Longforgan, a village and a parish on the eastern border of Perthshire. The village, standing on a ridge 135 feet high, is 1 mile NNW of Longforgan station on the Dundee and Perth section of the Caledonian, this being 5¼ miles W by S of Dundee and 16½ ENE of Perth. It commands a splendid view over the Carse of Gowrie and the Firth of Tay; consists of a straggling main street; served long as an appanage of Castle-Huntly; and in 1672 was created a burgh of barony, with many privileges; but has fallen away from its former prosperity. It has a post office under Dundee, with money order and savings' bank departments. Pop. (1831) 451, (1861) 442, (1871) 363, (1881) 366. The parish, containing also the villages of Kingoodie and Mylnefield Feus, is bounded NW by Kettins in Forfarshire, NE by Fowlis-Easter and by Liff and Benvie in Forfarshire, SE by the Firth of Tay, and W by Inchture and Abernyte. Its utmost length, from NW to SE, is 75/8 miles; its breadth varies between 7¼ furlongs and 4¼ miles; and its area is 11, 2471/3 acres, of which 2687 are foreshore and 32 water. The streams are all small, and the largest, rising in the north-western extremity, runs 2½ miles to the SW boundary, flows 3¾ miles along that boundary, and thence goes 2 miles eastward to the Firth at Burnside Park. The foreshore, 31/3 miles long and 11/3 mile broad, bears the name of Dogbank. A triangular tract of seaboard, about 1¾ mile broad at the western boundary, and converging to a point in the vicinity of Kingoodie village, 1 mile from the eastern boundary, is carse land, almost as flat as a bowling-green. A bold and rocky promontory projects at Kingoodie; and a gently sloping bank or low ridge goes thence north-westward, bears on its summit Longforgan village, and ends somewhat abruptly at the Snabs of Drimmie (177 feet). A dingle lies immediately behind, and extends quite across the parish; a gentle ascent flanks the NW side of the dingle; and in the north-western corner of the parish, Ballo Hill, a summit of the Sidlaws, attains a maximum altitude of 1029 feet above sea-level. Sandstone of excellent quality is quarried at Kingoodie, and on a farm in the uplands; coal was long believed to exist, but eluded extensive and frequent search; and shell marl was dug and sold to a vast amount after the epoch of agricultural improvement. The soil on the carse land is rich argillaceous alluvium; on the bank or ridge flanking the carse land, is mostly a deep black loam; and elsewhere is mainly of a light dry character, well suited to the turnip husbandry; but on two or three farms is wet and spongy, on a cold retentive bottom. Rather more than one-sixth of the entire land area is under wood; about 180 acres are meadow or hill pasture; and all the rest of the land is regularly or occasionally in tillage. Chief antiquities are a large tumulus on what was anciently Forgan Moor, traces of a fortification on Dron Hill, a ruined chapel and a cemetery in a dell among the high grounds of Dron, vestiges of a cemetery on the grounds of Monorgan, and many ancient coins, chiefly Scottish and English, found in various parts. Castle-Huntly, the most prominent edifice, has been separately noticed, as also are the mansions of Mylnefield and Lochton. A fourth mansion was Drimmie House, now represented by Rossie Priory, within the eastern border of Inchture. Six proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 3 of between £100 and £500, 2 of from £50 to £100, and 5 of from £20 to £50. Longforgan is in the presbytery of Dundee and the synod of Angus and Mearns; the living is worth £375. The parish church, at Longforgan village, was built in 1795, and contains nearly 1000 sittings. The clock on its steeple was reconstructed in 1878 by an ingenious self-taught carpenter. There is also a Free church; and two public schools, Longforgan and Mylnefield, with respective accommodation for 180 and 230 children, had (1882) an average attendance of 111 and 156, and grants of £114, 14s. 6d. and £143, 13s. Valuation (1866) £13,998. 1s., (1884) £15,282, 2s. 10d. Pop. (1801) 1569, (1831) 1638, (1861) 1823, (1871) 1753, (1881) 1854.—Ord. Sur., sh. 48, 1868.
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