Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

ABERNETHY
are fairly agreed that one and all were built in connec-
tion with churches, not as belfries (though afterwards
employed as such), since large bells were not cast till
after 1200, and not till then were campaniles erected.
They were due to the Norsemen's raids, being meant,
as Ruskin says of church towers generally, ' for defence
and faithfulness of watch. ' More than this, they admit
of classification into four groups, marking the transition
from the flat lintelled style of ecclesiastical architecture
to the round-arched and decorated Irish Romanesque —
a transition accomplished between the end of the 9th
and the beginning of the 12th century. To which of
these groups, then, does our tower belong ? To none,
according to Dr Petrie, who refers its erection to 712-727,
believing it to have been built by certain Northumbrian
architects of Jarrow monastery, summoned by Nectan
III. to build him a church in the Roman style, which
should be dedicated to St Peter (note appended to Sir
J. Simpson's Archasol. Essays, i. 131). Skene objecting
to this that no church at Abernethy was ever dedicated
to St Peter, and that this tower has no peculiarity so
marked as thus to remove it wholly from the class of
similar structures, yet holds that it is 'undoubtedly
older than that of Brechin,' and assigns it to S65, the year
of Abbot Cellach's visit to Abernethy (Celt. Scot,, 1877,
ii. 309, 310). Muir, on the other hand, discovered features
in the Abernethy tower which 'place it somewhat
lower in the scale of time than that of Brechin, e.g.,
the decidedly Norman type of the belfry windows, and
the stones of the general building, which approach very
nearly to the small cubical form of those we constantly
find in Romanesque masonry ' (Old Church Arch. , 1S61).
And Mr Anderson so far agrees with Muir, that while
he decidedly ascribes the Brechin tower to the third of
the four groups, i.e., to a period later than 950, this
Abernethy tower he connects with either the third or
fourth, ' though the difference between it and the Brechin
one cannot be very great ' (Scotland in Early Christian
Times, 1SS1). See also vol. ii. of Lord Dunraven's Irish
Archeology, edited by Miss Stokes (Lond. 1877). Be-
sides its ancient tower, rising grey and melancholy over
the red-tiled houses, the town has nothing of much
interest, being a mean-looking place, with irregular
streets, but with several good cottages built to accommo-
date summer visitors. It is a burgh of barony under
charter granted (23 Aug. 1476) by Archibald ' Bell-the-
Cat,' fifth Earl of Angus, and confirnied (29 Nov. 162S)
by William, eleventh earl, to whose descendant, the
Duke of Hamilton, it gives the title of Baron (ere. 1633).
It is lighted with gas, has a post office under Newburgh,
with money order and savings' bank departments, and
holds a cattle fair on the second Thursday in November.
The former parish church, one of the oldest in Scotland,
was demolished in 1802, when the present plain edifice,
containing 600 sittings, was built on a neighbouring site.
There are also a Free church, a U.P. church, and a
public school, with accommodation for 300 scholars, an
average attendance (1879) of 174, and a grant of £162.
"Weaving is the chief winter employment of the inhabi-
tants, many of whom in summer are engaged in salmon-
fishing on the Tay. Pop. (1841) 827, (1S61) 9S4, (1S71)
953.
The parish contains also the hamlets of Glenfoot and
Aberargie, 1 and 1J mile WSW of the town. It is
bounded N by the river Earn, dividing it from Rhynd,
and by the Tay, dividing it from St Madoes ; E by
Newburgh and a detached portion of Abdie, S by Auch-
termuchty and Strathmiglo, and W by Arngask, Dron,
and Dunbarney. Irregular in outline, it measures from
N to S between 2| and 4f miles, from E to W between
2J and 5 miles ; and its area within Perthshire is 78724
acres (112 foreshore and 183^ water), within Fifeshire
1967 acres. To the S of the town the surface is broken
by hills, belonging to the Ochils, and rising in the
middle of the parish to 815, 906, and 923 feet, in its
southern portion to 879 and 629 feet. Northward the
low ground lying along the Earn and Tat, and traversed
by the little Farg, forms an oblong some 4 miles long
by \\ mile broad, and is not exceeded in beauty, fer-
ABERNYTE
tility, and cultivation by any tract of equal extent in
Scotland. Its soil and sub-soil, down to a depth of 25
feet, consist of strata of clay and sand, overlying a
stratum of moss, from 1 foot to 3 feet thick, which com-
prises remains of oak, alder, hazel, and birch. Fine rich
haughs, protected by embankments from inundation,
extend along the windings of the Earn and Tay ; the
latter is here from \ to | mile broad, and is divided into
the North and the South Deep by the long, low island
of Mitgdrtjm, belonging to Abernethy parish. Eruptive
rocks prevail throughout the uplands, Devonian in the
low grounds. At Innernethy is a disused Old Red
Sandstone quarry ; and greenstone and clinkstone are
still worked in the hills, whilst zeolites, jaspers, agates,
and calcareous spars abound in Glenfarg, where a quarry
has yielded fragments of scales of ichthyolites. At the
SE angle of the parish a hill behind Pitlour House is
crowned by an ancient fort, with a paved road leading
to it ; at the SW are the ruins of Balvaird Castle, a
stronghold of the Mmrays, w-hose descendant, the Earl
of Mansfield, takes from it his title of Baron (ere.
