Tannadice, a village and a parish of NW central Forfarshire. The village stand-s, 208 feet above sea-level, on the left bank of the river South Esk, 8¼ miles WSW of Brechin and 7 N by E of Forfar, under which it has a post office.
The parish is bounded N by Lethnot, E by Fearn and Careston, SE by Aberlemno, S by Oathlaw, SW by Kirriemuir, and W and NW by Cortachy. Its utmost length, from N to S, is 85/8 miles; its breadth increases southward from 2¼ to 8 miles; and its area is 21, 4522/5 acres, of which 1247/8 are water. Trusty Burn, rising at an altitude of 2160 feet in the NW corner of the parish, and running 3 miles south-south-eastward, unites, at 890 feet above sea-level, with another rivulet to form Noran Water, which itself flows 4¼ miles south-south-eastward through the interior and then 4½ miles east-south-eastward along the Fearn boundary, until it passes off from Tannadice at a point 1½ mile above its influx to the South Esk. That river has here an east-south-easterly course of 11 miles, viz., 61/8 miles along the western and south-western border, next 3½ miles through the southern interior, then 5 furlongs along the Oathlaw boundary at Tannadice House, and-lastly, a little lower down, ¾ mile along the same boundary at Marcus Lodge. The East Burn of Moye runs 5 miles south-south-westward along the north-western border to the South Esk, to which or to Noran Water flow several rivulets that rise in the interior. In the SE the surface declines to 140 feet above sea-level; and thence it rises to 415 feet at Meikle Coul, 889 near Newmill of Inshewan, 1611 at St Arnold's Seat, 1682 at Pinderachy on the Fearn boundary, and 2383 at the Hill of Glansie on the Lethnot boundary. The southern district is part of the rich and beautiful territory of Strathmore, but is more undulated and otherwise diversified than many other parts of the strath. The central and northern districts rise in hilly and undulating ridges to the lower acclivities of the Grampians; and St Arnold's Seat, a conspicuous hill in the van of the range, commands a gorgeous view of all Angus and Fife and most of the Lothians, away to the Pentlands and the Lammermuirs. The uplands are to a large extent heathy and almost wholly pastoral; and they maintain several hundreds of sheep. Only a few cattle are bred, a large number being bought in a fed condition every year. Except for a trap dyke extending across the entire breadth of the parish, Old Red Sandstone is everywhere the predominant rock. Of a coarse grain and a reddish hue, it is quarried chiefly for building fences. The soil is partly a fertile black loam, partly thin and of moorish texture. Within the last thirty-five years great improvements have been carried out in the way of draining, fencing, and building, especially on the Tannadice estate, which was purchased from Mrs Balfour Ogilvy in 1870 by William Neish, Esq. The mansion, Tannadice House, 7 furlongs ESE of the village, was built about 1805. Other mansions, noticed separately, are Downie Park, Glenogil, and Inshewan; and there are 14 estates, but only 12 proprietors. On the N side of the Esk, near Shielhill Bridge, anciently stood Quiech Castle, a seat of the Earls of Buchan. The site, now without a vestige of the castle, and occupied by a plain cottage, is a precipitous rock, looking sheer down, through deep and yawning chasms, upon a rush and turbulence of water, and almost isolated and rendered nearly inaccessible by the river. In the vicinity of Achlouchrie is the site of another ancient castle, an eminence which still bears the name of Castle Hill, and overhangs a deep gorge of the river, having round its base a semicircular fosse 12 feet deep and 30 wide. Three conical `laws,' or ancient sepulchral tumuli, were levelled in the early part of the present century. Tannadice is in the presbytery of Forfar and the synod of Angus and Mearns; the living is worth £214. The parish church, at the village, is a Gothic edifice of 1846, containing 656 sittings. A Free church, Memus, stands 3 3/8 miles W by N of the village and 5¼ NE of Kirriemuir. Three public schools-Burnside of Inshewan, Denside, and Tannadice-with respective accommodation for 67, 75, and 133 children, had (1884) an average attendance of 53, 31, and 86, and grants of £53, 6s. 7d., £26, 7s. 7d., and £90, 4s. 10d. Valuation (1857) £11, 626, (1885) £14, 883, 7s. Pop. (1801) 1373, (1841) 1654, (1861) 1438, (1871) 1286, (1881) 1254.—Ord. Sur., shs. 57, 56, 1868-70.
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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
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