Farnell, a parish of E Forfarshire, whose church stands on the southern side of the pretty Den of Farnell, 4 miles SSE of the post-town Brechin, and 1 furlong NW of Farnell Road station on the Scottish NorthEastern section of the Caledonian, this being 3¼ miles SW of Bridge of Dun Junction.
The parish is bounded W, NW, and N by Brechin, NE by Dun, E by Maryton, SE by Craig, S by Kinnell and Maryton (detached), and SW by Guthrie. Its length, from E by N to W by S, varies between 2½ and 47/8 miles; its utmost breadth is 3¼ miles; and its area is 5755 acres, of which 491/3 lie detached, and 52¼ are water. The river South Esk winds 17/8 mile east-by-southward along the northern border, and just beyond the NE corner of the parish receives Pow Burn, which, coming in from Kinnell, and running north-eastward across the south-eastern interior, then along the Maryton boundary, itself is joined by two or three rivulets from the W. In the NE the surface declines to 20 feet above sea-level, thence rising gently to 200 feet at the western border, and more rapidly southward to 446 on Ross Muir. 'The whole of Farnell belongs to the Earl of Southesk, whose estate is one of the most compact and desirable in the county, extending as it does to 22,525 acres, and bringing an annual rental of £21,811. The soil is mostly a clayey loam, in parts rather stiff, and in others of a moorish texture. The subsoil is chiefly clay, mixed with gravel, and resting on the Old Red sandstone. On the higher parts whinstone shoots up here and there to within a few inches of the surface,' etc. (Trans. Highl. and Ag. Soc., 1881, pp. 87-89). Farnell Castle, ¼ mile WNW of the church, was visited by Edward I. of England on 7 July 1296, and first is heard of as a grange or residence of the Bishops of Brechin. Now turned into an almshouse for old women, it is a plain three-story pile, with a turnpike staircase on its southern front; the oldest or SW part was built about the beginning of the 16th century, perhaps by Bishop Meldrum. Bishop Campbell resigned the lands of Farnell in 1566 to his patron and chief, the fifth Earl of Argyll, who within two years bestowed them on his kinswoman, Catharine, Countess of Crawford. Her grand-daughter married Sir David Carnegie of Kinnaird, afterwards Earl of Southesk; and with his descendants, save for the period of their forfeiture (1716-64), Farnell has since continued. Kinnaird Castle is noticed separately. Since 1787 comprising great part of the ancient parish of Cuikstone or Kinnaird, Farnell is in the presbytery of Brechin and synod of Angus and Mearns; the living is worth £385. The church, on a rising-ground, surrounded by fine old trees, is a neat Gothic edifice of 1806, containing 330 sittings; an ancient stone monument found here, with carving on it of the Fall of Adam, is figured in Dr John Stuart's Sculptured Stones of Scotland (1867). Farnell public school, with accommodation for 133 children, had (1881) an average attendance of 120, and a grant of £106. Valuation (1857) £5692, (1882) £7142, 14s. 6d., plus £1259 for railway. Pop. (1801) 576, (1831) 582, (1861) 703, (1871) 580, (1881) 613.—Ord. Sur., sh. 57, 1868. See chap. ii. of Andrew Jervise's Memorials of Angus and Mearns (Edinb. 1861).
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