Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 4

KINCARDINE
moss piecemeal into the Forth, had in 1839 heen eon-
verted into highly fertile land. "Woods and plantations
cover some 400 acres, 650 acres are in permanent pas-
ture, and nearly all the rest of the parish is under the
plough. Antiquities are a tumulus, called "Wallace's
Trench, 63 yards in circumference, near Blair-Drumniond
East Lodge ; two other tumuli, respectively 92 and 150
yards in circumference, within Blair-Drummond garden ;
an eminence, the Gallow Hill, J mile from Blair-Drum-
mond House ; and a standing stone, 5 feet high and 12
in circumference, on the summit of Borland Hill ; whilst
bronze implements, a considerable reach of Roman road,
and a portion of the skeleton of a whale, were found on
the carse lands in the course of the removal of the
superincumbent moss. Robert Wallace, D.D. (1697-
1771), statistical writer, and the Rev. Alex. Bryce
(1713-86), geometrician, were natives. Blair-Drummond
and Oehtertyre, both noticed separately, are the chief
residences. Giving off since 1877 its Thornhill section
to Noreiston quoad sacra parish, Kincardine is in the
presbytery of Dunblane and synod of Perth and Stirling ;
the living is worth £335. The parish church, 2 miles S
by "W of Doune, was built in 1814-16, and is a handsome
Perpendicular edifice, with 770 sittings and four stained-
glass windows ; its ancient predecessor belonged to
Cambuskenneth Abbey. Three public schools — Blair-
Drummond, Kincardine, and Thornhill — with respective
accommodation for 75, 142, and 157 children, had (1SS1)
an average attendance of 22, 60, and 85, and grants of
£28, Is., £57, 19s., and £71, 15s. Valuation (1S60)
£14,657, (1SS3) £15,938, 5s. lOd. Pop. (1801) 2212,
(1831)2456, (1861) 1778, (1871) 1484, (1881) 1351, of
whom 716 were in the ecclesiastical parish. — Oral. Sur.,
sh. 39, 1869.
Kincardine, a small seaport town in Tulliallan parish,
SE Perthshire (detached), on low fiat ground on the
left or NE bank of the river Forth, 3 miles S by W of
Kincardine station on the Stirling and Dunfermline
section of the North British, this being 3] miles E of
Alloa and 10A WNW of Dunfermline. Occupying one
of the best situations on the Forth, with a good quay
and a roadstead 21 feet deep, where 100 vessels may
ride in safety, it once, and for a long period, was the
seat of commerce for nearly all places round the head
of the Firth of Forth, precisely as Leith aud Burnt-
island are the seats of commerce for nearly all places
round the southern and northern sides of the lower
parts of the Firth. It commands a safe ferry, i mile
wide, across the Forth ; and, prior to the railway era,
was the grand ferry station between Fife and Kinross-
shire on the one hand, and all the SW of Scot-
land on the other. Seventy years ago it carried on
shipbuilding to so great an extent as sometimes to have
from twelve to fifteen vessels on the stocks at once ; and
it still has a few ships, a rope and sail work, and two
woollen factories ; but its former extensive distillery,
brewery, salt works, and collieries are now extinct or
exhausted. It is a regular place of call for steamers on
the passage between Stirling and Granton ; ranks as a
burgh of barony, under government of three bailies ;
aud is the seat of a sheriff small debt court on the first
Monday of February, May, August, and November. It
contains some good, modern, slated, two-story or three-
story houses, but chiefly consists of red-tiled cottages ;
its environs are pleasant, with the ruins of Tulliallan
Castle, its modern successor, and some good villas ; but
the town itself presents a very irregular alignment, and
an unattractive appearance. At it are a post office
under Alloa, with money order, savings' bank, insur-
ance, and telegraph departments, a branch of the Union
Bank, 6 insurance agencies, gasworks, 2 inns, and 3
schools. Tulliallan parish church, built in 1S33 at a
cost of £3400, is au elegant edifice, and contains 1176
sittings. A Free church contains 470, and a U.P.
church, built in 1819 at a cost of £1200, contains 800
sittings. The distinguished chemist, Prof. James Dewar,
F.R.S., was born at Kincardine in 1S42. Two embank-
ments were completed in 1S23 and 1839, on the "W and
E sides of the town, for reclaiming valuable land from
KINCARDINE O'NEIL
the tidal waters of the Forth. That on the "W side is
11 feet high and 2020 yards long, cost £6104, and
reclaimed 152 acres ; while that on the E side is 16 feet
high and 3040 yards long, cost nearly £14,000, and
reclaimed 214 acres. Pop. (1841) 2875, (1851) 2697,
(1861) 2169, (1871) 1983, (1881) 1985, of whom 1141
were females. Houses (1881) 506 inhabited, 55 vacant,
4 building.— Ord. Sur., sh. 39, 1869.
