Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

AEBOTSHAUGH
valued at £13,919 (minerals, £1582) per annum ; and Mr
Davidson of Bogie House, a castellated mansion 2 f miles
WNW of the town, owns 398 acres, valued at£817. Five
other proprietors hold each an annual value of £500
and upwards, 15 of between £100 and £500, 12 of from
£50 to £100, and 65 of from £20 to £50. In the pres-
bytery of Kirkcaldy and synod of Fife, Abbotshall was
disjoined from Kirkcaldy in 1620, but has itself given
off a southern portion (with 1084 inhabitants in 1871)
to the quoad sacra parish of Inveetiel ; its minister's
income is £327. The parish church (rebuilt 1788 ; 825
sittings) stands J mile W of Kirkcaldy, and there is also
a Free church ; whilst a public school at Chapel village,
2f miles NW, with accommodation for 144 children, had
(1879) an average attendance of 110, and a grant of
£98, 8s. Valuation of landward portion (1881) £10,341.
Total pop. (1821) 3267, (1851) 5030, (1871) 5785, 674
of them in landward portion ; for 1881 see Kiekcaldy.
—Orel. Sur., sh. 40, 1867.
Abbotshaugh, a quondam abbey, now quite obliterated,
near Grangemouth, in Falkirk parish, Stirlingshire. The
grange or home farm of it gave name to the Grange Burn,
and through that to Grangemouth.
Abbot's Isle, a small green island in the bay of Stone-
field, on the S side, and towards the foot, of Loch Etive,
Muekairn parish, Argyllshire.
Abbotsrule. See Abboteule.
Abbot's Tower, an ancient ivy-clad square ruin, over
40 feet high, stands about 4 mile ENE of Sweetheart
Abbey in Newabbey parish, Kirkcudbrightshire.
Abbot's Walls, the ruins of a summer residence of the
abbots of Arbroath, in Nigg parish, Kincardineshire,
on the haugh opposite Aberdeen.
Abb's Head, St, a bold rocky promontory in Colding-
ham parish, Berwickshire, 4 miles NNW of Eyemouth.
It presents a wall-like front to the German Ocean nearly
200 feet high ; rises to an extreme height of 310 feet ;
has three summits — Kirkhill on the E, Harelaw in the
middle, Fowlis on the W ; and is separated from the
mainland by a vale or gully, anciently spanned by a
bridge. The neighbouring rocks are Silurian, strangely
contorted ; but St Abb's itself is porphyritic trap, a
portion of which, smoothed, grooved, and serrated by
glacial action, was laid bare for the inspection of the
Berwickshire Naturalists' Club in 1866, and has been
left exposed. On Harelaw is a lighthouse, erected in
1S61, and showing a flashing light every 10 seconds,
visible at the distance of 21 nautical miles ; and at Petti-
cowick, its landing-place, where the precipice is 300 feet
high, occurs a beautiful example of the junction of the
trap and Silurian rocks. Numerous caves pierce the
cliffs, are inaccessible by land, and can be approached
by sea only at low water and in the calmest weather,
and were formerly haunts of smugglers. This headland
was named after St Ebba, daughter of King Ethelfrid,
and half-sister of Oswald and Oswy, kings of Northum-
bria, who about the middle of the 7th century founded
upon its 'nabs' the monastery of Urbs Coludi (Sax.
Coldingaham), and as its abbess ruled until her death,
25 Aug. 683. It was a double monastery, containing
distinct communities of men and women, who lived
under her single government ; and the neck of land on
which it stood was cut off and rendered impregnable by
a high wall and a deep trench ; but the building itself
was probably very humble, with walls of wood and clay,
and thatch of straw. Hither St Cuthbert came in 661
on a visit to Ebba, and spent the best part of the night
in prayer and vigils, entering the sea till the water
reached to his arms and neck, while seals came nestling
to his side. Here, too, in 671, Ethelreda, foundress of
Ely, received the veil from St "Wilfrid ; and here the
monk Adamnan foretold the impending doom of 'fire
from heaven ' that burned the house for its sins in 679.
Rebuilt for women only, it was sacked by the Danes in
870, when the nuns, to preserve their honour, cut off
their noses and lips. The trench and some grassy mounds
are all that now mark its site, a ruined chapel on the Kirk-
hill dating only from the 14th century. See art. Ebba
in vol. ii. of Smith's Diet. Christ. Biog. (Lond. 1880).
