Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 5

MARYCULTER
old churchyard is near the mansion-honse of Culter, near
the river Dee. Of the old church almost nothing now
remains but the foundations, which show that it was
ahout 82 feet long, 28 wide, and had walls about 3 feet
thick. It seems to date from about the sixteenth
century, and contained a number of curious wood
carvings, which were all dispersed, and most of them
lost or destroyed, when the new church was built, a mile
to the S, in 1782. Carved effigies of a knight and his
lady are supposed to be those of Thomas Menzies of Mary-
culter and his wife Marion Keid, heiress of Pitfoddles,
who lived in the first half of the 16th century. The
Menzies family acquired the estate of Maryculter early
in the 14th century ; and the last of the family was Mr
John Menzies, the founder of Blaiks College. The
family burial ground was at St Nicholas in Aberdeen,
and these figures are supposed to have been brought here
for safety when the West Kirk of Aberdeen was rebuilt
in 1751-55. The late Mr Irvine-Boswell of Kingcaussie
(1785-1860), who did so much for the improvement of
the agriculture of the parish, is also buried here. The
Irvines of Kingcaussie are a branch of the Irvines of
Drum ; and the line ended in an heiress who married the
well-known Lord Balmuto. Their son was the Mr
Irvine-Boswell just mentioned. The mansions, besides
Maryculter House and Kingcaussie House, are Altries
House, Auchlunies House, and Heathcot, the last of
which has been converted into a hydropathic establish-
ment. The clock tower of Maryculter House is old, and
is said to have been used by the Menzies family as an
oratory, but the rest of the house is modern. Near the
mansion-house is an oval hollow, measuring some 80
yards across, and about 30 feet deep, which bears the
name of ' The Thunder Hole.' AVithin the last SO years
the depth has been considerably reduced. Traditionally
it was formed by the fall of a thunderbolt, and the spot
was reckoned not exactly ' canny.' The church and most
of the lands of the parish were in the possession of the
Knights Templars, and on their downfall passed under
the control of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem, who
held them in regality. In 1540 we find Sir Walter
Lyndesay, the Preceptor of Torphichen, granting the
lands of Essintully (now Ashentilly), 'jacentes in baronia
nostra de Maricultir,' to his beloved 'germano frati-i
Alexandre Lyndesay ; ' and in 1545 he leased to him
also the Mains of Maryculter, part of the rent to be
paid being ' thre barrell of salmont yeirl-ie for the Weill
Watter anentis Kurd,' where salmon-fishing is still
carried on. In 1547 Sir James Sandilands, Lord St
John and Preceptor of Torphichen, leased the 'teynd
schawls' of Easter Essintully and the Mains of Mary-
culter, ' lyand within the barony of the samyn,' to the
same Alexander Lyndesay ; and in 1548 the Lords
of Council and Session found, in an action raised
by the preceptor, that ' the haill landis and barony
at Maricultir ' belonged ' to his sayd pi'eceptorie in
fre regalite,' having been 'in tjTnes by past replegit
fra the Schiref of Kincardin and his deputis to the
fredome and privelege of the sayd regalite and baillies
courttis thairof.'
The portion of the parish bordering the Dee is traversed
by a fine road formed about 1836-37, and leading from
Abekdeek to Banchory by the S side of the river.
From this, near ilaryculter House, a road passes south-
ward to a bridle-path across the Grampians to near
Drumlithie, and so to the coast road. Bailw.ay com-
munication is afforded by Milltimber and Culter stations,
on the Deeside section of the Great North of Scotland
railway system. These are, however, on the N bank of
the Dee, outside the parish, and each about If mile from
its centre. The hamlet is beside the church, and is
merely the Kirktown. It is by road 7 miles WSW of
Aberdeen, under which it has a sub-post office. The
parish of Maryculter is in the presbytery and synod
of Aberdeen. The parish church, built in 1782, and
repaired when an organ was introduced in 1881, con-
tains 460 sittings. There is a Free church ; and the
Roman Catholic College and chapel at Bi.aies are
separately noticed. Three public schools — the boys'
MAEYKIRK
and the East and West girls' and infants' — with respec-
tive accommodation for 75, 60, and 60 children, had
(1883) an average attendance of 36, 30, and 42, and
grants of £35, Is., £28, 16s., and £34, 14s. The
principal landowner is Mr Kinloch of Park. Valuation
(1856) £4879, (1884) £7691, 6s. 7d. Pop. (1801) 710,
(1831) 960, (1861) 1055, (1871) 1110, (1881) 1072.—
Ord. Sur., shs. 77, 67, 1873-71.
