Inchture

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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Inchture, a village and a parish in the Carse of Gowrie, Perthshire. The village stands 1¾ mile N by W of Inchture station on the Dundee and Perth section of the Caledonian, this being 7 ¾ miles WSW of Dundee, and 14 E by N of Perth. Occupying the crown of a rising-ground, anciently an island, it was originally called Innis-tuir (Gael. 'island of the tower'); and it overlooks a luxuriant expanse of circumjacent carse lands, and presents a pleasant appearance. At it are a post office, with money order, savings' bank, and telegraph departments, an inn, and a large brewery.

The parish, since 1670 comprising the ancient parishes of Inchture and Rossie, is bounded NW by Abernyte, NE and E by Longforgan, SE by the Firth of Tay, SW by Errol, and W by Kinnaird. Its utmost length, from NNW to SSE, is 4 ¼ miles; its breadth varies between 7 ½ furlongs and 2 7/8 miles; and its area is 5328 1/3 acres, of which 1199 ½ are foreshore and 6 water. One brook, rising and running 1 ¼ mile in the interior, traces for 2 1/3 miles the boundary with Errol, till, being joined from that parish by a larger brook than itself, it forms at Powgavie a small but not unimportant harbour on the firth; whilst Huntly Burn, coming down from the NW, traces for 3 ¼ miles the north-eastern and eastern border, and then diverges into Longforgan. The shoreline, 9 furlongs long, is low; and for 3 miles inland the surface is all but a dead-level, nowhere exceeding 34 feet, and forming part of the rich alluvial flat of the Carse of Gowrie. Then it begins to rise, till it attains 559 feet at Hilltown of Ballindean and 567 at wooded Rossie Hill - heights that command delightful views of water and hill scenery. Trap-rock prevails in the hills; red sandstone and good limestone are found in the lower grounds; and all have been quarried. Veins of copper occur, but have never been worked. The soil, on the carse lands, is rich argillaceous alluvium; on the undulatory tracts, is a fertile loam; and, on much of Rossie, is gravelly or sandy. Nearly 500 acres are under wood; and several hundred acres are land reclaimed from the firth. The chief antiquities are the ruins of Moncur Castle and of Rossie church, and a cross on the site of the quondam village of Rossie. Mansions are Rossie Priory and Ballindean House, both separately noticed; and most of the property is divided among three. Inchture is in the presbytery of Dundee and synod of Angus and Mearns; the stipend and communion-elements are returned at £311, 16s. 9d. The church, at Inchture village, is a neat Gothic edifice of 1834, containing 550 sittings. A public school, with accommodation for 186 children, had (1881) an average attendance of 105, and a grant of £99, 3s. 6d. Valuation (1866) £7569, (1883) £8065, 5s. 7d. Pop. (1801) 949, (1831) 878, (1871) 659, (1881) 650.—Ord. Sur., sh. 48, 1868.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

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

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