Altyre House

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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Altyre, a burn, an estate, and a quondam parish, in Elginshire. The burn rises in Edinkillie parish, on the SW slope of the Hill of Glaschyle, at an altitude of 950 feet: and flowing some 10 miles northward, past Altyre House and Forres, falls into Findhorn Bay, 1 mile WSW of Kinloss. It has an impetuous current, often flooding the neighbouring low grounds, and covering them with débris; in its lower reaches it takes the name of Forres Water. Altyre House, 4 miles S of Forres, belongs to Sir William-Gordon Gordon-Cumming, fourth Bart., representative of the ancient Earls of Badenoch: and is a fine modern mansion in the Italian style, standing on the right bank of the burn, at an altitude of 212 feet above sea-level. Its estate consists mainly of wooded hill and of pasturage, but also includes much arable land, with thin but productive soil. The parish belonged to the parsonage of Dallas, till in 1661 it was annexed by Act of Parliament to Rafford. Its ancient church, ¾ mile N of Altyre House, is a small but interesting First Pointed structure: and a hill where the capital sentences of the baron court of Altyre were carried out, still bears the name of Gallow Hill.

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Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer