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KIRKDEN, Angus - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

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The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland - 1868

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer (1868)]

"KIRKDEN, (or Idvie), a parish in the county Forfar, Scotland, 7 miles N.W. of Arbroath. It is intersected by the Aberdeen railway, which has two stations in the parish: Frockheim and the Guthrie Junction. The size of the parish is 5 miles long by 1 mile broad. Its surface is 250 feet above the level of the sea, and consists chiefly of poor land, which, however, has been greatly improved by cultivation. It is watered by the Finny burn and Lunan water, which have both good trout fishing, and drive several mills. The parish is in the presbytery of Arbroath and synod of Angus and Mearns, in the patronage of the crown. The minister's stipend is £158. The church is a substantial structure erected in 1825. At Frockheim there is a chapel-of-ease and likewise a Morrisonian chapel. A large number of the inhabitants are employed in cotton weaving for the manufacturers of Dundee. Gardyne Castle, Pitmuies House, and Middleton House, are the principal mansions. The road between Arbroath and Forfar traverses this parish. It takes its name from the situation of the church, which is in a dell or den. Its ancient name was Idvie, by reason of its glebe being situated in the barony of Idvies. In the neighbourhood are good sandstone quarries. On Idvie and Gardyne laws were the gallows, and there was a castle near the latter, built in 1568."

"FRIOCKHEIM, a quoad sacra parish and post village in the parish of Kirkden, county Forfar, Scotland, 5 miles N. of Arbroath. It contains a Free church, Congregational chapel, and chapel-of-ease, also a police station."

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