Parish of Old Machar

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: Aberdeen 1834-45: Old Machar

Machar, Old, a parish of SE Aberdeenshire, containing great part of Aberdeen city, with all Old Aberdeen, Woodside, and other suburbs. Down to the 17th century it comprehended the present parishes of New Machar and Newhills; and now it is bounded NW by New Machar, N by Belhevie, E by the German Ocean, S by St Nicholas and Nigg, SW by Banchory-Devenick, and W by Newhills and Dyce. Its utmost length, from N by W to S by E, is 7 ¼ miles; its utmost breadth is 4 ¹/₈ miles; and its area is 12,595½ acres, of which 285 are foreshore and 167½ water, whilst 5283 ¹/₈ fall within the parliamentary burgh of Aberdeen. The Don, after flowing 3 ¹/₈miles south-south-eastward along the Dyce and Newhills boundary, winds 3¾ miles eastward across the interior to the sea; and the Dee, in a run of 1 ⁵/11 mile, traces the southern boundary. The district between the two rivers, comprising two-fifths of the entire area, is described in our article on Aberdeen; and, as to the district N of the Don, it need only be said that the surface rises gradually from the shore to a summit altitude of 313 feet at Perwinnes Hill, ½ mile N of which, at the New Machar boundary, is Corby Loch (2¾ x 2 furl.; 251 feet). The predominant rock is granite; -and the soil ranges from fertile loam to barren peat-earth. In the presbytery and synod of Aberdeen, this parish is divided ecclesiastically into Old Machar, Ferry Hill, Gilcomston, Holburn, Rosemount, Rubislaw, and Woodside, with part of John Knox. Old Machar itself is a collegiate charge, the stipend of the first minister being £386, of the second £340. Eight schools, all public but one, with total accommodation for 2220 children, had (1883) an average attendance of 2224, and grants amounting to £2002, 19s. 2d. Landward valuation (1873) £12,099, 0s. 6d., (1884) £14,352, 2s. Pop. of entire parish (1801) 9911, (1831) 25,107, (1861) 33,236, (1871) 42, 477, (1881) 56,002, of whom 8388 were in the ecclesiastical parish of Old Machar, and 1451 in the landward portion of the parish.—Ord. Sur., sh. 77, 1873.

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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