Forgandenny, Perthshire

Historical Description

FORGANDENNY, a parish, partly in the county of Kinross, but chiefly in the county of Perth, 3½ miles (W.) from Bridge-of-Earn; containing 796 inhabitants, of whom 66 are in the village. This parish is about ten miles in length and two in average breadth, and comprises 12,800 acres, of which 2000 have never been cultivated. It is divided into the upper and lower districts: the former comprehends a part of the Ochils, covering full three-fourths of the surface of the parish; and the latter, stretching from the foot of these hills on the south to the river Earn on the north, consists of a well-cultivated tract, somewhat similar in character to the Carse of Gowrie. The scenery is good, from the beautiful variations of the surface; the land gradually rises from the river southward, and the acclivities of the Ochils by degrees attain the height of 1000 feet above the level of the sea. Considerable beauty is likewise conferred on the scenery by the course of the picturesque Earn, which is well stocked with salmon, sea-trout, and other varieties, with pike and eels. The May, also, a fine mountain stream rising among the Ochils in Auchterarder, enters the parish from the south, and after winding through it for several miles in a northern direction, and forming some pretty cascades, runs off to the west into the parish of Forteviot, among the beautiful and romantic "Birks of Invermay": it contains a large supply of fine trout.

The higher district is cold, its soil light, and though it bears good crops of other grain, wheat is never sown here; but on the lower grounds all kinds of white and green crops are produced of excellent quality, the soil being rich and strong. Much of the hilly waste, particularly on the estate of Condie, has been recently laid down in excellent sheep pastures: some of the highest grounds have been made to yield fine crops of turnips, and furrow-draining has been much practised in the lower parts of the parish, where, also, the farm-buildings are almost entirely constructed after an improved method. The annual value of real property in the parish is £5879, of which £340 are for the Kinross-shire portion. Trap rocks constitute nearly the whole of the substrata; but they are so soft and friable as to be almost useless, even for the construction of stone fences, or any other purpose except the repair of roads. The old red sandstone lies under this rock, though at too great a depth to admit of quarrying. In the upper district are to be seen beautiful specimens of conglomerate, and numerous blue and purple pebbles appear in the decomposed trap. A thin vein of limestone exists on the estate of Dumbuils, but on account of its sandy character, and the distance of coal, it is not wrought. Copper is said to have been formerly obtained in the wood of Condie, although no traces of it are now visible. The natural wood covers about forty acres, and 400 acres are in plantations, comprising the trees usually grown in the country. Freeland, the property of Lord Ruthven, is a modern residence, having been remodelled about the year 1834; and that of Condie, an ancient structure, has received some recent additions: the other mansions are Rossie and Torrance, the former erected about eighty or ninety years since, and the latter about half a century since. The population are entirely agricultural. Besides the village of Forgandenny, there is a small hamlet in the Ochils, called Path-Struie, or the Path of Condie. The road from Stirling to Bridge-of-Earn passes through the village, and the Scottish Central railway along the banks of the river Earn, affording great facility for the conveyance of the produce, which is disposed of at Perth, Newburgh in Fifeshire, &c.

Ecclesiastically the parish is in the presbytery of Perth, synod of Perth and Stirling, and in the patronage of the Crown: the minister's stipend is £200, with a manse, and a glebe of six acres, valued at £1.5 per annum. Forgandenny church, a plain edifice of considerable antiquity, was formerly one of the eleven prebendal churches of Dunkeld cathedral; it has lately undergone repair, and accommodates 410 persons. There are places of worship for members of the Free Church and the United Presbyterian Synod. The parochial school, situated in the village of Forgandenny, affords instruction in the usual branches; the master has a salary of £34, with a house and garden, and £10 fees. There is also a school at the Path of Condie, instituted by an act of the presbytery of Perth, dated 1660, and confirmed by the privy council in 1663, empowering the heritors to appropriate the vacant stipend of 1659 to its endowment; the money was placed at interest for the payment of the teacher, and was augmented by the Rev. Mr. Willison, a late incumbent, who made a bequest of a small field, producing £7. 10. annually. A library of religious books, and one of miscellaneous works, are attached to the parochial school. On the north side of the Ochils is a hill called Castle-Law, on which formerly stood an important fortification, supposed by some to have been of the vitrified class, but considered by most as Danish. Its boundary line, once formed by a circular stone wall, circumscribes an area 170 yards in diameter. The hill commands most extensive prospects, embracing the mouth of the Tay, and the German Ocean, on the east; Strathearn, to the Grampian mountains, on the west; a large part of the counties of Perth and Angus, on the north and north-east; and the Lomond hills, on the south.