Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

CUPAR
however, of the Fife and Forfar Light Horse; and further
west is the racecourse. There are three cemeteries — the
Old Churchyard, behind the parish church; St James's
Burying Ground, adjoining the former; and the New
Cemetery, an ornamental burying ground on the road to
Ceres Muir.
The town has a head post office, with money order,
savings' bank, insurance, and railway telegraph depart-
ments, offices of the Royal, National, Commercial,
Clydesdale, and British Linen Co.'s banks, a national
security savings bank, hotels, and 3 weekly newspapers
—the Wednesday Liberal Fife Herald (1822), the Thurs-
day Conservative Fifeshire Journal (1833), and the
Saturday Fife News (1870). A weekly corn market is
held on Tuesday ; a horse and cattle market on the first,
and an auction mart for cattle on the first and third
Tuesdays of every month; fairs and feeing markets on
the first Tuesday of August and either on 11th Novem-
ber or the following Tuesday. Large trade is done in
the selling and grinding of corn; and other industries
are malting, dyeing, tanaing, flax-spinning, the weaving
of coarse linens, and the manufacture of bricks and
earthenware; whilst much business accrues from the
town's position and character as the political capital
of the county. It was distinguished, too, at one time
for the production of beautiful specimens of typography
and the publication of many useful books, Cupar being
then the seat of publication for St Andrews University.
The earliest extant charter constituting Cupar a royal
burgh is David II. 's of 1356. The burgh is governed
by a provost, 3 bailies, a dean of guild, a treasurer, and
12 councillors, who also act as police commissioners ;
and it unites with St Andrews, Crail, Kilrenny, the
Anstruthers, and Pittenweem in sending a member to
parliament. A guildry exists apart from the dean of
guild court, a shadowy relic of the olden times of
monopoly. Five incorporated trades — hammermen,
Wrights, weavers, tailors, and fleshers — also prolong a
formal existence from the past. The municipal constit-
uency numbered 963 and the parliamentary 695 in 1892,
when the annual value of real property within the burgh
amounted to £21,506, 2s. 4d., whilst the corporation
revenue for 1891 was £216. Pop. of parliamentary
burgh (1881) 5010, (1891) 4729. Houses inhabited
(1891) 1128; uninhabited, 62.
The parish, containing also the villages of Brighton,
Springfield, and Gladney, comprises the ancient parish
of St Michael-Tarvit, annexed in 1618. It is bounded
N by Kilmany and Dairsie, E by Dairsie and Kemback,
S by Ceres and Cults, W by Monimail, and NW by
Moonzie. Its greatest length, from N to S, is 3f miles;
its greatest breadth, from E to W, is 3£ miles ;
and its area is 5737 acres, of which 1J are water.
The river Eden winds 4| miles north-eastward and east-
north-eastward along the Ceres border and through the
interior; it originally traced all the boundary between
Cupar proper and St Michael-Tarvit, but, in conse-
quence of an artificial straightening of its course at
the town, has now a small portion of St Michael's
on its N bank. Lady Burn, coming in from Moni-
mail, and receiving an affluent from the confines of
Dairsie, drains most of the northern district, and falls
into the Eden at the E end of the town. The sur-
face is beautifully diversified by undulations or rising-
f rounds, and makes a rich display of culture and wood,
n the extreme E the Howe of Fife or Stratheden
declines to less than 80 feet above sea-level, thence
rising to 313 feet at Hawklaw and 400 at Kilmaron
Hill on the left, and to 600 at Tarvit Hill on the
right, side of the Eden. A ridgy mound of fresh-water
gravel, commencing on the School Hill, the site of the
ancient castle of Cupar, strikes northward up the flank
of Lady Burn, and runs in a serpentine direction till it
culminates in a sort of peak— the Mote or Moat Hill,
traditionally said to have been the meeting-place of
councils of war and courts of justice under the ' Thanes
of Fife.' Sandstone conglomerate prevails along the
Lady Burn, and elsewhere white sandstone of excellent
building qualify; whilst trap rocks, chiefly greenstone
CURLING HALL
and clinkstone, form most of the rising-grounds. The
sandstone and greenstone are worked in several quarries.
