Parish of Fintray

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: Fintray
1834-45: Fintray

Fintray, a village and a parish of SE Aberdeenshire. The village, Hatton of Fintray, stands within 3 furlongs of the Don's left bank, 3¼ miles E by N of Kintore, and 1¼ mile NNE of Kinaldie station on the Great North of Scotland, this being 10½ miles NW of Aberdeen, under which Fintray has a post office. Fairs are held here on the first Saturday of February, April, and December. The parish is bounded NE by the Banffshire section of New Machar and by Udny, E by the main body of New Machar, S by Dyce and Kinnellar, SW by Kintore, and W and NW by Keithhall. Rudely resembling a triangle in outline, with northward apex, it has an utmost length from N by W to S by E of 4 miles, an utmost width from E to W of 5 1/8 miles, and an area of 7389 acres, of which 69¾ are water. The Don, winding 7¼ miles east-by-southward, from just below Kintore to opposite the manse of Dyce, roughly traces all the south-western and southern boundary; and, where it quits the parish, the surface sinks to 116 feet above sea-level, thence rising, in gentle knolls and rounded eminences, to 300 feet at Woodhill, 245 at the parish church, 325 near Cairnie, and 415 at the Hill of Tillykerrie in the furthest N. Granite and gneiss are the prevailing rocks, traversed by veins of coarsish limestone; and the soil of the haughs along the Don is a rich alluvium, of the grounds above them is dry and early on a gravelly subsoil, and elsewhere ranges from peat earth and blue gravelly clay to yellow loam of a more productive nature. Eleven-fourteenths of the entire area are regularly or occasionally in tillage, about 660 acres are under wood, and the rest is either pastoral or waste. Cothal Mill here was a large woollen factory, now stopped, with steam and water power, and upwards of 100 hands. Patrick Copland, LL.D. (1749-1822), professor of natural philosophy at Aberdeen, was a native, his father being parish minister. Fintray House, near the bank of the Don, 7 furlongs E of the village, is a large modern mansion in the Tudor style; the estate was acquired in 1610 by the first of the Forbeses of Craigievar, having belonged to the Abbey of Lindores in Fife from 1224 down to the Reformation. Another residence is Disblair Cottage; and 3 proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 2 of between £100 and £500, and 2 of less than £100. Fintray is in the presbytery and synod of Aberdeen; the living is worth £391. The church, at the village, is a neat and substantial structure of 1821, containing 800 sittings; and 2 public schools, Disblair and Hatton, with respective accommodation for 100 and 140 children, had (1882) an average attendance of 57 and 116, and grants of £40, 18s. and £91, 6s. Valuation (1860) £5583, (1882) £7965, 14s. 8d. Pop. (1801) 886, (1831) 1046, (1861) 1003, (1871) 1108, (1881) 1032.—Ord. Sur., sh. 77, 1873.

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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