Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

TURRIFF
Baronial in style, has a square clock-tower 63 feet
high. A new hospital, with adjuncts, was erected hy
the Turriff District Committee of the County Council
in 1895. The ancient market-cross, 20 feet high, was
repaired in 1841, and re-erected in 1865. The old
parish church ' is supposed to have been built by Mal-
colm Ceannmor' (1058-93); but its dedication to St
Comgan or St Congan (ordinarily pronounced Cowan)
inclines one to refer its foundation to the latter half
of the 7th century. Marjory, Countess of Buchan, gave
it in 1214 to Arbroath Abbey; and in 1272 Alexander
Comyn, Earl of Buchan, attached it to an almshouse
or hospital for thirteen poor husbandmen of Buchan.
This establishment had a warden and six chaplains,
who wore the dress of secular monks; and it possessed,
withsome limitations, the right of sanctuary for criminals.
King Robert Bruce appears to have further endowed it
for the maintenance of a chaplain to say masses for his
brother Nigel Bruce, slain by the English after their
capture of the Castle of Kildrummy. In 1412 the
church was erected into a prebend of Aberdeen, and its
parsons or prebendaries of the parish seem to have
always been the wardens of the hospital; at least, from
that date till the Reformation, they held the lands with
which the Earl of Buchan had endowed it. In 1511
the whole kirklands, village, and glebe were, by a
charter under the great seal, erected into a free burgh
of barony, in favour of Thomas Dickson, prebendary
of Turriff. The church is said to have been a stately
structure, 120 feet long and 18 wide; but only the choir
and belfry remain. The belfry contains a fine-toned
bell, bearing date 1557, which, having for thirty-four
years been transferred to the new parish church, was
restored to its former position in 1828, when a clock
was purchased by public subscription ; and in the choir
has been discovered a curious wall-painting of St Ninian.
There is reason to believe that there had been a
series of pictures all round the church. A monu-
ment on the N wall bears the date 1636, and six Latin
elegiacs on one of the Barclays of Tollie. In the church-
yard are several other interesting monuments, belonging
to the 16th and the 17th century; and here, too, is
buried Bishop Alexander Jolly, D.D. (1755-1838), the
first ten years of whose ministry were spent at Turriff.
(See Fbaseebuboh.) The present parish church was
built in 1794, and enlarged in 1830. A plain but com-
modious edifice, it was adorned in 1875 with a stained-
glass window to the memory of the late Garden William
Duff, Esq. of Hatton. A church hall was erected in
1893-94. The Free church, built soon after the Dis-
ruption, is a somewhat more ambitious structure. St
Congan's Episcopal church (1862) is a good Early Eng-
lish building, consisting of porch, nave, a SW tower
and spire 80 feet high, and chancel — the last erected
as a memorial of Bishop Jolly. It has an organ, several
fine stained windows, and a church hall (erected in 1897).
Bleaching, dyeing, and the manufacture of carpets
(started in 1760), of linen yarn (1767), and of woollen
cloth, belong wholly or almost wholly to the past;
but near the town there are a woollen manufactory and
an agricultural engineering work. At the station are
coal, lime, and manure stores, and a large granary.
Cattle markets are held on the second and fourth
Wednesdays of every month; and feeing markets on
the Saturday before 27 May and the Saturday before
23 Nov. A burgh of barony since 1511, the town under
the Burgh Police Act of 1892 is governed by a provost,
2 bailies, and 6 commissioners. There are burgh police
and justice of peace courts ; and sheriff small debt courts
sit four times a year, in March, June, Sept., and Dec.
Pop. of town (1821) 922, (1841) 1309, (1861) 1843,
(1871) 2277, (1881) 2304, (1891) 2341, of whom 1322
were females. Houses (1891) inhabited 528, vacant 25.