The soil, in the N and the E, is chiefly a friable loam
on a gravelly subsoil; in the S and the W, is more
inclined to sand ; but, almost everywhere, has been
highly improved, and produces the finest crops. The
mansions are Kilmaron, Tarvit, Springfield, Wemyss
Hall, Dalgairn (formerly Dalyell Lodge), Hilton, Cairnie,
Pitbladdo, Prestonhall, Foxton, Ferrybank, Belmoru,
Bellfield, Bonville, Blalowan, and Westfield, and most
of them are separately noticed. On the Mount, about
three miles NW of the town, and stoutly claimed by
Cupar as the birthplace of Sir David Lindsay, stands a
monument to the gallant Earl of Hopetoun, who took up
the command at Corunna when Sir John Moore fell, and
before embarking, sword in hand, searched Corunna
through and through for British prisoners. Cupar is the
seat of a presbytery in the synod of Fife; and it includes
the greater part of the quoad sacra parish of Spbing-
field. The charge is collegiate, the two ministers
officiating alternately in the parish church and St
Michael's, and the living of the first charge being worth
£345, of the second £320. An ancient chapel stood on
the lands of Kilmaron. Brighton public school, with
accommodation for 67 children, had (1891) an average
attendance of 29, and a grant £19, 8s. 6d. Valuation
(1892) £12,972, 13s. lOd. Pop. (1891) 6990.— Ord.
Sur., shs. 48, 40, 1868-67.
The presbytery of Cupar comprehends the quoad civilia
parishes of Abdie, Auchtennuchty, Balmerino, Ceres,
Collessie, Creich, Cults, Cupar, Dairsie, Dunbog, Falk-
land, Flisk, Kettle, Kilmany, Logie, Monimail, Moonzie,
Newburgh, and Strathmiglo, and the quoad sacra
parishes of Freuchie, Ladybank, and Spriujrfield. Pop.
(1881) 26,693, (1891) 26,196, of whom 7581 were com-
municants of the Church of Scotland. — The Free Church
also has a presbytery of Cupar, with churches at Abdie
and Newburgh, Auchtermuchty, Ceres, Collessie, Cupar,
Dairsie, Falkland, Flisk and Creich, Kettle and. Cults,
Logie and Gauldry, and Monimail, which together had
1982 co mm unicants in 1891. — Lastly the United Presby-
terian Synod has a presbytery of Cupar, with 2 churches
in Auchtermuchty, 2 in Cupar, and 8 in respectively
Ceres, Freuchie, Guardbridge, Kettle, Lathones, Pit-
lessie, Rathillet, and St Andrews, the 12 having 2457
members in 1890.
Cupar-Angus. See Coupar- Angus.
Cuparmuir, a village in Cupar parish, Fife, If mile
W of Cupar town. It consists of a few scattered cot-
tages, with a tile-work and a sandstone quarry.
Cupinshay. See Copenshat.
Cur, a stream of Strachur parish, Cowal, Argyllshire,
formed by two head-streams at an altitude of 380 feet,
and running 6| miles south-westward and south-east-
ward to the head of Loch Eck. Its course, for the
first 2 miles, is rough and rapid, and forms several fine
cascades; but lower down becomes smoother, and makes
a number of beautiful turns. — Ord. Sur., sh. 37, 1876.
Curate's Steps, a small pass at the side of the river
Ayr, near Sorn Castle, in Sorn parish, Ayrshire. It
got its name from a tradition that an obnoxious Epis-
copalian minister fled by it from his enraged flock, in
the times of forced Episcopacy prior to 1688.
Curate's Well, a copious intermittent spring on the
glebe of Dunsyre, in Dunsyre parish, Lanarkshire. It
issues from two circular patches of soft sand, engirt with
very hard clay and gravel; and at intervals of five or ten
minutes it bubbles up as if emitting air.
Curgarff. See Corgarf.
Curgie, a small bay in Kirkmaiden parish, Wigtown-
shire, on the W side of Luce bay, 3 miles N of the Mull
of Galloway.
Curlee or Caerlee. See Innerleithen.
Curling Hall, an estate, with a mansion, in Largs
parish, Ayrshire, near the shore, a little S of the town.
It includes part of the battlefield of Largs, and contains
a memorial of the battle, in the form of a sculptured
stone, with an inscribed copper plate affixed to it by Dr
John Cairnie in 1823.
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