Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 4

KINPIENIE
1927, (1831) 2957, (1861) 3219, (1871) 3108, (1881)
3461, of whom 2727 were in Perth parliamentary burgh.
— Ord. Sur., sh. 48, 1868.
Kinpirnie. See Newtyle.
Kinraxa. See Axtie.
Kinross, a town and a parish in Kinross-shire. The
town stands, 370 feet above sea-level, near the W end
of Loeh Leven, at a convergence of railways, and on the
old direct road from Edinburgh to Perth, bv road being
13 miles N of Inverkeithing, 27 NNW of" Edinburgh,
and 19 SW of Cupar ; by railway, 15J N by E of Dun-
fermline, and 18J WKW of Thornton Junction. Dating
from ancient times, it was treated by Alexander III., in
the early part of his reign, as a sort of capital, and was
the place where he and his young queen were seized in
1257 by the faction of the Comyns. It figures in con-
nection with Queen Mary's escape from Lochleven
Castle, as narrated by Sir Walter Scott in the Abbot ;
and on 6 Sept. 1842 Queen Victoria drove through it on
her way to Perthshire. It was formerly a very mean
place, but has been much improved in recent times.
The streets present a fair appearance, and have been
lighted with gas since 1835 ; and a large proportion of
the private houses are modern, substantial, and neat.
The former town hall was built in 1837 on the site of
the old parish church ; but, proving too small, was re-
placed in 1868 by a new and more commodious structure.
The county hall, erected in 1826 at a cost of £2000, is
a handsome edifice ; its prison was closed in 1878.
Conspicuous on a rising-ground, the parish church was
built in 1832 at a cost of £1537, and is a neat structure
in the Gothic style. The Free church was built soon
after the Disruption ; and two U.P. churches belonged
originally to the Burgher and Anti-burgher sections of
the Secession. St Paul's Episcopal church, built in
1875 and consecrated in 1881, is Gothic in style, com-
prising chancel, nave, N transept, and tower. The
general aspect of the town, as combined with the land-
scape around, particularly with Loch Leven and the
encinctnring hills, is very pleasing. Three lines of
railway go one towards Dollar and Alloa, one towards
Dunfermline and Thornton Junction, and one towards
Ladybank, Perth, and Dundee.
The town has a post office, with money order, savings'
bank, insurance, and telegraph departments, branches
of the British Linen Co. , Clydesdale, and Boyal Banks,
the Kinross-shire Savings' Bank, agencies of 13 insur-
ance companies, 4 hotels, a library, a reading-room, a
temperance hall, an agricultural society, two curling
clubs, a fishing club, a cricket club, a masonic lodge,
several benevolent and religious societies, and a Satur-
day newspaper, the Kinross-shire, Advertiser (1847). A
weekly corn market is held on Monday ; cattle, sheep,
and horse fairs are held on the second Monday of June,
and the fourth Monday of March, July, and October ;
and a hiring fair is held on the Thursday after the
second Tuesday of October. The manufacture of cutlery
was introduced at a comparatively early period, and
acquired much celebrity ; the manufacture of linen
attained some importance about the middle of last
century, and progressed so well as, in 1790, to employ
nearly 200 looms, and to produce goods to the value of
£5000 a year ; the weaving of cotton was introduced
about 1809, and became so flourishing as to substitute
power looms for hand looms ; the weaving of woollen
fabrics employed many hands from 1836 till 1845 ; and
the manufacture of shawls and plaids was commenced
about 1846, and promised for two or three years to be
highly vigorous and remunerative. But all these de-
partments of industry became extinct, and the buildings
they had occupied ceased to be used as factories. A
wool-spinning mill was erected about 1840 at Bellfield ;
another in 1846 at the S end of the town ; a third about
1867, opposite the second, on the South Queich rivulet;
a fourth and larger one about 1867 in the neighbouring
small town of Milnathort ; a large linen factory about
1874 on the South Queich ; and all these have continued
to prosper. The town was formerly governed by a com-
mittee of the inhabitants, annually chosen at a public
408
KINROSS
meeting ; but now it is governed, under the General
Police and Improvement Act (Scotland) by a senior
magistrate, 2 junior magistrates, and 5 other commis-
sioners. The sheriff court for the county sits on every
Tuesday during session ; the sheriff small debt court sits
on every Tuesday during session, and once a fortnight,
or oftener if required, during vacation ; and courts of
quarter session are held on the first Tuesday of March,
May, and August, and the last Tuesday of October.
