A vision of Britain through time
A vision of Britain from 1801 to now.
Including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions.
A vision of Britain through time
A vision of Britain from 1801 to now.
Including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions.
Kincardine, a parish in Menteith district, S Perthshire, containing the villages of Blair-Drummond and Thornhill, each with a post office under Stirling, and extending southward to Gargunnock station, northward to within 7 furlongs of Doune station. It comprises a main body and the Thornhill or detached section, separated from each other by a strip of Kilmadock parish, 2 miles broad, and both washed by the Forth on the S, on the N by the Teith. The main body, triangular in outline, is bounded NE by Kilmadock and Lecropt, E by St Ninians in Stirlingshire, S by St Ninians and Gargunnock, and W by Kilmadock; and has an utmost length from E to W of 41/8 miles, with an utmost breadth from N to S of 3¾ miles. The detached portion, measuring 5¼ miles from N to S, by from 5½ furlongs to 17/8 mile, is bounded N and E by Kilmadock, S by Kippen in Stirlingshire, and W by Port of Menteith. The area of the entire parish is 10, 659½ acres, of which 3606¼ belong to the detached district, and 155 ¼ are water. The Forth meanders in serpentine folds 7 furlongs eastward along the S border of the detached portion, and, lower down, 115/8 miles along all the Gargunnock and St Ninians boundary of the main body; its affluent, the arrowy Teith, hurries 9 furlongs along the N border of the Thornhill section, and 4 ½ miles south-eastward along all he north-eastern boundary of the main body; whilst Goodie Water, another tributary of the Forth, flows 1¾ mile east-south-eastward across the detached portion. In the extreme E, at the confluence of the Forth and the Teith, the surface declines to 34 feet above sea-level, and the greater part of the main body is low and almost flat, only in the NW, near Loch Watston, attaining an altitude of 205 feet. The northern half of the Thornhill section is somewhat hillier, and rises to 400 feet near the Muir Damon, a ridge which, lying in the widest part of the strath of Menteith, is the centre of a magnificent landscape, screened in the distance by Ben Lomond, Ben Ledi, Ben Vorlich, Stuc a Chroin, the Ochils, and the Lennox Hills. The predominant rocks are Devonian, and sandstone has been quarried. The soil of the carse is a rich blue clay, incumbent on a bed of gravel; that of the dryfield is a light loam, formerly encumbered with boulders, but now entirely cleared. The carse has, at various depths, many thin beds of shells, particularly oysters; and nearly half of it till 1766 was covered with a deep bog, called Blair-Drummond or Kincardine Moss, but by the ingenious removal of the moss piecemeal into the Forth, had in 1839 been converted into highly fertile land. Woods and plantations cover some 400 acres, 650 acres are in permanent pasture, and nearly all the rest of the parish is under the plough. Antiquities are a tumulus, called Wallace's Trench, 63 yards in circumference, near Blair-Drummond East Lodge; two other tumuli, respectively 92 and 150 yards in circumference, within Blair-Drummond garden; an eminence, the Gallow Hill, ¼ mile from Blair-Drummond House; and a standing stone, 5 feet high and 12 in circumference, on the summit of Borland Hill; whilst bronze implements, a considerable reach of Roman road, and a portion of the skeleton of a whale, were found on the carse lands in the course of the removal of the superincumbent moss. Robert Wallace, D. D. (16971771), statistical writer, and the Rev. Alex. Bryce (1713-86), geometrician, were natives. Blair-Drummond and Ochtertyre, both noticed separately, are the chief residences. Giving off since 1877 its Thornhill section to Norriston quoad sacra parish, Kincardine is in the presbytery of Dunblane and synod of Perth and Stirling; the living is worth £335. The parish church, 2 miles S by W of Doune, was built in 1814-16, and is a handsome Perpendicular edifice, with 770 sittings and four stained-glass windows; its ancient predecessor belonged to Cambuskenneth Abbey. Three public schools-Blair-Drummond, Kincardine, and Thornhill-with respective accommodation for 75, 142, and 157 children, had (1881) an average attendance of 22, 60, and 85, and grants of £28, 1s., £57, 19s., and £71, 15s. Valuation (1860) £14, 657, (1883) £15, 938, 5s. 10d. pop. (1801) 2212, (1831) 2456, (1861) 1778, (1871) 1484, (1881) 1351, of whom 716 were in the ecclesiastical parish.—Ord. Sur., sh. 39, 1869.
(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)
| Linked entities: | |
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| Feature Description: | "a parish" (ADL Feature Type: "countries, 4th order divisions") |
| Administrative units: | Kincardine ScoP Perthshire ScoCnty Stirlingshire ScoCnty |
| Place: | Kincardine |
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