Kincardine, a quondam town in Fordoun parish,
Kincardineshire, near the right bank of Ferdun Water,
4£ miles NW of Laurencekirk, and 2 NE of Fetter-
cairn. Near it, on a wooded eminence 30 feet high, are
remains of a royal palace, whose walls, at no point ex-
ceeding 8 feet in height, consist of chisel-hewn but
mostly hammer-dressed stones of a hard and durable
sandstone. The ground plan may still be traced ; and
it seems to have measured 36 yards square, with an
inner quadrangle, filled more or less with buildings.
Some make this palace the scene of the murder of
Kenneth III. in 994 (see Fenella) ; and it is known to
have been a residence of William the Lyon (1166-1214),
of Alexander III. (1249-S5), of Edward I. of England
in 1296, and of Robert II. in 1383. In 1532 the fourth
Earl Marischal obtained a charter for making the town
of Kincardine ' the principal and capital burgh of the
county ; ' but less than eighty years after the sheriff
and his deputes petitioned for the removal of the courts
to Stonehaven, Kincardine possessing neither tolbooth
nor hostelry. At the same time its fair, St Catherine's,
was transferred to Fettercatrn, whither also its
market cross (1670) was removed a century later ; and
now the memory of Kincardine is preserved only by the
vestiges of its palace, by the graveyard of its ancient
kirk of St Catherine, and by such names in its vicinity
as the ' King's Park, ' ' Chancellor's Park, ' and ' King's
Deer.'— Ord. Sur., sh. 66, 1871. See chap. v. of
Andrew Jervise's Memorials of Angus and the Mearns
(Edinb. 1861), and app. xvi. of his Land of the Lindsays
(2ded., Edinb., 1882).
Kincardine, Inverness-shire. See Abernethy.
Kincardine, an estate, with a romantic glen, a
modern mansion, and a ruined castle, on the E border
of Blackford parish, Perthshire. The glen extends
2 J miles north-eastward to the vicinity of Auch-
terarder ; is traversed by Ruthven Water and by
the Scottish Central section of the Caledonian railway ;
and contains stupendous railway works, including a six-
arched viaduct rising nearly 100 feet above the level of
the stream. Modern Kincardine Castle, \\ mile S of
Auchterarder, is approached by an avenue that passes
along the copse-clad banks of the glen ; it is a neat
edifice in the castellated style. The ancient castle,
farther up the glen, crowned a promontory overlook-
ing scenery similar to that around Hawthornden House.
It formed a strong and spacious quadrangle ; but,
having been dismantled by the Earl of Argyll in 1645,
it is now represented by a mere fragment of wall and
some vestiges of a moat. About the middle of the 13th
century Malise, Earl of Strathearn, conferred the lands
of Kincardine on Sir David de Graham, to whose
descendant, the Duke of Montrose, they give the title
of Earl of Kincardine (ere. 1644). — Ord. Sur., sh. 39,
1869.
Kincardine O'Neil, a village and a parish of S Aber-
deenshire. The village stands, 234 feet above sea-level,
near the left bank of the Dee, 2 miles ESE of Dess
station and 2J SW of Torphins station, this being 24
miles W by S of Aberdeen. It has a post office under
Aberdeen, with money order and savings' bank depart-
ments, an hotel, and fairs on the second Tuesday of
May o. s. and the Wednesday and Thursday after the
last Tuesday of August o. s.
The parish, containing also Toephins village and
station, is bounded NW by Tough, NE by Cluny and
Midniar, E and SE by Banchory-Ternan in Kincardine-
shire, SW by Birse, and W by Aboyne and Lumphanan.
Its utmost length, from N to S, is S| miles ; its utmost
width, from E to W, is 7 miles ; and its area is 18,260-g
acres, of which 16-V are water. The Dee winds 4| miles
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