Kinross House, on a peninsula between the town and
Loeh Leven, is a large and elegant edifice, built in
1685-92 after designs by Sir William Bruce, the
architect of the later portions of Holyrood. It is
commonly but falsely said to have been intended for
a residence of the Duke of York, afterwards James VII.,
in the event of the Exclusion Bill becoming law ; in the
18th century was the seat of the Grahams of Kinross ;
and through the marriage (1S16) of Helen, daughter of
the last of these, is now the property of Sir Graham-
Montgomery, Bart, of Stobo Castle, Peeblesshire. An
older mansion, on a site near that of Kinross House,
was for many generations the residence of the Earls of
Morton, and was taken down in 1723. The original
parish church stood near the extremity of the peninsula,
in the south-eastern vicinity of Kinross House ; and,
taking from its situation the name Kinross (Gael, ceann-
rois, 'head of the promontory'), bequeathed that name
to the town and parish. The municipal constituency
numbered 296 in 1883, when the annual value of real pro-
perty within the burgh was £52S3. Pop. (1841) 2062,
(1851) 2590, (1861) 20S3, (1871) 1926, (1881) 1960.
Houses (1881) 507 inhabited, 40 vacant, 1 building.
The parish is bounded N by Orwell, E by Loch Leven,
SE by Portmoak, S by'Cleish, and W by Fossoway.
Its utmost length, from E to W, is 4§ miles ; its utmost
breadth, from N" to S, is 4 miles ; and its area is 10,588
acres, of which 3313J are water. To Loch Levek flow
North Queich Water, running 2 miles east-south-east-
ward on or close to the northern border ; South Queich
Water, running 4-J miles east-by-southward through the
interior ; and Gairney Water, running 3f miles east-
north-eastward along the Cleish and Portmoak boundary.
The surface, flat over its eastern half, rises gradually
westward from 360 feet above sea-level to 536 at Wester
Cockairney and 629 at Hillhead in the NW corner ;
and, being rimmed in the four circumjacent parishes by
a cordon of hills, is often called the Laigh or Level of
Kinross. The rocks are trap, sandstone, and limestone.
The soil is partly clay, but chiefly a thin blackish loam
on a gravelly bottom. About 280 acres are under
wood ; nearly 160 are pastoral or waste ; and almost all
the rest of the land is arable. Lochleven Castle is a
chief antiquity, and, with Loch Leven itself, is separ-
ately noticed. Gallows Knowe, on the Lathro estate,
appears to have been a place of public execution in the
feudal times, and was found in 1822 to contain thirteen
old graves. About 350 silver coins, chiefly of Edward I.
and Edward II. of England, were discovered in 1820 on
the lands of Coldon ; and an ancient circular gold seal
was exhumed in 1829 on the grounds of West Green.
Among its natives were the distinguished architect, Sir
William Bruce, and the Edinburgh professor of patho-
logy, Dr John Thomson. Seventeen proprietors hold
each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 22 of between
£100 and £500, 15 of from £50 to £100, and 45 of from
£20 to £50. Kinross is the seat of a presbytery in the
synod of Fife ; the living is worth £381. The two
public schools, North and South, with respective accom-
modation for 300 and 115 children, had (1881) an
average attendance of 214 and 73, and grants of £194
and £46, 19s. 6d. Valuation (1860) £15,419, (1882)
£16,800, 10s. 3d. Pop. (1801) 2124, (1831) 2917, (1861)
2649, (1871) 2477, (1881) 2492.— Ord. Sur., sh. 40, 1867.
The presbytery of Kinross comprises the old parishes
of Arngask, Ballingry, Cleish, Fossoway, Kinross,
Muckart, Orwell, and Portmoak, with the quoad sacra
parish of Blairingone. Pop. (1871) 9582, (1881) 8422,
of whom 2674 were communicants of the Church of
Scotland in 1883. — The Free Church also has a presby-