Forgandenny, a post-office village in Perthshire, and a parish partly also in Kinross-shire. The village stands 130 feet above sea-level, 3 miles W of its post-town, Bridge of Earn, and 1 mile S of the river Earn, and of a station of its own name on the Scottish Central section of the Caledonian railway, this station being 4½ miles SW of Perth.
The parish, containing also the hamlet of Path of Condie, 5 miles S by W, is bounded N by Aberdalgie and the Craigend section of Forteviot, E by Dunbarny, Dron, and Arngask, S by the southernmost section of Forteviot and by Orwell, and W by Dunning and the main body of Forteviot. Its utmost length, from N by E to S by W, is 7¼ miles; its breadth varies between 13/8 and 3¼ miles; and its area is 8998½ acres, of which 1213¾ belong to Kinross-shire, and 52¼ are water. The river Earn, winding 2¾ miles eastward along or just beyond all the northern boundary, describes some of those graceful curves, and forms some of those beautiful peninsulas, for which it has been so much admired; and the Water of May, its affluent, has here a course of 53/8 miles-the first 2 miles north-eastward along the boundary with Dunning, and the last ½ mile northward along that with Forteviot. Both the Earn and the May, the former all along the northern boundary, the latter in its lower reach, sometimes overflow their banks; but they amply compensate any damage they inflict by bringing down rich deposits of fertilising silt. One or two springs adjacent to the eastern boundary possess exactly the same medicinal properties as the Pitcaithly wells. The northern district, from 30 to 150 feet above the sea, is part of the beautiful valley of Strathearn, and, though ascending gradually southwards, is on the whole level. The southern, beyond the village, comprises fully three-fourths of the entire area, and runs up among the Ochil Hills, attaining 300 feet on Dumbuils, 1028 on Castle Law, 624 near Ardargie Mains, 797 near Rossieochill, and 1354 at Slungie Hill, whose summit, however, falls just within Orwell parish. It mainly consists of hill and upland, with little intersecting vale; yet has but a small aggregate of bare or rocky surface, and is mostly disposed in either good pasture or cornfields. The rocks are partly Devonian, but principally eruptive; and they include some limestone, some ironstone, and great abundance of such kinds of trap as are suitable for building. The soil on some of the lands adjacent to the Earn is carse clay, on others a sandy alluvium; further S is a rich, black, argillaceous loam; and on the arable lands of the centre and the S is variously a sandy earth, a black earth, and a reddish clay, better adapted for oats than any other sort of grain. Much land formerly pastoral or waste has been reclaimed; and barely 1000 acres have never been subjected to the plough. The mansions of Ardargie, Condie, Freeland, and Rossie are separately noticed, as likewise are a small Roman camp on Ardargie estate, an extensive Danish fortification on Castle Law, and remains of another ancient fortification on Dumbuils. Five proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 5 of between £100 and £500, and 4 of from £20 to £50. Forgandenny is in the presbytery of Perth and synod of Perth and Stirling; the living is worth £272. The parish church at the village is very old, and contains 410 sittings. There is also a Free church; and two public schools, Forgandenny and Path of Condie, with respective accommodation for 113 and 64 children, had (1881) an average attendance of 79 and 40, and grants of £67, 2s. and £44, 6s. Valuation (1882) £7913, 3s. 2d. Pop. (1801) 958, (1831) 917, (1861) 739, (1871) 632, (1881) 627, of whom 10 were in Kinross-shire.—Ord. Sur., shs. 48, 40, 1868-67.
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