Towie, a parish of Aberdeenshire, whose church stands on the right bank of the Don, 10 miles SSW of Rhynie, and 12½ WSW of Alford (only 87/8 as the crow flies). On the opposite side of the river are Inverkindie post office (under Aberdeen) and the Glenkindie Arms Inn (1821), where fairs are held on 27 May and 23 November. The parish is bounded N and NE by Kildrummy, E by Leochel-Cushnie, S by Logie - Coldstone and TarlandMigvie (detached), and W by Logie-Coldstone and detached portions of Tarland-Migvie and Strathdon. Its utmost length, from E to W, is 51/8miles; its breadth, from N to S, varies between 31/8 and 53/8 miles; and its area is 12,2141/3acres, of which 740 belong to a detached strip (33/8 miles x ½ mile), extending north-north-westward from Chapelhaugh, at the NW corner of the main part of the parish. The Don winds 67/8miles east - north eastward, mainly across the interior, but partly along the Kildrummy and Strathdon boundaries; and here is joined by four or five little burns. Along it the surface declines to 600 feet above the sea, and chief elevations on its left or northern side are Glaschuil or Grey Hill (1177 feet), Garlet Hill (1596), and *Peat Hill (1857); on its right or southern side, *Scar Hill (1723), *Broom Hill (1883), and Gallows Hill (1425), where asterisks mark those summits that culminate on the confines of the parish. The hills are undulating, smooth, and heathy; and the arable lands are partly haugh, partly the steep declivities of the hills. The soil near the river is very fertile, and produces comparatively early crops. The parish is fairly well wooded, especially to the N of the Don, but in the S there is hardly a tree. Granite and sandstone are scarce or difficult of access; a coarse hard limestone is found in one or two places; and serpentine occurs on one farm. The ancient name of the parish was Kilbartha (` the church or cell of Bartha '); and its later name, written in full, was Towie-Kinbattoch (` the north-lying land at the head of the fair hill '). There are sites or remains of five pre-Reformation chapels; artificial mounds, seemingly parts of ancient fortifications, at Kinbattoch and Fichlie; large tumuli at Grayhill, one of which, being opened a few years ago, was found to contain charred bones and an arrow head; and a sculptured stone in the church- yard. But the most conspicuous antiquity is the ruin of the Castle of Towie, anciently the fortified seat of a branch of the sept of Forbes. A square tower is almost all of it that now remains. The castle is famous as the scene of a terrible tragedy, enacted in the November of 1571. Alexander Forbes was- absent at the time; but his lady, Margaret Campbell, being -summoned to surrender by a party of soldiers despatched by Sir Adam Gordon of Anchindoun, fired upon their leader, one Captain Kerr, and wounded him in the knee. In revenge, the castle was straightway fired, when she and her family and domestics, amounting to twenty-seven persons, perished in the flames.* Three proprietors hold each an annual value of more, and two of less, than £500. Towie is in the presbytery of Alford and the synod of Aberdeen; the living is worth £198. The parish church, built in 1803, is a plain structure. There is also a Free church; and a public school, with accommodation for 110 children, had (1884) an average attendance of 84, and a grant of £80, 19s. 7d. Valuation (1860) £3686, (1885) £5259, 8s. 4d. Pop. (1801) 528, (1831) 728, (1861) 839, (1871) 798, (1881) 759.—Ord. Sur., shs. 76, 75, 1874-76.
* The erroneous date (1751), given for this event in the New Statistical Account, has been blindly accepted by many subsequent writers. It is also curious that a wholly identical tragedy is narrated of Corgarff Castle. in Strathdon parish, Aberdeenshire (under the different dates of 1551. 1571, and 1581); of the ' House o' Rodes,' near Gordon village, in Berwickshire; and of Loudoun Castle, in Ayrshire. The fine ballad, Edom o' Gordon, has often been published as a 'Border ballad.' its Ayrshire version is given in the New Statistical, vol. v., pp. 846, 847.
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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
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