Alvah, a parish on the NE border of Banffshire. It has no village, but lies from 2 to 7½ miles S of its post-town Banff, and is readily accessible from the railway stations of Plaidy and King Edward. It is bounded N by a detached portion of Aberdeenshire, NE by Gamrie, E by Aberdeenshire, S by Forglen, SW by Marnoch, and NW by Banff. Its greatest length, from N to S, is 5¼ miles, its greatest breadth is 5, and its land area is 11,488 acres. This parish and Forglen originally formed one parish, but were separated prior to the middle of the 17th century. The eastern boundary of Alvah is partly defined by the Deveron, partly by artificial lines eastward of that river, which has a course, within or along the border of the parish, of 7¼ miles. The surface is very diversified, elevations from S to N being Brownside Hill (600 feet), Herod Hill (700), Newton Crofts (443), Cowie Hill (605), the Hill of Ord (573), Muiry Hill (472), Green Law (444), and the isolated Hill of Alvah (578), which serves as a landmark to mariners. The scenery along the Deveron, at some points soft and charming, at others is bold a1d picturesque. The chasm of the Craigs of Alvah, about ½ mile from the church, contracts the river's waterway between two rugged precipices to a width of but 27 feet, occasions a pool there 56 feet deep, and, checking the current in freshets, so throws it back as often to cause great floods above. It is spanned, at a height of 55½ feet, by a Roman-looking bridge, with majestic arch, erected in 1772 by the Earl of Fife. The scene around this bridge is deeply impressive: northward it opens into a rocky amphitheatre, rising to a height of nearly 100 feet, and richly clothed with herbage, shrubs, and trees. About 7000 acres of the area are under cultivation, 750 under wood, and 3500 waste or pasture land. The rocks are chiefly greywacke and clay slate: the soils and subsoils mostly diluvial. A noted fountain, called St Colme's Well, was not long ago converted into a source of constant and copious supply of pure water to the town of Banff. Other springs of pure water are numerous: and there are several chalybeate wells. An ancient castle, said to have been built by an Earl of Buchan, stood in a swamp, now a fertile field, near Mountblairy, and a chapel crowned an adjoining eminence: but both have disappeared. A large tumulus and two small cairns may still be seen: but two ancient Caledonian stone circles have been almost entirely destroyed. George Chapman, LL.D. (1723-1803), a writer on education, was a native. Mountblairy House and Dunlugas House are the chief mansions: four landowners hold each an annual value of £500. Part of the parish, with 206 inhabitants in 1871, is annexed quoad sacra to Ord: the rest is in the presbytery of Turriff and synod of Aberdeen, its minister's income amounting to £372. The church stands near the northern border, was built in 1792, and contains 600 sittings. Under the school-board are Alvah school and girls' schools at Dunlugas and Linhead, which, with respective accommodation for 100, 48, and 80 children, had (1879) an average attendance of 35, 38, and 72, and grants of £24, 17s., £36, 15s., and £64, 7s. Valuation (1882) £9910, 6s. 10d. Pop. (1831) 1278, (1861) 1467, (1871) 1436, (1881) 1356.—Ord. Sur., shs. 86,96, 1876.
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
