Invergowrie

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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Invergowrie, a village at the mutual border of Longforgan parish, Perthshire, and Liff and Benvie parish, Forfarshire, on the Firth of Tay, with a station upon the Dundee and Perth section of the Caledonian, 3¼ miles W of Dundee. Figuring in ancient record as a place of royal embarkation, and surrounded by Crown lands, which Alexander I. designed to be graced with a royal palace, but which he found occasion to convey to the monks of Scone, it has a ruined, ivy-clad church, said to have succeeded a church of the beginning of the 8th century, founded by St Bonifacins, and the earliest N of the Tay. (See Fortrose.) It adjoins the extensive paper-works of Bullionfield and the village of Mylnefield Feus, which in 1881 contained 348 inhabitants. The ancient churchyard crowns an eminence, a mound of singular shape, washed on one side by the Tay; and on the shore, near the ruined church, are two large Blocks of stone, the 'Yowes or Ewes of Gowrie,' of which Thomas the Rhymer predicted that-

'when the Yowes o' Gowrie come to land,
The day o' judgements near at hand.'

A huge boulder, fabled to have been flung from the Fife coast by the Devil with the intention to destroy the church, lies a little way N of the village; and a Caledonian stone circle, comprising nine large stones and four smaller ones, stands a short distance N of the boulder. Invergowrie House, in Liff and Benvie parish, 2¼ miles W by N of Dundee and 1¾ ENE of Invergowrie station, is situated on a bank sloping down to the Firth; was greatly enlarged about 1836 after designs by W. Burn; and commands a beautiful view of a long reach of the Firth and the Carse of Gowrie. Its owner, George David Clayhills-Henderson, Esq. (b. 1832), holds 2138 acres in Forfar and Perth shires, valued at £4027 per annum. The ancient parish of Invergowrie was of small extent, and since the middle of the 17th century or earlier has been incorporated with Liff and Benvie.—Ord. Sur., sh. 48, 1868.

Bullionfield, an extensive paper-work establishment in Liff and Benvie parish, Forfarshire, adjacent to Invergowrie village, 3½ miles W of Dundee. It was originally a work for bleaching and dyeing yarn and cloth, and it is now a work for manufacturing immense quantities of printing and other papers.

Dargie, a village in Liff and Benvie parish, Forfarshire, near Mylnefield, and 4 miles W of Dundee.

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