Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

AUCHTERHOUSE
Auchterhouse/a village and a parish of SW Forfarshire.
The village or Kirkton of Auchterhouse, occupying a
central position, has a post office under Dundee, and, £
mile WSW, a station with telegraph office on the Cale-
donian, 12J miles NW of Dundee and 4 J SE of New-
tyle. At it stands the parish church, described in Muir's
Characteristics of Old Church Architecture (Edinb.
1861): — 'Erected in 1630 on the site of a decayed church,
as appears by some fragments of tracery and other carved
work lying about, it consists of chancel, 27 feet by 21
feet 5 inches, nave, 56 feet 7 inches by 33 feet, and a
square tower at the W end. All the windows are square-
topped, and of three lights, except the E one, which is
of two lights and placed in the gable. The chancel
doorway is also flat-headed, that in the nave is of semi-
classic character, with a three-centred arch, imposts, and
moulded jambs. On the N side both divisions of the
church are blank. The chancel arch is acutely pointed,
and may possibly be a remnant of the older building,
though it has nothing of the patched appearance of an
ancient fabric remodelled.' This the last specimen of
early church architecture in Scotland contains some 400
sittings, and at its E end has a mortuary chapel of the
Airlie family.
The parish includes also the hamlets of Dronley near
the southern, and of Boniton near the north-western,
border. It is bounded N by Glands, E by Glamis,
Tealing, and Mains, S by Liff and Perthshire, W by
Lundie, and NW by Newtyle. It has an extreme length
from N to S of 3| miles, a'breadth from E to W of from
2| to 3J miles, and a land area of 5708 acres. The
southern border is traced by a rivulet, which, flowing
eastward out of Lundie, unites near Dronley with the
Dronley Burn to form the Dighty ; and. from a point
near the confluence of these two streams the surface rises
northward and north-westward up to the Sidlaw Hills —
to 552 feet at 3 furlongs SE of the Kirkton, 1399 feet
in Auchterhouse Hill at the NE angle of the parish, and
950 feet in a summit behind East Mains, 2J furlongs
from the western boundary. About five-eighths of the
entire area are under cultivation, one-fourth is under
wood, and one-twelfth in hill pasture ; the cultivated
portion having for the most part a soil of black
mould over a stratum of till or clay, or a bed of
marl incumbent upon rock, and mixed in some places
with sand. The rocks are chiefly Devonian, even in the
hills, but there are intersected by trap dykes or overlaid
with expanded trap ; and sandstone is worked by two
stone merchants. ' Weems, ' or ancient cave-dwellings,
occur, and in one of them were found a quern, some
bones, and a brass ring. The fine old baronial mansion
of Auchterhouse, 1 mile SW of the Kirkton, is a seat of
the Earl of Airlie, who holds more than half of the
rental of the whole parish, three other proprietors
dividing most of the remainder ; near it are fragments
of a castle, said to have belonged to a Sir John Ramsay,
and to have^ been visited by Wallace on his landing at
Montrose with French auxiliaries. In the words of an
old metrical record — ■
' Good Sir John Kamsay, and the Euthven true,
Barclay and Bisset, with men not a few
Do Wallace meet,— all canty, keen, and crouse,
And with three hundred march to Ochterhouse.'
Auchterhouse is in the presbytery of Dundee and
synod of Angus and Mearns. Its minister's income is
£391. The one public school, with accommodation for
16S children, had (1879) an average attendance of 95
and a grant of £72, 12s. Valuation (1881) of lands
£8o32, 19s. ; of railway, £1833. Pop. (1831) 715, (1871)
721, (1881) 661.— Orel. Sur., sh. 48flS68.
Auchterless (Gael, uachdar-shlios, ' upper side '), a
village and a parish on the NW border of Aberdeenshire.
The village or Kirktown has a central position upon
the left bank of the Ythan, 3 miles SW of Auchterless
station on the Inveramsay-Banff branch of the Great
North of Scotland railway ; which station, lying just
beyond the NE angle of the parish, 4 miles S by E of
Turriff, and 34J miles NNW of Aberdeen, has a tele-
graph office. At the village are a post office under
AUCHTERMUCHTY
Turriff, the manse (1867), and the parish church (1780 ;
wing added, 1835 ; 650 seats) ; the Free church stands
| mile SSW.