Turriff or Turra, as the name is vulgarly pronounced,
has been variously derived from the Gaelic torr, 'a
mound or round hill, ' and tur, ' a tower. ' In support
of the latter etymology, the writer in the New Statistical
(1842) observes that 'in the memory of persons alive
till lately the remains of towers were to be seen; and
TURRIFF
those of one of them still exist in the gateway and
vaults of an old and now almost ruinous building
known by the name of "Castle Rainy."' The
Knights-Templars appear to have had an establishment
at Turriff or property in its vicinity ; and a spot of
ground on the S still bears the name of Temple Brae.
On 22 April 1589 James VI. passed a night in Turriff,
which fifty years later made its first and last prominent
figure in history. Early in 1639 the Marquis of Huntly
assembled his forces first at Turriff, and afterwards at
Kintore, whence he marched upon Aberdeen, which he
took possession of in name of the King. The Marquis,
being informed shortly after his arrival in Aberdeen
that a meeting of Covenanters, who resided within his
district, was to be held at Turriff on 14 Feb., resolved
to disperse them. He therefore wrote letters to his
chief dependants, requiring them to meet him at
Turriff the same day, and bring with them no arms but
swords and ' schottis ' or pistols. One of these letters
fell into the hands of the Earl of Montrose, then one of
the chief Covenanting lords, who determined at all
hazards to protect the meeting of his friends the
Covenanters. In pursuance of this resolution he col-
lected with great alacrity some of his best friends in
Angus, and with his own and their dependants, to the
number of about 800 men, he crossed the mountain
range between Angus and Aberdeenshire, and took pos-
session of Turriff on the morning of 14 Feb. "When
Huntly's party arrived during the course of the day,
they were surprised at seeing the little churchyard of
the village filled with armed men; and they were still
more surprised to observe them levelling their hagbuts
at them across the walls of the churchyard. Not
knowing how to act in the absence of the Marquis,
they retired to a place called the Broad Ford of Towie,
about 2 miles S of the village, where they were soon
joined by Huntly and his suite. After some consulta-
tion the Marquis paraded his men in order of battle
along the NW side of the village in sight of Montrose,
and dispersed his party, which amounted to 2000 men,
without offering to attack Montrose, on the pretence
that his commission of lieutenancy only authorised him
to act on the defensive. This bloodless affair is known
as the ' First Raid of Turray. ' Three months later a
body of the Covenanters, to the number of about 2000,
having assembled at Turriff, the Gordons resolved
instantly to attack them before they should be joined
by other forces, which were expected to arrive before the
20th of May. Taking along with them four brass field-
pieces from Strathbogie, the Gordons, to the number of
800 horse and foot, commenced their march on 13 May
at ten o'clock at night, and reached Turriff next morning
by daybreak by a road unknown to the sentinels of the
Covenanting army. As soon as they approached the
town the commander of the Gordons ordered the
trumpets to be sounded and the drums to be beat, the
noise of which was the first indication the Covenanters
had of their arrival. Being thus surprised the latter
had no time to make any preparations for defending
themselves. They made, indeed, a brief resistance, but
were soon dispersed by the fire from the field-pieces,
leaving behind them the lairds of Echt and Skene, and
a few others, who were taken prisoners. The loss on
either side in killed and wounded was very trifling.
The skirmish, which is called by writers of the period
' the Trott of Turray, ' has 'some claim to commemora-
tion, since in this distant village,' says Dr Hill Burton,
' the first blood was spilt in the great civil war. It
was remembered, too, in the North, though the many
turns in the mighty conflict drove it out of memory
elsewhere, that it was on the side of the Cavaliers that
the sword was first drawn. '
The parish contains also Auchterless station at its
southern, and Plaidy station at its northern, extremity,
the former being 4 miles SSE, and the latter 4j N by
E, of Turriff station. It is bounded N by King-Edward,
E by Monquhitter, SE by Fyvie, S by Auchterless, and
SW, W, and NW by Inverkeithny, Marnoeh, and
Forglen, in Banffshire. Its utmost length, from N by
1583