Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for Fordoun

Fordoun, a parish in Kincardineshire, containing the post-office village of Auchinblae, 5¾ miles N by E of Laurencekirk, and 2¼W of Fordoun station, on the Scottish North-Eastern section of the Caledonian, which station is 27¼ miles SSW of Aberdeen, and 30 NE of Forfar, and at which is a post office of Fordoun, with money order, savings' bank, insurance, and telegraph departments.

The parish is bounded N W and N by Strachan, N E by Glenbervie, SE by Arbuthnott, S by Laurencekirk and Marykirk, and W by Fettercairn. Its greatest length, from E to W, is 101/8 miles; its utmost breadth, from N to S, is 73/8 miles; and its area is 26,937 acres, of which 88½ are water. Bervie Water, gathering its four head-streams in the northern extremity of the parish, winds 11 miles south-eastward and south-by-westward, chiefly along the Glenbervie and Arbuthnott borders; Luther Water, from its source above Drumtochty, curves 5¾ miles south-eastward and southward, past Auchinblae, on its way to the river North Esk; and of two of its own little tributaries, Ferdun Water and Dourie Burn, the former traverses the western interior, the latter traces the boundary with Fettercairn. Sinking along Bervie Water to 170, along Luther Water to 190, feet above sea-level, the surface thence rises to 717 feet at Knock Hill, 725 at Herscha Hill, 1055 at Black Hill, 1358 at Strathfinella Hill, 1000 at Arnbarrow Hill, 1664 at *Whitelaws, 1488 at *Cairn O'Mount, 1194 at Hill of Annahar, 1527 at *Goyle Hill, 1146 at Aikenhead, and 1291 at the *Builg, where asterisks mark those summits. that culminate right on the north-western border. The northern and larger portion of the parish, known as the Brae district, consists, thus, of ridges and spurs of the frontier Grampians, with intersecting glens and vales; and presents, especially along the course of Luther Water, and around the base of Strathfinella Hill, not a few scenes of more than common beauty. The southern district, part of the Howe of the Mearns, is all nearly level, nowhere attaining 300 feet above sea-level. The principal rocks of the uplands are clay slate, mica slate, and other metamorphic rocks; those of the Howe are New Red sandstone, sandstone conglomerate, and intruded trap; and limestone occurs at Drumtochty and Glenfarquhar. The soil of this, the most important agricultural parish in the county, is very various. A large proportion is strong clayey loam, a considerable extent good medium loam, and a pretty large area light loam. The subsoil is a mixture of clay and gravel in some parts, and hard gravel in others (Trans. Highl. and Ag. Soc., 1881, pp. 115-117). Fully one-thirteenth of the entire parish is under wood, and rather less than one-half is arable. Near Fordoun House are traces of a Roman camp; the 'Priest's Wells,' in 'Friars Glen,' above Drumtochty, nark the probable site of a religious house, said to have been a Carmclite friary; a stone circle stood on Herscha Hill, an ancient castle in Glenfarquhar; and Arnbarrow Hill was traversed by the Deer Dyke. Antiquities noticed separately are Finella castle, Castleton, and the site of the town of Kincardine, the former capital of the county. George Wishart, burned at St Andrews as a heretic in 1546, was of Pittarrow; and other natives of Fordoun were Alexander Hamilton, M. D. (1739-1802), an eminent physician, and the judge James Burnet, Lord Monboddo (1714-99), who anticipated Darwin in an evolution theory-of monkeys whose tails wore off with constant sitting. So, too, according to Camden, was John of Fordun, a 14th century chronicler, whose 'carefully manipulated fictions'-the Scotichronicon-have been edited by Dr Skene (Edinb. 1871) for the 'Historians of Scotland' series. To Fordun this parish is mainly indebted for its supposed connection with the 'chief apostle of the Scottish nation,' St Palladius, whose name is preserved in PaldyFair, and whose chapel, with a rude piscina, still stands in the parish churchyard. In 430, we are told, Pope Celestine sent him to Scotland ('in Seotiam') 'as the first bishop therein, with Serf and Ternan for fellow-workers; and at Fordoun he founded a church, and shortly after wards there was crowned with martyrdom.' But 'Scotia' in 430 could have meant Ireland only; and Skene, in vol. ii. of his Celtic Scotland (1877, pp. 26-32), shows that St Serf belonged to the latter part of the 7th century. His solution is, that Ternan, and Ternan alone, really was a disciple of Palladius, and brought his relics from either Ireland or Galloway to his own native district in the territories of the southern Picts, who had been converted by St Ninian, and that, as founder of the church of Fordoun in honour of Palladius he became to some extent identified with him. (See also Banchory-Ternan and Culross.) Fordoun House, 1¼ mile SSE of Auchinblae, belongs to Viscount Arbuthnott, but is merely a farmhouse now. Other mansions, treated of separately, are Drumtochty Castle and Monboddo House; and 11 proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 3 of between £100 and £500, 3 of from £50 to £100, and 16 of from £20 to £50. Fordoun gives name to a presbytery in the synod of Angus and Mearns; the living is worth £440. The church, a little to the S of Auchinblae, is a good Gothic structure of l829, with 1230 sittings, and a conspicuous tower 93 feet high. There is also a Free church. The 'Minstrel,' James Beattie (1735-1803), was parish schoolmaster from 1753 to 1758. Three public schools-Fordoun, Landsend, and Tipperty-with respective accommodation for 208, 60, and 49 children, had (l881) an average attendance of 131, 33, and 33, and grants of £l30, 4s. 6d., £24, 17s., and £43, 15s. Valuation (1856) £15,949, (l882) £2l,610, 10s. 8d., plus £1821 for railway. Pop. (1801) 2203, (1831) 2238, (1861) 2297, (1871) 2113, (1881) 1992.—Ord. Sur., sh. 66, 1871.

The presbytery of Fordoun, now meeting at Laurencekirk, comprises the quoad civilia parishes of Arbuthnott, Benholm, Bervie, Dunnottar, Fettercairn, Fetteresso, Fordoun, Garvock, Glenbervie, Kinneff and Caterline, Laurencekirk, Marykirk, and St Cyrus, with the quoad sacra parishes of Cookney and Rickarton. Pop. (1871) 23, 895, (1881) 23,830, of whom 7479 were communicants of the Church of Scotland in 1878.-The Free Church also has a presbytery of Fordoun, with churches at Benholm, Bervie, Fettercairn, Fordoun, Glenbervie, Kinneff, Laurencekirk, Marykirk, St Cyrus, and Stonehaven, which together had 1572 communicants in 1881.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "countries, 4th order divisions")
Administrative units: Fordoun ScoP       Kincardineshire ScoCnty
Place: Fordoun

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