Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

ABER-RTJTHVEN
Aber-Ruthven. See Abekuthven.
Abertaxf, a parish, giving name to a presbytery, in
the centre of Inverness-shire. The parish, named from
the mouth of the Tarf rivulet, which enters the head
of Loch Ness at Fort Augustus, lies principally on the
NW side of Loch Ness, and formerly comprised also the
district of Glenmoriston, but is now united to the parish
of Boleskine. The presbytery of Abertarf, in the synod
of Argyll, meets at Fort William in March and at
Fort Augustus in November. It comprehends the
parishes of Boleskine-Abertarf, Kilmallie, and Kilrnoni-
vaig, and the quoad sacra parishes of Ballachulish and
Ardgour, Duncansburgh, Fort Augustus, and Gbngarry.
Pop. (1891) 7871, of whom 447 were communicants,
when the above congregations raised £709 in Christian
liberality. The Free Church alio has a presbytery of
Abertarf, whose churches of Arisaig, Ballachulish (North
and South), Fort Augustus, Fort William, Glenmoriston,
Glen Urquhart, Kilraallie, and Kilmonivaig, had 2232
members and adherents m 1891.
AberuchiU, an estate, with a modern mansion, in
Comrie parish, Perthshire, If mile SW of Comrie. A
castle here, built in 1602, was long a centre of strife be-
tween the Campbells and the Macgregors.
Aberuthven (Gael, abhir-ruadh-abhuinn, ' confluence
of the red river '), a post office village in the north of
Auchterarder parish, SE Perthshire, stands on the right
bank of Ruthven Water, 1J mile S of its influx to the
Earn, and is 2} miles SW of Dunning station on the
Stirling and Perth section of the Caledonian railway, and
2J NE of its post-town, Auchterarder. It has a Free
church (1851), an inn, and a public school, which, with
accommodation for 100 children, had (1891) an average
attendance of 61, and a grant of £40, 17s. Cattle fairs
are held on the third Tuesday of April and November.
Across the Ruthven stands the roofless ruin of St Kaf-
tan's Chapel, the church of what once formed the
separate parish of Aberuthven, granted in 1200 to Inch-
affray. Of Norman or First Pointed origin, it retains
a couplet of narrow, ogee-headed, one-light windows, set
widely apart in the E wall, and is the burial place of
the Duncans of Damside and the Graemes of Inchbrakie ;
whilst beside it is the urn-surmounted mausoleum of the
Dukes of Montrose.
Abington, a village in the E of Crawfordjohn parish,
Lanarkshire, standing at 808 feet above sea-level on the
left bank of the Clyde, f mile below the influx of Glen-
gonner Water, and 14 miles SSE of Lanark by road.
A bridge over the Clyde connects it with Abington
station, \ mile eastward on the Caledonian ; this station
being 9 miles S by W of Symington, 43J SW of Edin-
burgh, and 43J SE of Glasgow. At the village are a
Free church, a post office with money order, savings
bank, and telegraph departments, a branch of the Com-
mercial Bank of Scotland, an hotel, and a school, which,
with accommodation for 83 children, had (1891) an
average attendance of 50, and a grant of £62. Coursing
meetings are held in the vicinity, at which the best
dogs of England and Ireland are pitted against those
of the West of Scotland. Abington House, a little to
the S of the village, is a handsome modern erection,
the seat of Sir Edward Arthur Colebrooke of Craw-
ford, fifth Bart, since 1759 (b. 1861; sue. 1890), and
owner of 29,604 acres in the shire of an annual value
of £9282.
Aboyne, a village and a parish of S Aberdeenshire.
The village, called sometimes Charlestown of Aboyne,
has a station on the Decside section of the Great North
of Scotland railway, 32J miles W by S of Aberdeen, and
11 miles E by N of Ballatcr, and stands at 413 feet
above sea-level, on the left bank of the Dee, here crossed
by a fine suspension bridge (1831), which, 230 feet long
by 1 4 wide, is gained from the S by two iron-trussed
arches of 50 and 60, and by two stone arches of 20 and
and 30, feet span. This bridge and a predecessor (1828 ;
i oyed by the great flood of 4 Aug. 1829) were erected
by the Earl of Aboyne at a cost of £7000; in 1871 it
was re-constructed by the County Road Trustees. Sur-
rounded by forest uplands, and skirting a large green,
30
ABOYNE
Aboyne is a pretty little place, possessing a post office,
with money order, savings' bank, and telegraph depart-
ments, a branch of the North of Scotland Bank, a good
hotel, a public library and reading-room, and a picturesque
high-roofed school (1874). Its places of worship are a
handsome parish church (1842, 628 sittings), a Gothic
Free church with graceful spire ; and a Roman Catholic
church, St Margaret's (1874, 120 sittings). A burgh of
barony, it holds cattle and horse fairs on the third
Thursday of the months of January, February, March,
April, August, September, November, and December,
on the last Wednesday of June and the last Friday
of July, and on the first Tuesday and Wednesday of
October (old style).