ABER
Abden, an estate, with a plain old mansion, in King-
horn parish, Fife. It long was the property of the
Crown, and had a royal residence, the remains of which
were removed only in the present century. A rock
opposite the mansion exhibits rapid gradual transition
from sandstone to quartz.
Abdie (13th c. Ebedyn — i.e. abthen or abden, 'abbey
lands '), a parish of NE Fife, on the Firth of Tay, con-
tains the Mount Pleasant suburb of Newbuegh, its
post-town and station, and also the villages of Lin-
dores and Grange of Lindores. Till 1633 it included the
present parish of Newburgh, by which and by Dunbog
it is cut into three distinct portions. The middle and
largest of these is 4 miles long by 3 ; the smallest, 3
furlongs to the W, and on the Perthshire border, measures
1J by f mile; and the third, 1 mile to the E, has an
equal length and breadth of ij mile. Their total area
is 6537J acres, of which 1585J are foreshore and 135
water. The surface is charmingly diversified by hills
belonging to the Ochil range, the chief elevations from
W to E being Lumbenny (889 feet), Golden Hill (600),
Braeside (563), Woodmill Mains (656), the Mains of
Lindores (580), and Norman's Law (558). Some of these
hills are clothed or crowned with plantations, but much
of the highest ground is mere hill-pasture, dotted with
heath and gorse. On their ascents, a deep black soil
alternates with a light and gravelly one of very inferior
quality ; along the Tay lies a rich alluvium, like that of
the Carse of Gowrie, and fields have been here reclaimed
from the Firth within the last 50 years. Devonian
rocks form part of the basement, and include a limestone
and red sandstone, which formerly were worked. Trap
rocks also occur, and are quarried at three points for
building and paving purposes. The largest sheet of
water is Lindores Loch, near the centre of the parish,
which, nearly 4 miles in circumference, is fed by the
Priest's Burn, and sends off the Den rivulet to the Tay.
The pike and perch, with which this loch abounded,
were netted out in August 1880, with a view to stocking
it with trout. At its foot is the site of a castle, called
Macduff; and 'Wallace's Camp,' J mile from the Firth,
preserves the memory of the victory of Black Irnsyde,
said to have been gained over Aymer de Valence, Earl
of Pembroke, in 1298. Earlier antiquities than these
are a barrow known as Watchman's Tower, the hill-fort
of Dunmore on Norman's Law, and a stronghold on the
picturesque craig of Clachard, whose six westward ram-
parts are from 5 to 6 feet high. The roofless church of
St Magridin, on the loch's western margin, was conse-
crated in 1242, and contains a 14th-century foliated
tombstone ; a female recumbent effigy ; and, in the Den-
miln Aisle (1661), some monuments of the Balfours of
Denmiln Castle, which, now in ruins, was the seat of
that family from 1452 to 1710. As such it was the
birthplace of Sir James Balfour (1603-57), herald, an-
nalist, and antiquary, and of his brother, Sir Andrew
(1630-94), physician and founder of Edinburgh's first
botanical garden. Modern mansions are Inchrye Ab-
bey, a castellated building, and Lindores House; 4
proprietors holding each an annual value of £1000 and
upwards, 1 of £500, 2 of £400, 2 of between £200
and £300, etc. The eastern portion of Abdie, with 107
inhabitants, is annexed for church, school, and registra-
tion purposes to Dunbog ; the remainder constitutes an
ecclesiastical parish, in the presbytery of Cupar and
synod of Fife. The church is a plain edifice, seating
550, and erected in 1S27 at a cost of £1200; the minis-
ter's income is £404. There is also a Free church for
Abdie and Newburgh jointly ; and at Grange of Lindores
is a school, which, with accommodation for 152 children,
had (1879) an average attendance of 87, and a grant of
£72, 2s. Valuation (1881) £10,439, 5s. 2d. Pop. of civil
parish (1801) 725, (1841) 150S, (1871) 1164 ; of?, s. parish
(1871) 1057, (1881) 862. See Alex. Laing, Lindores Abbey
and Newburgh (Edinb. 1876).— Ord. Sur., sh. 48, 1868.
Aber, a hamiet in Kilmaronock parish, Dumbarton-
shire, on the SE shore of Loch Lomond, 24 miles NNE
of Kilmaronock station. An islet in the loch, 1 mile N
of the hamlet, bears the same name.