Saline

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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Saline, a village and a parish of SW Fife. The village, standing 405 feet above sea-level, at the SW base of Saline Hill, is 25/8 miles N by W of Oakley station, and 5 ½ NW of Dunfermline, under which it has a post office, with money order and savings' bank departments. It is a pleasant little place, clean and picturesque in appearance, the houses neatly built and whitewashed, and all with small gardens attached. Pop. (1871) 396, (1881) 369.

The parish is bounded N by Fossoway in Perthshire and Torryburn (detached), E by Dunfermline, SE by Carnock, SW by Culross in Perthshire (detached), and W by Clackmannan. Its utmost length, from E to W, is 5¾ miles; its utmost breadth, from N to S, is 3¼ miles; and the area is 8188¾ acres, of which 1154 belong to a detached portion lying 2½ furlongs S of the nearest point of the main body, surrounded by Carnock, Torryburn, and Culross, and containing Oakley station. The drainage is mainly carried west-south-westward towards the Forth by the Black Devon; and in the extreme W the surface declines to 200 feet above sea-level, thence rising eastward to 340 feet near Stand Alane, 700 near Bandrum, 627 near Miry Hall, and 1178 at Saline Hill. Coal, limestone, and ironstone have been largely worked; and the soil of the low tracts is mostly a mixture of clay and loam incumbent on till, generally some what shallow, but in places extremely fertile. The uplands are chiefly pastoral, and partly marshy, yet include some good arable tracts. Peat moss abounds in the marshy parts, and affords excellent peat fuel. The antiquities are some cairns, two Roman camps, and two old towers; and mansions, noticed separately, are Balgonar, Bandrum, Kinedder, and Inzievar, the last in the detached portion. Including ecclesiastically the detached portion of Torryburn, Saline is in the presbytery of Dunfermline and the synod of Fife; the living is worth £207. The parish church occupies a conspicuous site, and is a handsome Gothic edifice. There is also a Free church; and the public school, with accommodation for 150 children, had (1884) an average attendance of 110, and a grant of £91, 16s. Valuation (1856) £11,156, 15s., (1885) £7936, 16s. 3d. Pop. of ecclesiastical parish (1881) 1038; of civil parish (1801) 945, (1831) 1139, (1861) 1610, (1871) 1259, (1881) 954-a decrease due to the stoppage of the Forth Ironworks.—Ord. Sur., shs. 40, 39, 1869-67.

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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