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A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland (1851), Samuel Lewis

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CAIRNIE, a parish, chiefly in the district of STRATHBOGIE, county of ABERDEEN, but partly in the county of BANFF, 4 miles (N. W.) from Huntly; containing 1638 inhabitants. This place formed part of the lordship of Strathbogie, which was granted to Sir Adam Gordon, by King Robert Bruce, after the defeat and attainder of Cumin, Earl of Badenoch. It was the original estate of the family of Gordon, whose property afterwards became greatly extended. The surface is hilly, and comprehends an area of forty-eight square miles, of which extent 8000 acres are in tillage, and 2600 acres were planted in the year 1839 with nearly seven million trees by the Duke of Richmond, who is proprietor of almost the whole parish. The soil in the vicinity of the streams is fertile, and the husbandry on a respectable footing. Extensive limeworks are in operation at Ardonald, which, in the twenty-three years previous to 1S42, produced a revenue of £69,770, an gave employment to forty workmen for nine months annually. The mosses supply part of the fuel consumed, the remainder of which consists of coal brought from the coast, eighteen miles distant; the substrata comprise granite, hornblende, greenstone, clay-slate, and a few other varieties. The annual value of real property in the parish is £5145. Grain, black-cattle, and dairy-produce which are the principal marketable commodities, are taken for sale to Huntly, or sent to the coast. Facilities of communication are afforded by the road from Aberdeen to Inverness, which passes through the parish. Cairnie is ecclesiastically in the presbytery of Strathbogie, synod of Moray, and in the patronage of the Duke of Richmond; the minister's stipend is £210 with a manse, and a glebe valued at £25 per annum The church, which occupies a central situation, was built at the beginning of the present century. There is a place of worship for members of the Free Church. The parochial schoolmaster has a salary of £18. 16., wit sixteen bolls of meal, and £15 fees; he also shares i the Dick bequest.

[From Samuel Lewis A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland (1851) - copyright Mel Lockie 2016]