A vision of Britain through time
A vision of Britain from 1801 to now.
Including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions.
A vision of Britain through time
A vision of Britain from 1801 to now.
Including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions.
Dairsie, a parish in the NE of Fife, containing at its eastern border the village of Dairsiemuir or Osnaburgh, 5 furlongs NNW of Dairsie station, this being 3¼ miles SSW of Leuchars Junction, and 3 ENE of Cupar, under which it has a post office, with money order, savings' bank, and railway telegraph departments. Bounded NW by Kilmany and Logie, N and E by Leuchars, SE by Kemback, SW and W by Cupar, the parish has an utmost length from E to W of 25/8 miles, a varying breadth from N to S of 5 furlongs and 2½ miles, and an area of 2560¼ acres, of which 5¼ are water. The Eden winds 2½ miles north-eastward along all the Kemback border; and where, close to Dairsie station, it quits this parish, the surface declines to less than 100 feet above sea-level, thence rising westward and north-westward to 505 feet on Foodie Hill, and 554 on Craigfoodie, which, presenting to the SW a precipitous and quasi-columnar front, commands a very extensive view. Sandstone abounds in the S; and trap-rock is quarried in two places. The soil, in most parts fertile, in many is rich and deep; and little or nothing is waste. Dairsie Castle, a ruin on a rising-ground near the Eden, was the meeting-place of a parliament in 1335, and was occupied by John Spottiswood, Archbishop of St Andrews, when writing his History of the Church and State of Scotland. Craigfoodie is the chief mansion; and 4 proprietors hold each an annual value of £1000 and upwards, 2 of between £500 and £1000,1 of from £100 to £500, and 3 of from £20 to £50. Dairsie is in the presbytery of Cupar and synod of Fife; the living is worth £400. The parish church containing 313 sittings, was ` built and adorned after the decent English fashion ' by Archbisbop Spottiswood in 1621. A squat, four-bayed oblong, with octagonal bell-turret and dwarf-spire, it ` only shows,' says Hill Burton, ` that the hand of the builder had lost its cunning, and that neither the prelate nor his biographer had an eye for mediæval art; it is a piece of cold mimicry, like the work of the cabinetmaker rather than of the architect,' etc. (Hist. Scot., vii. 102, ed. 1876). There is also a Free church; and a public school, with accommodation for 135 children, had (1880) an average attendance of 112, and a grant of £90,9s. Valuation (1882) £6573,3s. 11d. Pop. (1801) 550, (1831) 605, (1861) 638, (1871) 687, (1881) 693.—Ord. Sur., shs. 48, 49,.1868-65. See vol. i. of Billings' Antiquities (1845).
(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)
| Linked entities: | |
|---|---|
| Feature Description: | "a parish" (ADL Feature Type: "countries, 4th order divisions") |
| Administrative units: | Dairsie ScoP Fife ScoCnty |
| Place: | Dairsie |
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