Parish of Kintore

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.

This edition is copyright © The Editors of the Gazetteer for Scotland, 2002-2022.

It has taken much time and money to make the six-volumes of Groome's text freely accessible. Please help us continue and develop by making a donation. If only one out of every ten people who view this page gave £5 or $10, the project would be self-sustaining. Sadly less than one in thirty-thousand contribute, so please give what you can.

Use the tabs on the right of this page to see other parts of this entry Arrow

Links to the Historical Statistical Accounts of Scotland are also available:
(Click on the link to the right, scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Browse scanned pages")

1791-99: Kintore
1834-45: Kintore

Kintore, a small town and a parish of central Aberdeenshire. The town, standing 165feet above sea-level, near the right bank of the Don, has a station on the Great North of Scotland railway, 16 miles E of Alford, 3 SSE of Inverurie, and 13¼ NW of Aberdeen. It ranks as a royal burgh under charter of William the Lyon, but in size is no more that a mere village, consisting chiefly of one well-built street, with several very good shops. At it are a post office, with money order, savings' bank, and railway telegraph departments, a branch of the North of Scotland bank, a National Security savings' bank (1837), 4 insurance agencies, 2 hotels, a plain town hall (l740), a parish church (1819; 700 sittings), a Free church, and a horticultural society. The town has given the title of Earl in the peerage of Scotland since 1677, and of Baron in the peerage of the United Kingdom since 1838, to the family of Keith-Falconer, whose seats are Keithhall in Aberdeenshire and Inglismaldie in Kincardineshire. The burgh is governed by a provost, 2 bailies, a dean of guild, a treasurer, and 9 councillors; and it unites with Elgin, Inverurie, Peterhead, Banff, and Cullen in sending a member to parliament. The parliamentary constituency numbered 89 in 1883, when the annual value of real property amounted to £2612. Pop. (1821) 312, (1841) 462, (1861) 568, (1871) 659, (1881) 661. Houses (1881) 113 inhabited, 3 vacant.

The parish, containing also the Port Elphinstone suburb of Inverurie burgh, comprises the ancient parish of Kintore and part of that of Kinkell. It is bounded N by Inverurie, E by Keithhall and Fintray, SE by Kinnellar, S by Skene, and W by Kemnay. Its utmost length, from N to S, is 55/8 miles; its breadth, from E to W, varies between 13/8 and 41/8 miles; and its area is 9187 acres, of which 93¼ are water. The Don winds 6¾ miles along all the northern and the eastern border, and is fed from the interior by three or four small burns. The land adjacent to the river is low and flat, sinking in the SE to 148 feet above sea-level, and protected from inundation by embankments. The surface rises thence westward and south-westward, with frequent inequalities; and the highest ground is Criche or Thainston Hill (500 feet), beautifully covered with wood. Granite is the predominant rock, and has been quarried. The soil along the Don is a deep, rich, alluvial loam; on many higher grounds, is a thin, light, shallow, sandy mould; and over some considerable tracts, is either moss in natural condition or moss subjected to cultivation. Fully three-eighths of the entire area are in tillage, woods cover rather more than one-fifth, and the rest is either pastoral or waste. Hall forest Castle has been noticed separately. Other antiquities are remains of two stone circles; five sculptured stones, figured in Dr John Stuart's Sculptured Stones of Scotland (Spalding Club, 1867); and the 'Deer Dykes,' an enclosure to the NW of the town, supposed by some to have been a Roman camp. Sir Andrew Mitchell, ambassador to the court of Prussia in the time of Frederick the Great, resided at Thainston House; and Arthur Johnston, the celebrated writer of Latin poetry, attended the parish school. Thainston is the only mansion; and its owner divides with the Earl of Kintore the greater part of the parish, 2 lesser proprietors holding each an annual value of between £100 and £500, 4 of from £50 to £100, and 26 of from £20 to £50. Kintore is in the presbytery of Garioch and synod of Aberdeen; the living is worth £294. Kintore public, Port Elphinstone public, and Leylodge Church of Scotland schools, with respective accommodation for 250, 153, and 86 children, had (1881) an average attendance of 198, 117, and 50, and grants of £185, 14s., £107, 15s. 2d., and £51, 14s. Valuation (1860) £5409, (1882) £7524, 8s. 4d., plus £1295 for railway. Pop. (1801) 846, (1831) 1184, (1861) 1895, (1871) 2158, (1881) 2327.—Ord. Sur., sh. 76, 1874. See Alexander Watt's Early History of Kintore (1864).

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

If you have found this information useful please consider making
a donation to help maintain and improve this resource. More info...

By using our site you agree to accept cookies, which help us serve you better