Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for Kinellar

Kinellar, a parish of SE Aberdeenshire, containing, at its NE corner, Kinaldie station on the Great North of Scotland railway, 2¾ miles ESE of Kintore Junction, and 10½ NW of Aberdeen, under which, 1¾ mile to the S, there is a post office of Blackburn. It is bounded N by Fintray, E by Dyce and Newhills, SE and SW by Skene, and NW by Kintore. Its utmost length, from N to S, is 4 3/8 miles; its breadth, from E to W, varies between 1 and 2 3/8 miles; and its area is 4227½ acres, of which 10½ are water. The Don winds 2 miles east-by-northward along all the northern boundary; and, in the NE, where it quits the parish, the surface declines to 135 feet above sea-level, thence rising south-south-westward to 500 feet near Woodhill Cottage, and 610 at the Drum Stone. Granite is the predominant rock; and the soil is alluvial along the Don, loamy or gravelly on the lower knolls and hill slopes, but generally of fair fertility. A heathy common, partly broken up in 1840, is on the NW border; a patch or two of rocky moor occurs in other parts; and, with the exception of a small proportion of planted ground, all the rest of the land is regularly or occasionally in tillage. Antiquities are numerous tumuli on the north-western common, remnants of an ancient Caledonian stone circle in the churchyard, the ' Assembly Cairn ' of Auchronie, and the ' Drum Stone ' on Upper Auquhorsk farm, on which ' the much renounit laird of Drum ' is said to have sat and made his testament on his way to the battle of Harlaw (1411). Mansions are Tertowie, Kinellar Lodge, Kinaldie, and Glasgoego; and 3 proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 4 of between £100 and £500, and 5 of from £20 to £50. Kinellar is in the presbytery and synod of Aberdeen; the living is worth £201. The parish church, 15/8 mile SSW of Kinaldie station, was built in 1801, and contains 250 sittings. The public school, with accommodation for 106 children, had (1881) an average attendance of 61, and a grant of £47, 12s. 6d. Valuation (1860) £4308, (1882) £5090, 16s. 6d., plus £267 for railway. Pop. (1801) 309, (1831) 449, (1861) 691, (1871) 601, (1881) 580.—Ord. Sur., shs. 77, 76, 1873-74.


(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: Kinellar ScoP       Aberdeenshire ScoCnty
Place: Kinellar

Go to the linked place page for a location map, and for access to other historical writing about the place. Pages for linked administrative units may contain historical statistics and information on boundaries.