Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 2

PAL
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PAP
PALDIE, or Paldiekirk, a small village in the
parish of Fordoun, in Kincardineshire, noted for its
three days' fair, vulgarly called Paddy fair, which
hegins on the 1st Tuesday after 11th July: See
Fordoun.
PALKILL-WATER, a rivulet in the parish of
Minigaff, Kirkcudbrightshire, rising in the centre of
the parish, and running 4 miles southward and 4i
south-westward to the Cree, at Newton-Stewart.
PANBRIDE, a parish on the south-east verge of
Forfarshire ; bounded on the north by Carmylie ; on
the north-east and east by Arbirlot, and a detached
part of St. Vigean's; on the south-east by the Ger-
man ocean ; on the south-west by Barry ; and on
the west by Monikie. Its figure is the small seg-
ment of a flat ring, the convex side turned to the
south-west; and it measures nearly 5 miles in length
from north to south-east, 2 miles in mean breadth,
and 5,400 acres in area. The coast, 2.J- miles in ex-
tent, is flat and very rocky, with a pebbly beach,
which occasionally affords some gems. The interior
is, in general, flat, but rises toward the north. The
soil, toward the coast, is sandy ; in the central dis-
trict, is clay or loam ; and, toward the north, is
moorish. Three-fourths of the whole area is arable,
arid, in general, beautifully cultivated ; and 600 acres
of the other fourth are under plantation. Two rivu-
lets, both originating in Monikie, and the larger tra-
versing 8h miles from its source to the sea, run south-
eastward through the parish — one of them a mile
along the south-east boundary — form a confluence
a mile from the sea, and discharge their united waters
midway between East and West Haven. The im-
mediate basin of both is, in many places, a rocky
dell, with steep and almost perpendicular sides of
from 20 to 50 feet high ; and that of the larger bears
the name of Battie's den, and is spanned, at a ro-
mantic spot, by a bridge which carries across the
Great North mail-road. Limestone, but of an in-
ferior quality, and not in plenty, exists ; and sand-
stone, both of an excellent sort for building, and of
tlte slaty kind which yields the Arbroath paving-
stone, abounds and is worked. There is in the par-
ish a small flax spinning-mill. The chief villages are
the Havens, (East and West,) and Muirdrum :
which see. The others are Skrine, half-a-niile north
of East Haven, and Panbride, the site of the parish-
church, half-a-inile north of West Haven. In the
north-east of the parish, 2 miles from the ' Live and
Let Live Testimonial,' [see Monikie,] stands the
spacious and stately mansion of Panmure, surrounded
by an extensive and richly wooded demesne, and
commanding, toward the south and the east, a pleas-
ing seaward prospect. In its vicinity are the vaults
and foundations of the old castle of Panmure, long
the seat of the cognominal Earls. James, the 4th
Earl of Panmure, was attainted, in 1716, for having
shared in the rebellion of the previous year. The
Honourable William Ramsay Maule, representative
of the ancient Earls, and the brother of George, the
9th Earl of Dalhousie, was, in 1831, created Baron
Panmure of Brechin and Navar, in the peerage of
Great Britain ; and is the proprietor of the modern
mansion, and landowner of the whole parish. Fish-
eries and a small marine commerce are connected
with the Havens. The Edinburgh and Aberdeen
mail-road, and the Dundee and Arbroath railway, run
across the parish, near its middle. Population, in
1801, 1,588; in 1831,1,268. Houses 297. Assessed
property, in 1815, £9,649 Panbride is in the pres-
bytery of Arbroath, and synod of Angus and Mearns.
Patron, the Crown. Stipend £231 Is. lid.; glebe
£10. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4.W., with
£23 3s. 6d. fees. There are two non- parochial
schools, — one of them for females. The chinch,
which is very ancient, was originally dedicated to
St. Bridget ; and the usual abbreviation of the lady's
name, with the prefix Balltn, so common in Irish
topographical nomenclature, signifying 'a town,' and
abbreviated and euphonized into Pan, gives the mo-
dern name of the parish, and, without anv euphoniz-
ing of the prefix, gives its earlier name of Balbride.
The ancestors of Hector Boethius, or Boece, were,
lor several generations, proprietors of the barony of
Panbride; and the historian himself is generally sup-
posed to have been a native of the parish.
PANNANICH, a village and celebrated mineral
wells in the parish of Glenmuick, Aberdeenshire.
The village stands on the right bank of the Dee, li
mile east of Ballater, 18 miles east of the road across
the Grampians, by Castleton of Braemar, to Focha-
bers, and 39 miles west of Aberdeen. The wells are
the most irequented in the northern counties ; and,
except for being situated amid a richer landscape
than the sister-spring of Cumbria, might be regarded
as the Gilsland Spa of Scotland. They issue from
the north side of the hill of Pannanich, and derive
from it their name. The water is strongly impreg-
nated with gaseous acid, and is said to possess a
considerable resemblance to the Seltzar water in
Germany. Its healing virtues were discovered about
70 years ago by an infirm and aged female in the
vicinity, who experienced a cure m such remarkable
circumstances as instantly gave the wells celebrity.
Mr. Farquharson of Monaltrie, on whose grounds
the spa is situated, cleared away obstructions,
taught the water to flow freely, covered in the spring,
built several houses for the accommodation of visiters,
constructed a public and a private bath, and, at a
mile's distance toward Ballater, erected a large and
commodious house, called Pannanich-lodge. In the
lodge are a spacious public room, and a considerable
number of private apartments, besides rooms for
servants; and attached to it are offices, particularly
carriage-houses and stables. The water of the wells
has been found useful in scorbutic and scrofulous
disorders, dyspepsy, stone, and gravel. There is an
excellent inn at the village.
PAPA-STOUR, a suppressed parish and an
island in the west of Shetland. The parish is now
annexed to Walls : which see. The island, the
principal part of the parish, lies on the south side of
the entrance of St. Magnus-bay, about 2 miles from
the promontory of Santlness. Its length, from south-
east to north-west, is about 2\ miles ; and its
breadth is about li mile. It possesses several small
voes or creeks, which afford shelter to the fishing-
boats of the inhabitants. Its appearance in summer,
as approached from St. Magnus-bay to House-voe, is
delightful ; the land lying in a sort of amphitheatre,
and displaying rich sheets of grain and potato crops.
Its soil is, in general, fertile ; produces very rich
grass; and, when well-manured with sea-weed,
yields good returns to the husbandman. Part of
the interior or common pasture was converted almost
into wilderness by the miserable practice of cutting
up and carrying away the sward either for fuel or
for manuring the arable lands. The excellence of
the beaches for drying fish occasioned the resort to
them, last century, of a great English fishing com-
pany. On the south side are several magnificent
and very curious caves, the abodes of numerous
seals: see Shetland. Around the coast are various
picturesque and even sublime porpliyritic stalks, —
rocks shooting perpendicularly up trorn the sea — like
stupendous towers or castellated keeps. The Stack
of Snalda is a grand perpendicular column of rock,
probably 80, and at least 60 feet high, altogether
inaccessible by man, and proudly possessed by the
monarch eagle. Some time in last century an eagle