Guthrie, a hamlet and a parish in the Sidlaw district, Forfarshire. The hamlet lies, 160 feet above sea-level, on the left bank of Lunan Water, ¼ mile N of Guthrie Junction on the Caledonian, this being 7 miles E of Forfar, 7¾ NNW of Arbroath, and 8½ SW of Bridge of Dun Junction; and has a post and railway telegraph office. The parish consists of two sections, north-eastern and south-western, lying 6 miles asunder. The main or north-eastern portion, containing the hamlet, is bounded N and E by Kinnell and a detached section of Kirkden, S by the main body of Kirkden, SW by Rescobie, and W and NW by Aberlemno. It measures 2¾ miles in extreme length from E to W, and 2 in extreme breadth from N to S. The south-western or Kirkbuddo division contains Kirkbuddo station on a loop-line of the Caledonian, 15½ miles NNE of Dundee and 5¾ SSE of Forfar. In shape a triangle with southward apex, it is bounded N by Dunnichen, E by Carmyllie, S by Monikie, and W and NW by Inverarity; and has an utmost length and breadth of 2¼ and 1¾ miles. The area of the whole is 3824¾ acres, of which 1424 belong to the Kirkbuddo portion. Luna Water flows 3 1/8 miles east-by-south ward along all the Rescobie and Kirkden border of the main body, which, towards its western boundary, 7 furlongs NW of Guthrie hamlet, attains 494 feet in Guthrie Hill, a steepish round-backed mass of trap, declining towards the E. The south-western division contains no hill, but rises to 601 feet near Bankhead, and nowhere sinks much below 500 feet above sea-level, so that the lowest ground in it has as high an elevation as the summit of Guthrie Hill. Sandstone is the prevailing rock; and the better soil is a free black loam, with clayey or gravelly subsoil. Over 200 acres are under wood, and, with the exception of a remnant of unreclaimed moor, all the rest of the parish is regularly or occasionally in tillage. At Haerfaulds, on the north-western border of the Kirkbuddo section, are traces of a Roman camp, which extended over fully 15 acres. Guthrie Castle, on the Lunan's left bank, 1 mile NW of the junction, is a stately old pile, with massive walls 10 feet thick and 60 high, whose battlements out-top a mass of embosoming wood. Repaired and enlarged in 1848 from designs by the late Mr David Bryce, it was founded in 1468 by Sir David Guthrie of Guthrie, comptroller of the exchequer, whose son, Sir Alexander, fell at Flodden (1513), and whose present descendant, John Douglas Maude Guthrie, Esq. (b. 1856; suc. 1877), holds 3231 acres in the shire, valued at £5027 per annum. The other mansion, Kirkbuddo House, is noticed separately. Guthrie is in the presbytery of Arbroath and synod of Angus and Mearns; the living is worth £229. Its church, St Mary's, belonged originally to Arbroath Abbey, but was purchased therefrom by Sir David Guthrie, who refounded it in 1479 as a collegiate establishment for a provost and five prebendaries. Kirkbuddo, anciently a separate parish, was annexed to Guthrie at the Reformation. The present church, at the hamlet, was built in 1826, and contains 306 sittings; and two public schools, Guthrie and Kirkbuddo, with respective accommodation for 112 and 91 children, had (1881) an average attendance of 48 and 55, and grants of £48, 15s. and £23, 11s. Valuation (1857) £3464; (1882) £5040, 7s. 2d., plus £1930 for railway. Pop. (1801) 501, (1831) 528, (1861) 476, (1871) 404, (1881) 439.—Ord. Sur., sh. 57, 1868.
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