The present parish comprises the ancient parish of
Glentanner, and hence is often designated the united
parish of Aboyne and Glentanner. It is bounded N by
Logie-Coldstone, E by Kincardine O'Neil and Birse, S
by Lochlee in Forfarshire, and W by Glenmuick. Irre-
gular in outline, it has a length from N to S of from 2 to
8 1 miles, a width from E to W of from 2^ to 84 miles,
and a land area of 25,265 acres. A small detached por-
tion (consisting of 349 acres), situated at or near Pereie,
and surrounded by the parish of Birse, was by the
Order of the Boundary Commissioners in 1891 trans-
ferred to that parish. With the exception of the
lands of Balnacraig, Aboyne proper is all to the left
or N of the Dee, between the burns of Dess on the E and
Dinnet on the W. Its highest summit, Mortlich, rises
upon the northern boundary to 1248 feet above sea-level,
and is crowned by an obelisk and cross of granite 60 feet
high, erected in 1868 as a memorial of Charles, tenth
Marquis of Huntly (1792-1863). Lesser eminences are
Balnagowan Hill (800 feet), Muchricha's Cross (798),
Oldtown (580), and Balnacraig (689). Glentanner ex-
tends from the southern bank of the Dee away to the
Braes of Angus ; and within it, from N to S, are Creag-
na-S'ige (1336 feet), Duchery Beg (1485), Baudy Meg
(1602), the Strone (1219), the Hill of Duchery (1824),
Craigmahandle (1878), Little Cockcairn (2044), Cockcairn
(2387), Gannoch (2396), and the Hill of Cat (2435), the
three last culminating upon the southern or south-
eastern border. The Dee either bounds or intersects
the parish for about 15 miles, descending within this
distance from some 550 feet at Deecastle to 460 at the
mouth of the Dinnet, 397 at the suspension bridge of
Aboyne, and 296 at the Bridge of Potarch. Its principal
affluent is the impetuous Water of Tanner, which, rising
in Glenmuick parish on the south-western slope of Hare
Cairn (2203 feet), takes a north-easterly course of 14
miles to a point J mile above the suspension bridge, and
receives on the way the united Waters of Gairney and
Allachy and the Skinna Burn. It flows through ' a beauti-
ful and richly -wooded glen, between high hills ' — so the
Queen has described Glentanner, up which she drove as far
as Etnach, with the Prince Consort and the Princess Alice,
21 Sept. 1861 (pp. 156, 157 of Journal, ed. 1877).
Glentanner then was 'out of sight of all habitations,' but
this is no longer the case; its present proprietor Sir
Wiji. Cunliffe Brooks, Bart., having built at the Bridge
of Tanner an entrance lodge like an old turreted keep,
higher up a verandahed farm-house, with model dairy,
stabling, and kennels, and many a quaint little cottage
besides, all of them planned by Mr G. Truefitt, of Lon-
don. Auld-dinnie Burn, running 4 miles northward or.
the boundary with Birse, is the only other noticeable
stream ; in Aboyne proper, are two small sheets of
water— Braeroddach Loch (If x 1 fur. ) to the NW, and,
in the Castle policies, the artificial, islet-studded Loch
of Aboyne (3 x 2J fur. ). Granite, the primitive forma-
tion, varies in hue from whitish-grey to red, the latter
resembling Peterhead granite and taking a fine polish.
Syenitic and ironstone boulders are also common, and
black ferruginous fragments that seem to have been dis-
integrated from rocks higher up the Dee. Glentanner
yields topaz and crystallised quartz (both white and
rose coloured) on the Firmonth, fuller's earth along
Auld-dinnie Burn, impure limestone in small quantities,
and traces of manganese ; whilst peat-mosses on the hills