Kirkton of Tealing

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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Kirkton, any Scottish hamlet, village, or small town, which is or was the site of a parish church. The name, in some cases, is used alone, in other cases is coupled with the name of the parish; and occasionally, when the church, hamlet, village, or town bears properly the same name as the parish, the name Kirkton is locally employed to distinguish it from other hamlets or villages within the parish. The places to which it is applied are very numerous, and most of them very small. The principal ones are in the parishes of Abbey St Bathans, Airlie, Arbirlot, Auchterless, Avoch, Balmerino, Banchory, Blantyre, Burntisland, Carluke, Cumbrae, Dunnichen, Ewes, Fetteresso, Fordoun, Fenwick, Gargunnock, Glenelg, Glenisla, Guthrie, Hobkirk, East Kilbride, Kilmaurs, Kinnettles, Kirkmahoe, Largo, Laurencekirk, Liff, Lintrathen, Neilston, New Deer, Newtyle, Row, St Cyrus, St Ninians, Slamannan, Stoneykirk, Tealing, Tulloch, and Weem.

Tealing, a Forfarshire parish, whose church stands 6½ miles N of Dundee, under which there is a post office. It is bounded N by Inverarity, E by Inverarity, Murroes, and a detached section of Dundee, S by Murroes and Mains and Strathmartine, W by Caputh (detached) and Auchterhouse, and NW by Glamis. Its utmost length, from N to S, is 43/8 miles; its utmost breadth, from E to W, is 4 miles; and its area is 72313/5 acres, of which 4 are water, and 195 belong to a small detached portion, 3 furlongs W of the main body. Tithie Burn traces much of the southern boundary; and several rivulets, rising on the north-western border, run mainly south-eastward through the interior. Sinking in the SE to 350 feet above sea-level, the surface thence rises north-westward and northward towards the watershed of the Sidlaw Hills, attaining 510 feet near the parish church, 900 at Balluderon or Craigowl Hill, and 1104 at a nameless height 2½ miles N of the church. Trap occurs, but the principal rocks are Devonian, mostly grey slaty sandstone. 'In the lower lying portion of the parish there is a good deal of strong rich land, that yields well when skilfully managed and when the seasons suit. It is a clayey loam with a subsoil of clay and gravel, in some parts rather retentive. In part of the hollows there is also very poor soil, thin, hard, andunproductive, with very stiff subsoil. There are several instances in this parish where the land on the one side of the road is worth 25s. or 30s. an acre, and not worth more than 15s. or 20s. on the other. On the higher lying parts there is also a good deal of variety of soil, but in general it is a moderately fertile loam, resting on a clayey or gravelly subsoil which in some parts is not so open as could be wished' (Trans. Highl. and Ag. Soc., 1881). About 500 acres are pastoral or waste, as much or rather more under wood, and the rest of the land is in tillage. A subterranean building, a subterranean cave or passage, several stone coffins, and some small Roman antiquities have been found at various periods. The Rev. John Glass (l695-1773), the founder of the Glassites or Scottish Sandemanians, was minister of Tealing from 1719 till his deposition in 1728. Two proprietors hold each an annual value of more, and four of less, than £500. Tealing is in the presbytery of Dundee and the synod of Angus and Mearns; the living is worth £250. The parish church was built in 1806, and contains 700 sittings. There is also a Free church; and a public school, with accommodation for 138 children, had (1884) an average attendance of 88, and a grant of £81, 5s. Valuation (1857) £5825, (1885) £7605, 16s. Pop. (1801) 755, (1831) 766, (1861) 883, (1871) 879, (1881) 757.—Ord. Sur., shs. 48, 49, 57, 1865-68.

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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