KIRKNEWTON - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"KIRKNEWTON, (and East Calder) a parish in the W. side of county Edinburgh, Scotland. It contains the villages of Kirknewton, Wilkinston, and East Calder, the former being 2½ miles E. of Mid Calder, a railway station on the Edinburgh and Glasgow railway. The parish is 6 miles in length by 4 in breadth, and is embraced by the river Almond and Water of Leith. The surface is hilly, but neither rocky nor mountainous. The lowlands are enclosed and highly cultivated, and the hills afford excellent sheep pasturage. It affords, from one spot, a view of thirteen counties.

Limestone, whinstone, and sandstone are quarried. The parish is in the presbytery of Edinburgh, and synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. The minister's stipend is £300. The parish church was built in 1750. The United Presbyterians and the Free Church have each a place of worship. Bellfield, Calderhall, Hillhouse, Meadowbank, and Ormiston Hill are the chief mansions. In the churchyard lie the remains of the celebrated William Cullen, M.D., who died in 1790, and was the proprietor of Ormiston Hill.

"LINHOUSE, a village in the parish of Kirknewton, county Edinburgh, Scotland, 3 miles S.W. of Calder. It is situated on the Lin Water, which joins the river Almond at Mid Calder."

"WILKESTON, a village in the parish of Kirknewton, county Edinburgh, Scotland, 4 miles S.E. of Cupar, and 9 S.W. of Edinburgh, on the N. side of the road from Edinburgh to Mid. Calder."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]

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