Parish of Fearn

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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1791-99: Fearn 1834-45: Fearn

Fearn, a village and a coast parish of NE Ross and Cromarty. The village, Hill of Fearn, stands 50 feet above sea-level, 1¼ mile E by S of Fearn station, on the Highland railway, this being 3½ miles SE of Tain, and 22 NE of Dingwall; at it is a post office, with money order, savings' bank, and railway telegraph departments. The parish, containing also the fishing villages of Balintore and Hilton of Cadboll, 2½ miles SE and 2¾ ESE of Hill of Fearn, is bounded NW by Tain, NE by Tarbat, SE by the Moray Firth, S by Nigg, and SW and W by Logie-Easter. Its utmost length, from E to W, is 5 miles; its utmost breadth, from N to S, is 4⁵/8. miles; and its area is 7711⁷/8. acres, of which 123½ are foreshore and 289¼ water. The coast-line, 3¼ miles long, rises steeply near Geanies in precipitous cliffs to a height of 200 feet above the sea, but southward is low and sandy; inland the surface is much of it nearly flat, and nowhere exceeds 150 feet. Loch Eye (1¾ mile x 4½ furl.; 51 feet), on the Tain border, is almost the only lake that has not been drained; and there are no streams of any consequence. The predominant rock is Old Red sandstone; but the small vein of limestone that runs from the North Sutor to Tarbat Ness, crops out at Geanies. The soil is largely a very rich fertile loam, and agriculture is carried to high perfection, steam-ploughing having been introduced in 1875, whilst from a little knoll near Cadboll no fewer than eighteen steam-stalks may be counted. Cattle-feeding, too, is carried on, especially on the farms of the Cadboll property, belonging to Macleod of Invergordon. Geanies estate underwent great improvement from 1840 under the care of that eminent agriculturist, Kenneth Murray, Esq. (1826-76), who succeeded his brother in 1867, and who extended the arable area from 2016 to 4000 acres, the new land being partly reclaimed from bog and moss, partly from moor, and partly from lochs. Geanies House, 4 miles ENE of Hill of Fearn, commands a glorious view over the Moray Firth, and is now the seat of his son, William Hugh Eric Murray, Esq. (b. 1858), who holds 5303 acres in the shire, valued at £4401 per annum (only £2160 in 1843). Other mansions are Allan House and Rhynie House, standing 1¼ mile SW and 1½ NE of Hill of Fearn. The Præmonstratensian Abbey of Fearn was founded in 1221 by Ferchard Macintaggart, Earl of Ross, in Edderton parish, but in 1338 was transferred to Fearn to escape the ferocity of neighbouring clans. Of its twenty-one abbots the fifteenth was the protomartyr of the Scottish Reformation, Patrick Hamilton (1503-28), who was burned at St Andrews. He was but a youth when he obtained the abbacy in 1524, and it is doubtful whether he ever took orders; anyhow his connection with Fearn was little more than titular. The abbey church comprised a nave, a choir (99 x 25½ feet), a Lady chapel, and-two transeptal chapels. First Pointed mainly in style, with later insertions and additions, the whole having been completed by Abbot James Cairncross in 1545. It served as the parish church from the Dissolution till 1742, when on a Sunday of October the ponderous stone roof fell in, as graphically told in Hugh Miller's Scenes and Legends, under the title of ` The Washing of the Mermaid.' Forty-four persons were killed, and more must have lost their lives, but that the stalwart preacher, Robertson of Gairloch, set his shoulder against the door, and so propped up the side wall. The pile lay in ruins till 1772, when it was patched up to serve anew as parish church; and though lamentably mutilated, with its E end cut off for the Balnagowan mausoleum, it still retains many features of interest-three sedilia, two piscinas, a credence, three monumental effigies, and some good lancet and traceried windows. Another antiquity, noticed separately, is Lochslin Castle. Five proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 3 of between £100 and £500, and 3 of less than £100. Fearn is in the presbytery of Tain and synod of Ross; the living is worth £332. The parish or abbey church stands 5 furlongs SE of the village, and a Free church 1¼ mile E by N. Three public schools, all of recent erection, at Balmuchy, Hill of Fearn, and Hilton, with respective accommodation for 80, 120, and 178 children, had (1880) an average attendance of 51, 102, and 160, and grants of £41, 6s., £96, 11s., and £135, 17s. Valuation (1882) £10, 467, 2s. 6d. Pop. (1801) 1528, (1831) 1695, (1861) 2083, (1871) 2135, (1881) 2135.—Ord. Sur., sh. 94, 1878.

Fearn or Fern, a parish in the central part of Forfarshire, whose church is beautifully situated on an isolated hillock in the midst of a romantic den, 9 miles N by E of Forfar, and 7 W of Brechin, under which there is a post office of Fearn. It is bounded N by Lethnot, E by Menmuir and Careston, S and W by Tannadice. Its utmost length, from NNW to SSE, is 5⁵/₆. miles; its greatest breadth, from E to W, is 3¼ miles; and its area is 8811⁵/₆ acres, of which 20 are water. Clearflowing Noran Water winds 4⁷/₈. miles east - south eastward along all the southern border, on its way to the South Esk; and Cruick Water, an affluent of the North Esk, rising in the northern extremity of the parish, runs 5¾ miles south-south-eastward, then 1½ mile eastward, through the interior, and passes off into Menmuir. In the SE the surface sinks to less than 300 feet above sea-level, thence rising to 421 feet near Wellford, 605 near Noranside, 970 at Deuchar Hill, 1003 at Greens of Shandford, 1009 at *Mansworn Rig, 1682 at *Benderochie, 1377 at Craig of Trusta, and 1900 at the *Hill of Garbet, where asterisks mark those summits that culminate on the borders of the parish. The rocks include clay slate and Old Red sandstone, and the slate has been quarried; whilst the soil is fertile throughout the Strathmore district and in parts of the central valley. On a rocky and precipitous reach of Noran Water stand the haunted ruins of the castle of Vayne, or ancient manor-house of Fearn, originally a three-story pile of friable red sandstone, with a round south-western tower. Falsely ascribed to Cardinal Bethune, and greatly enlarged towards the close of the 17th century by Robert, third Earl of Southesk, this, or a predecessor, was the seat of the Montealtos or Mowats, who held the estate of Fearn from the reign of William the Lyon (1166-1214) till some time prior to 1450. In that year it was in the possession of the Earls of Crawford, from whom it passed about 1594 to the Carnegies of Southesk. By them it was sold in 1766 to Mr John Mill, whose son built Noranside. The small estate of Deuchars has its interest, as having been owned by Deuchars of that Ilk from the 10th century till 1818. The ' Kelpie's Footmark ' is still to be seen in a sandstone rock near the castle of Vayne, but little or nothing remains of a ` Druidical circle,' of a circular prehistoric dwelling, or of three tumuli on the hills, one of which yielded a number of ancient urns. Noranside is the chief mansion, and the property is divided among five. Fearn is in the presbytery of Brechin and synod of Angus and Mearns; the living is worth £220. The church, originally founded by Bishop Colman about 666, and dedicated to St Aidan, was rebuilt in 1806, and contains 238 sittings; whilst a public school, with accommodation for 60 chilren, had (1880) an average attendance of 43, and a grant of £52, 10s. Valuation (1857) £4155, (1882) £5194, 10s. 9d. Pop. (1801) 448, (1831) 450, (1861) 439, (1871) 348, (1881) 316.—Ord. Sur., sh. 57, 1868. See chap. v. of Andrew Jervise's Land of the -Lindsays (Edinb. 1853).

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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