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

Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for Glamis

Glamis, a village and a parish of SW Forfarshire. The village stands, 300 feet above sea-level, on the left bank of Glamis Burn, 11 miles N of Dundee, and 1½ mile SSE of Glamis station on the Scottish Midland section of the Caledonian, this station being 5½ miles WSW of Forfar and 27 NE of Perth. It serves as a small centre of traffic for a tract of country around it, and has a post and railway telegraph office, a branch of the Royal Bank, 2 insurance agencies, an hotel, a police station, a neat masonic hall, a library, and fairs on the first Wednesday of April and May, the Wednesdays after 26 May and 22 November, and the Wednesday of October before Kirriemuir. Pop. (1861) 382, (1871) 375, (1881) 345. The parish contains also the villages or hamlets of Charleston, Newton, Milton, Thornton, Grasshouses, and Arniefoul. It is bounded N by Kirriemuir, NE by Forfar, E by Kinnettles, a fragment of Caputh, and Inverarity, SE by Tealing, SW by Auchterhouse and Newtyle, W by Eassie and Nevay, and NW by Airlie. Its utmost length, from N to S, is 6³/8. miles; its breadth varies between 2 and 5¾ miles; and its area is 14,483¹/3. acres, of which 136¹/3. are water. From the Loch of Forfar (9 x 2 furl.; 171 feet) in the NE corner of the parish, Dean Water flows 5¹/8. miles west-south-westward, chiefly through the northern interior, but 2 miles along the Kinnettles border, which also is traced for 2½ miles north-westward by Arity or Kerbit Water, from just above Douglastown to its mouth. Glamis Burn, another of Dean Water's affluents, rises close to the southern border at 910 feet above sea-level, and thence winds 6⁵/8. miles north-by-eastward through the interior along Glen Ogilvie; just above Glamis village it breaks through a ridge of high ground, and forms a fine cascade. And Eassie Burn curves 2⁵/8. miles northward through the south-western extremity, then 1¼. mile along the boundary with Eassie. (See Denoon.) Sinking along Dean Water to 160 feet above sea-level, the surface thence rises east-north-eastward to 224 feet at Broom Hill and 232 near Drumglay, southward to 664 at Hunters Hill, 700 at West Cram Hill, 925 at Berry Hillock, 754 near Kilmundie, 1115 at Carlunie Hill, 1116 at Ark Hill, 1242 at Gallow Hill, and 1493 at Craigowl. The northern district, cut off by Dean Water, presents a gently undulating surface, and lies entirely within Strathmore, to which belongs also the northern portion of the central district. The rest of Glamis, lying among the Sidlaws, comprises three parallel hill-ranges, that extend from NNE to SSW, and enclose the two hill-vales of Glen Ogilvie and Denoon. The northern district, as forming part of Strathmore, is all an unbroken belt of Old Red sandstone; in the southern or Sidlaw portion, the rocks are mainly eruptive. Both trap and sandstone have been largely quarried; and some veins of lead ore, in the eastern vicinity of Glamis village, were worked for a short time in the latter part of last century. Traces of carbonate of copper occur in the trap rocks of the hills; and porphyry, jasper, and Lydian stone have been found. The soil in Strathmore is generally a deep, sound, reddish loam, heavier and richer on the lower slopes than in the bottom of the valley; on the Sidlaws, is chiefly of a moorish character, covered with heath or swampy. If Skene is right in maintaining that King Malcolm was not murdered, the following is a curious instance of misapplied ingenuity. Before the manse door stands a sculptured obelisk-' King Malcolm's Gravestone '-' erected, as is generally supposed, in memory of the murder of Malcolm II. On one side of it is an elaborately carved Cross, and near the base are the figures of two men, who, by their attitude, seem to be forming the bloody conspiracy. A lion and a centaur, on the upper part, represent the barbarity of the crime. On the reverse, fishes of several sorts appear, a symbol of Loch Forfar, in which, by missing their way, the assassins were drowned. On Hunters Hill is another small obelisk or stone, on which are delineated various symbolical characters similar to those of the larger obelisk, and supposed to be intended as representations of the same facts. At a mile's distance from the village of Glamis, near a place called Cossans, is a third obelisk, vulgarly styled St Orland's Stone, still more curious than the others, and possibly akin to them in object. On one side is a cross rudely flowered and chequered; on the other, four men on horseback appear to be pursuing their way with the utmost possible speed, while the horse of one of them is trampling under foot a wild boar; and on the lower part of the stone is the figure of an animal somewhat like a dragon. Though no probable decipherment has been made of these symbols, they have been conjectured to represent the officers of justice in pursuit of Malcolm's murderers.' Glamis Castle is the chief feature of the parish; and the Earl of Strathmore is sole proprietor. Glamis is in the presbytery of Forfar and synod of Angus and Mearns; the living is worth £350. The parish church, at the village, was built in 1792, and contains 850 sittings. Glamis public, Glen Ogilvie or Milton public, and Charleston subscription school, with respective accommodation for 200, 68, and 98 children, had (1881) an average attendance of 108, 22, and 84, and grants of £100, 13s., £15, 12s., and £53, 10s. Valuation (1857) £11,026; (1882) £13, 934, 15s., plus £2277 for railway. Pop. (1801) 1931, (1831) 1999, (1851) 2152, (1871) 1813, (1881) 1631.—Ord. Sur., shs. 56, 57, 48, 1870-68.

Linked entities:
Feature Description:	"a village and a parish" (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units:	Glamis ScoP Angus ScoCnty
Place:	Glamis

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