Marydale, a place in Kilmorack parish, Inverness-
shire, on the left bank of the Glass, near Inver-
cannich and the Glenaffric Hotel, 20 miles SW of
Beauly. Its Roman Catholic church of Our Lady
and St Bean was built in 1868, and contains 400
sittings.
MaryhiU, a police burgh in Barony parish, NW
Lanarkshire, on the left bank of the river Kelvin, 3^
miles NNW of the centre of Glasgow, with which it is
connected by tramway and by the Glasgow and Helens-
burgh section of the North British railway. It occupies
a brae descending to the picturesque and romantic dell
of the Kelvin, which dell is spanned by the four-arch
viaduct, 83 feet high and 400 long, of the Fokth and
Clyde Canal. MaryhiU possesses in itself and in its
environs such strong attractions of scenery as draw many
visitors from Glasgow, and exhibits for the most part a
well-built, pleasant appearance. It has a post office
under Glasgow, with money order, savings' bank, and
telegraph departments, branches of the Royal and Union
Banks, an hotel, 3 Established churches, 2 Free churches,
a U.P. church, a Roman Catholic church, 4 public and 2
Roman Catholic schools, iron, bleach, glass, and print
works, etc. Under Gla.sgow are noticed the MaryhiU
Barracks and the Dawsholm gasworks. The burgh is
governed by a senior and 2 junior magistrates and 9
otier police commissioners. Valuation (1876) £30,939,
(1884) £65,637. Pop. of quoad sacra parish (1881)
39,980; of town (1841) 2552, (1861) 3717, (1871) 5842,
(1881) 12,884, of whom 6525 were males. Houses in
town (1881) 2240 inhabited, 691 vacant, 5 buUding.—
Ord. Sur., sh. 30, 1S66.
Marykirk, a village and a parish of S Kincardineshire.
The village, in the SE corner of the parish, is beautifully
situated near the left bank of the river North Esk (here
spanned by a four-arch bridge of 1813), 7 furlongs N by
W of Craigo station, IJ mile S of Marykirk station,
and 6 miles NNW of Montrose, under which it has a
post office.
The parish, containing also Luthermuir village,
till at least 1721 was known as Aberluthnott (Gael.
' meeting of the waters where the stream is swift '). It
is bounded N by Fordoun, NE by Laurencekirk, E by
Garvock, SE by St Cyrus, S by Logic-Pert in Forfarshire,
and W by Fettercairn. Its utmost length, from NNE to
SSAV, is 5J miles ; its breadth varies between 2§ and 4J
miles ; and its area is 9912 acres, of which 72 are water.
The North Esk flows 4 miles east-by-southward along
all the Forfarshire boundary, and opposite the village is
spanned by a thirteen-areh viaduct, of fine appearance
and erected at great cost ; Luther AVater runs 44
miles south-south-westward through the middle of the
interior to the North Esk ; and Black and Dourie Burns,
Luthnot and Balmaleedy Burns, drain the side dis-
tricts into the larger streams. The surface, comprising
nmcli of the SW extremity of the Howe of Mearns,
declines along the North Esk to 80 feet above sea-level,
and W of the railway at no point exceeds 264 feet ; but
to the E it attains 555 at KirktonhiU Tower and 700 at
the meeting-point with Garvock and St Cyrus. Eruptive
rocks occur in the hills ; but Old Red sandstone pre-
vails throughout the low grounds, and is quarried ;
whilst limestone also is plentiful, and was formerly
worked. The soil is much of it good sound fertile loam,
incumbent on decomposed red sandstone. About 615
acres are in pasture ; plantations, chiefly of Scotch fir,
cover rather more than 1600 acres ; and the rest of the
land is in tillage. Mansions, noticed separately, are
BALJIAKEW.4.N, Hatton (Viscount Arbuthnott), Ixglis-
MALDIE (Earl of Kintore), Kirktonhill, and Thornton
Castle ; and 6 proprietors hold each an annual value of
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