The parish contains also the hamlet of Badenscoth, 2
miles SSW of Kirktown of Auchterless and 3 NNW of
Rothie Norman station, with a post office under Aber-
deen. It is bounded N by Turriff, E and SE by Fyvie,
5 by Rayne and Culsalmond, W by Forgue, and NW by
Banffshire. It has an extreme length from N to S of
6 J miles, a breadth from E to W of 5f miles, and a land
area of 16,826 acres. The YthaS", entering the parish
1J mile from its source in Forgue, flows 2j miles east-
ward, next strikes 5 miles north-north-eastward to the
old castle of Towie, and, thence bending southward,
forms for 2 miles the eastern boundary, descending in
this course from about 500 to 134 feet above sea-level.
One affluent, Pitdoulsie Burn, traces the northern
boundary ; another, Rothie Burn, the southern ; and a
third, Games Burn, flows through the north-western
half of the parish to Knockleith. On either side of the
Howe of Auchterless the surface rises into rounded hills,
rarely too steep for cultivation ; and points of altitude
from E to W are Seggat (420 feet) Thomastown (490),
Gordonstown Hill (582), Blackford or Drumsinnie Hill
(649), Braestairie (678), and Berryhill of Logie (850).
Everywhere resting on greywacke, the soil of the up-
lands is a thin slaty clay, better for cereals and roots
than for grass ; but on the lower slopes and along the
howe are clay loams of considerable fertility. Planta-
tions cover some 500 acres, and are mostly young upon
Seggat, Thomastown, and Knockleith ; but the firs and
larches of Hatton, Templand, and Badenscoth, and the
ash trees by the church, are of older growth. Antiqui-
ties are Glenmellan camp at the western border, a
parallelogram of nearly 130 acres, and probably of
Roman construction (Roy's Mil. Ants., pi. li. ) ; a triple
stone circle on the Kirkhill or Berryhill of Logie ; re-
mains of three ' Picts' houses ; ' the ' Cumines trench ' or
camp (a.d. 1308) ; the artificial Moat Head, seat of the
old baronial courts ; a Gallows Hill ; and, at Seggat, a
ruined chapel and well of Our Lady. The chief resi-
dences are Knockleith, Badenscoth, Hatton, and Temp-
land ; and 6 proprietors hold each an annual value of
£500 and upwards, 1 holds between £100 and £500, and
1 between £20 and £50. Auchterless is in the presby-
tery of Turriff and synod of Aberdeen ; its minister's
income is £410. There are 5 schools under the board — 2
apiece for boys and girls at Badenscoth and the Kirk-
town, and one at Backhill on the eastern border. With
a total accommodation for 470 children, these had (1879)
an average attendance of 322, and grants amount-
ing to £277, 6s. 9d. Valuation (1881) £14,771, 13s. 5d.
Pop. (1831) 1701, (1S71) 1971, (1881) IMS.— Oral Sur.,
sh. 86, 1876.
Auchtermuchty (Gael, uachdar-muic, ' upper land of
the wild sow'), a town and a parish of NW Fife. The
town is divided by the Loverspool, a tiny affluent of the
Eden, into two nearly equal portions ; and has a station
on the Fife and Kinross section of the North British,
10J miles NE of Kinross, 33| ENE of Stirling, 4| WNW
of Ladybank Junction, 10J WSW of Cupar, and 33 N of
Edinburgh (via Burntisland). It was made a royal
burgh in 1517, and confirmed in its rights in 1595, but
had ceased to return a member of Parliament some time
before the Union ; and, becoming bankrupt in 1816, it
suffered the sequestration of all its corporation property,
except town-house, jail, steeple, bell, and customs.
Governed by a provost, 2 bailies, 2 treasurers, a pro-
curator-fiscal, 2 joint-town-clerks, and 8 councillors,
it has sheriff small debt courts on the second Mon-
day of January, April, July, and October ; a weekly
corn market is held on Monday ; and there are cattle,
horse, and sheep fairs on the first Wednesday of February,
the last Monday of April, the second Monday of July,
and the first Monday of October and December. With
three main streets and several lanes, Auchtermuchty is
irregularly built, but of late years has been considerably
improved, and commands fine views of the East and
West Lomond Hills, which, distant 3i miles S and
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