Fyvie | As described in F.H. Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4)

Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for Fyvie

Fyvie, a parish of Aberdeenshire, containing Woodhead village, 2¹/3 furlongs from the left bank of the river Ythan, and 3 miles E by S of Fyvie station on the Banff branch of the Great North of Scotland railway, this station being 7 miles SSE of Turriff, and 31 ¼ NNW of Aberdeen. In 1673 Alexander, third Earl of Dunfermline, obtained a charter, erecting the lordship of Fyvie into a free burgh of barony, with a tolbooth and market cross, at which should be held three annual fairs. With this burgh of Fyvie, Woodhead has been dentified; and its dilapidated cross was rebuilt in 1846, ome years before which date the tolbooth-long a dwelling-house-had been pulled down. The fairs have been discontinued, but a cattle market is held on the third Thursday of every month at Fyvie station, and on the second Monday of every month at Rothie station, also in Fyvie parish, 3 ¼ miles to the SW. Fyvie besides has a post office, with money order, savings' bank, and railway telegraph departments, a branch of the Aberdeen Town and County Bank, 3 insurance agencies, and a horticultural association. The parish is bounded N and NE by Monquhitter, E by Methlick, SE by Tarves, S by Meldrum, SW by Daviot and Rayne, W by Auchterless, and NW by Turriff. Its utmost length, from NE to SW, is 10¾ miles; its breadth varies between 7 furlongs and 6½ miles; and its area is 29, 650 acres, of which 64¾ are water. From Towie Castle, at the NW corner of the parish, the Ythan, a small stream here, first traces 2 miles of the boundary with Auchterless, next winds 8 ¼ miles south-eastward and north-eastward through the interior, and lastly flows 2³/8. miles east-by-northward along the Methlick border. It receives in its course a good many little affluents, and divides the parish into two pretty equal parts. Where, below Gight Castle, it passes off into Methlick, the surface declines to 88 feet above sea-level, thence rising south-westward to 499 feet at the Hill of Blairfowl, 691 near Stoneyfield, 629 near Waulkmill, and 700 on the Rayne border; north-westward to 466 near Monkshill, 587 near Gourdas, and 585 at Deers Hill. The leading rocks are greywacke and slate in the SW, Old Red sandstone over a small portion of the NW, and elsewhere greenstone or basalt, often intersected by veins of quartz, calcareous spar, hematite, etc. The soil along the banks of the Ythan is a lightish loam of great fertility, especially in the part called the Howe of Fyvie; and in other parts is extremely various-gravelly, mossy, etc. Fully foursevenths of the entire area are in tillage, one-fifteenth is under wood, one-tenth is pasture, and the rest is either moss or heath. Founded by Fergus, Earl of Buchan, in 1179 for Benedictines of Tiron, and subordinate to Arbroath Abbey, St Mary's priory stood in a meadow between the Ythan and the parish church, a cross, on a base of hewn stones, surmounting a rough round cairn, having been erected in 1868 on the site of its church, which was built by Prior Mason in 1470. Gight Castle, on the Ythan, towards the eastern extremity of the parish, is an interesting ruin, noticed separately; and a ruined mill, 1 ¼ mile NE of Fyvie Castle, was the scene of the ballad of Mill o' Tifty's Annie, or Agnes Smith, who died in 1678. On the outskirts of St John's Well farm are remains of a cairn, Cairnchedly, which has yielded a number of small earthen urns; and, to the NE of the Castle, Montrose, in Oct. 1644, was nearly surprised by Argyll with a greatly superior force-an episode known as the ' Skirmish of Fyvie. ' Fyvie Castle, on the Ythan's left bank, ½ mile NE of Fyvie station, dates from remote antiquity, it or a predecessor having received a visit from Edward I. of England in 1296. It then was a royal seat, and such it continued till 1380, when the Earl of Carrick (later Robert III.) made it over to his cousin, Sir James de Lindsay. From him it passed in 1397 to Sir Henry Preston, his brother-in-law, and from him about 1433 to the Meldrums, who sold it in 1596 to Sir Alexander Seton, an eminent lawyer, created first Earl of Dunfermline in 16o6. The fourth and last Earl being outlawed in 1690, his forfeited estate was purchased from the Crown in 1726 by William, second Earl of Aberdeen, whose descendant, the present proprietor, Alexander Henry Gordon, Esq. (b. 1813; suc. 1880), holds 11, 700 acres in the shire, valued at £8741 per annum. The Fyvie Castle of today is a stately chateau - like pile erected at various periods, from the 15th on to the 18th century; and stands in the midst of a finely-wooded park, with an artificial lake (½ mile x ½ furl.). Other mansions are Rothie-Norman and Kintroon, and, in all, 7 proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 3 of between £100 and £500, and 9 of from £20 to £50. In the presbytery of Turriff and synod of Aberdeen, Fyvie comprises chief part of Millbrex quoad sacra parish, and itself is a living worth £369. The church, originally dedicated to St Peter, stands near the left bank of the Ythan, 1³/8. mile SE of Fyvie station; and. rebuilt in 1808, contains 1114 sittings. At Woodhead are St Mary's Established mission church, a plain but commodious Free church, altered and decorated in 1878, and All Saints' Episcopal church, which, Early English in style, was built in 1849, and received the addition of a tower and spire in 1870. Another Episcopal church, St George's (1796-l848), is at Meiklefolla, 1¾ mile SSE of Rothie station. Seven schools-Fyvie, Meiklefolla, Steinmanhill, Woodhead, All Saints', Fyvie female, and St Katherine's-with total accommodation for 841 children, had (1881) an average attendance of 518, and grants amounting to £428, 8s. 6d. Valuation (1860) £13, 663, (1881) £23,335, 14s. Pop. Of civil parish (1801) 2391, (1831) 3252, (l861) 4344, (1871) 4511, (1881) 4403; of ecclesiastical parish (1881) 3235; of registration district (1871) 3306, (1881) 33l7.—Ord. Sur., sh. 86, 1876.

Linked entities:
Feature Description:	"a parish" (ADL Feature Type: "countries, 4th order divisions")
Administrative units:	Fyvie ScoP Aberdeenshire ScoCnty
Place:	Fyvie

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