Caputh, a village in Perthshire, and a parish partly also in Forfarshire. The village stands ¼ mile N of the left bank of the Tay, 1½ mile NW of Murthly station, 1½ mile WSW of Spittalfield, and 5 miles ES E of Dunkeid. The parish contains also the villages of Spittalfield, Meikleour, and Butterstone. It anciently included the parish of Dowally, and it now consists of a main body and several detached districts. The main body comprehends the greater part of the plain of Stormont, together with picturesque tracts of upland on that plain's northern and western skirts. The detached districts are Barholmie, isolated within Cargill parish; West and Middle Gormack, in Kinloch; East and West Logie, Cairns, Chapelton, Meadows, and Crofty, in Clunie; Craigtown of Dalrulzeon, in Kirkmichael; all in Perthshire,-and South Bandirran in Collace, Balbeuchly in Auchterhouse, and Focharty in Kinnettles, all in Forfarshire. Very irregular in outline, the main body is bounded NW by Dunkeld and Dowally, NE by Clunie, E by Lethendy and Blairgowrie, SE by Cargill, S by Kinclaven and Little Dunkeld, SW and W by Little Dunkeld. Its length from E to W varies between 6½ furlongs and 8¾ miles, its width from N to S between 1½ mile and 7¼ miles; and its area is 20,359 acres, of which 1647¾ are in the detached Perthshire districts, 567 in Forfarshire, and 870 water. The main body is separated from Little Dunkeld and Kinclaven for 11¼ miles, from the neighbourhood of Dunkeld to the mouth of the Isla, by the Tay; is drained and beautified, along much of the N, by the Lunan Burn and a chain of lakes; and is bounded on the SE for 2¾ miles, from the mouth of the Lunan to the Tay, by the Isla. The landscape abounds in beauties of contour, wood, and water. The surface throughout the Stormont plain is almost all level, a rich and cultivated champaign, which sinks to less than 100 feet above sea-level; northward and westward it is diversified with hill and dale, and charming little valleys, flanked or overhung by heights which exhibit much of the grandeur of Highland scenery, but little of its wildness. From the village north-westward it attains 574 feet near Thornton, 669 near East Cult, 996 in Newtyle Hill, 1250 in Conlan Hill, and 1594 in Benachally on the Clunie border. Clay slate and limestone form a large portion of the rocks, and are extensively quarried. The soil, in much of the low ground, is alluvial; in many other parts along the Tay and the Isla, is a rich loam; in others of the lower grounds, is light and dry; and in the higher lands, is cold and wet, yet of considerable fertility. The principal residences are Delvine House, Meikleour House, Snaigow House, Kincairnie House, Glendelvine House, Stenton House, and Hillhead. Chief antiquities are cairns, standing stones, Roman camps, and Pictish forts. The largest of the cairns, no less than 456 feet in circumference and 14 feet in height, bore the name of Cairnmore, and has been removed; and the most notable of the Roman camps are at Inchtuthill and on the peninsula formed by the junction of the Isla with the Tay, where are the remains of a strong and massive vallum, called Cleaven Dyke, extending from the one river to the other, with a small Roman fort at one end, and where Skene places Agricola's victory of the Grampians (86 a.d.). Caputh is in the presbytery of Dunkeld and synod of Perth and Stirling; the living is worth £459. The church was built in 1798, and repaired in 1839, and contains 800 sittings. Spittalfield public school, Butterstone Subscription school, and Meikleour and Wester Caputh girls' schools, with respective accommodation for 150,100,57, and 59 children, had (1880) an average attendance of 81,27,33, and 29, and grants of £81,5s. 6d., £38,19s., £41,3s., and £35. Valuation (1881) £19,772,5s. 10d. Pop. of civil parish (1801) 2097, (1831) 2303, (1861) 2406, (1871) 2142; of q. s. parish (1871) 2074; of registration district (1871) 1571, (1881) 1509.—Ord. Sur., shs. 48, 56,1868-70.
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