1641). He, the Earl of Wemyss, Sir Robert Monerieffe,
and 6 other proprietor's hold each an annual value of
£500 and upwards, 13 between £100 and £500, 7 be-
tween £50 and £100, and 22 between £24 and £50. The
chief mansions are Ayton, Carey, and Carpow, near the
last of which stood the castle of the Lords of Aber-
nethy. Near it, too, in a weaver's cottage, was born the
Rev. John Brown of Haddington (1722-87), author of
the Self -interpreting Bible, and the great pastor of that
Secession church, of whose four founders (1733) the Rev.
Alexander Moncrieff, minister of Abernethy, was one.
This parish is in the presbytery of Perth and synod of
Perth and Stirling ; the living is worth £409. Valua-
tion (1SS1) of Perthshire portion, £12,788, 6s. SJd. ; of
Fifeshire portion, £2343, 9s. 3d. Pop. of entire parish
(1831) 1776 ; (1861) 1960 ; (1871) 1744— 15S9 in the
Perthshire portion; (1SS1) 1714.— Ord. Sur., sh. 4S,
1S6S.
Abernyte, a hamlet and a parish near the E border of
Perthshire. The hamlet stands in a beautiful glen, by
the confluence of two rivulets, one of them anciently
called the Nyte ; and is 2J miles SW of its post-village
Inchture, 4 miles NNW of Inchture station, and 11J
miles ENE of Perth.
The parish is bounded N and NE by Longforgan, SE
by Inchture, SW by Kinnaird, W by Collace, and NW
by Cargill. Of irregular shape, it has an extreme length
from E to W of 3| miles, a width from N to S of If mile,
and an area of 2533 acres, of which 1 J are water. The
surface has a general north-westward rise from the Carse
of Gowrie to the Sidlaw Hills, the Braes of the Carse in
the centre of the parish having elevations of 632 and 832
feet above sea-level, while to the W are the slopes of
Blacklaw (969 feet), Dunsinane Hill (1012), Black Hill
(1182), and King's Seat (1235), whose summits, however,
lie just outside the bounds. The glen, shut in upon three
sides by bold but cultivated ascents, opens south-east-
ward to the Carse ; and its united rivulets form in the
low grounds at the head of a deep-wooded ravine a
romantic waterfall with 40 feet of almost sheer descent.
The rocks are chiefly sandstone and amygdaloid, con-
taining agates ; and the soil on these lower grounds is
light but fertile, mostly incumbent on gravel, whilst
that of the uplands is of poorer quality, and in some
places heathy. Two cairns crowned Glenny Law, on
which and on Stockmuir there also stood two small
stone-circles of 7 and 9 stones each. Abernyte House
is the principal residence, and 7 landowners hold each
an annual value of upwards of £50. In the presbytery
of Dundee and synod of Angus and Mearns, the parish
contains an Established church (rebuilt 1736 ; living,
£219), and a Free church for Abernyte and Rait, these
churches standing J mile E, and 5 furlongs ESE, of the
hamlet. A public school, with accommodation for 93
children, had (1879) an average attendance of 54, and a
grant of £41, lis. Valuation (1881) £3011, 9s. Pop.
(1831) 254, (1861) 310, (1871) 253, (18S1) 275.— Ord.
Sur., sh. 48, 1S68.
29