½ x 2 ¾ furl.; 605 feet) lies on the Kilchrenan boundary, and sends off a stream 5 ¼ miles northward to Loch Etive; the reedy Black Lochs (1 ⁷/8 mile by 37 yards to 1 ½ furl.; 95 feet) send off Lusragan Burn 3 ¹/8 miles northward along the Kilmore boundary; and the upper 6 miles of the river Lonan belong to Muckairn. The surface is everywhere hilly, but nowhere mountainous, chief elevations from N to S being Druim Mor (453 feet), Deadh Choimhead (1255), and Beinn Ghlas (1691). The coast, 8 ³/8 miles in extent, is low, but in places rocky, much indented with bays and headlands. Copses of oak and birch and mountain ash clothe much of the northern portion of the parish. whose arable area is small compared with the pastoral. There are sites of three pre-Reformation chapels, a standing-stone, and remains of several stone circles. Annexed to Ardchattan in 1637, Muckairn was constituted a quoad sacra parish by the ecclesiastical authorities in 1829, and reconstituted by the court of teinds in 1846. It is in the presbytery of Lorn and the synod of Argyll; the living is worth £140. The parish church, at Taynuilt, was built in 1829, and contains 350 sittings. There is also a Free church; and two new public schools, Achaleven and Taynuilt, with respective accommodation for 50 and 134 children, had (1883) an average attendance of 28 and 50, and grants of £40, 19s. and £45, 15s. Pop. (1801) 893, (1841) 812, (1871) 620, (1881) 615; of registration district (l871) 786, (1881) 831,* of whom 696 were Gaelic-speaking.—Ord. Sur., sh. 45, 1876.

* An apparent increase, due to the annexation in 1872 of the Bunawe section of Glenorch and Innishail parish, between Lochs Etive and, to Muckairn registration district.

(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)