the county town of Lennox or Dunbartonshire, in Scotland, situated in W. Long. 4. 32. N. Lat. 56. 30. is a royal borough, and one of the most ancient towns of Scotland. It is said to have been once the capital of a kingdom of the Britons, established in the vale of the Clyde, and to have been one of the seats of Fingal, called in the poems of Ossian, the tower of Balclutha. Alcluid was indeed the name of this ancient capital of the Strathclydenes; but whether it was situated on the site of the present town, or confined within the precincts of the castle, cannot be exactly ascertained. Dunbarton is built upon the eastern bank of the Leven, which almost encircles it. The greater part of the buildings are old, and the principal street has an air of decayed grandeur. It was erected into a royal borough by Alexander II. in the year 1221, and declared to be free of all imposts and borough taxes; but notwithstanding this material advantage, and the excellent harbour it possesses, it is by no means in a flourishing state. There is here a considerable glass house, which employs about 130 hands; and some idea may be conceived of the extent of this manufacture, from the amount of the duties to government, which are on an average 3800l. sterling per annum. This place is exceedingly well adapted for manufactures, both on account of its situation on the Clyde, and from its being well supplied with fuel at a cheap rate. Dunbarton anciently gave title of earl to a branch of the family of Douglas. It contains about 1900 inhabitants. The parish is nearly circular, having a diameter of about two miles and a half: the surface is flat, and the soil fertile, but shallow, inclining to gravel. The Clyde washes it on the south, and the Leven on the west, both of which contain excellent trout and salmon. The castle of Dunbarton lies at a small distance from the town, on the point of land formed by the junction of the Clyde and Leven; it is situated on the top of a rock, which presents a picturesque object: the rock divides about the middle, and forms two summits: the sides are craggy, and the buildings upon it, though not of themselves beautiful, have a good effect, and, as Mr Gilpin observes, "serve to give it an air of consequence." The fortres is entered by a gate at the bottom; and within the rampart, which defends the entrance, is the guard-house, and lodgings for the officers; from hence the ascent is by a long flight of stone steps to the part where the rock divides: here is a strong battery, barracks for the garrison, and a reservoir always filled with water; above these, on the lower summit, are several batteries, which command a most extensive range. According to Penrann, the Britons, in very early times, made this rock a fortres, it being usual for them, after the departure of the Romans, to retire to the tops of craggy inaccessible mountains, to forels, and to rocks on the sides of rivers, or the shores of the sea. Boethius, however, affirms, that it was possessed by the Caledonians long before the Britons, and that it resisted all the efforts of Agricola to reduce it. The venerable Bede informs us, that it was the strongest fortification in the kingdom in his time, and deemed almost impenetrable; it was reduced by famine in the year 756, by Egbert king of Northumberland, and taken by escalade in the year 1551. The rock seems to have been anciently a volcano: the sides are composed of rude basaltic columns, of which huge masses have been broken off, and fallen to the bottom, by the injuries of time. Many parts of the rock are strongly magnetic, causing the compass to vary at a considerable distance: this circumstance was long since noticed by Buchanan, (Scot. Hist. lib. xx. lext. 28.). As the castle of Dunbarton commands the navigation of the Clyde, and is the key of the western Highlands, the fortifications are generally kept in repair. It is garrisoned by a governor, lieutenant governor, a fort-major, subaltern officers, and a company of invalids. The government is said to be worth 700l. per annum.