Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for Redgorton

Redgorton, a parish of Perthshire, containing the village and station of Luncarty, 4 miles NNWof Perth, under which there is a post office of Redgorton. Containing also the villages of Bridgeton, Cromwell Park, and Pitcairngreen, with part of Stanley, it comprises the three ancient parishes of Redgorton, Luncarty, and St Serffs, united some time prior to 1619, and consists of a main body and a detached north-western portion, the barony of Mullion. The main body is bounded NW and N by Auchtergaven, E by St Martins and Scone, S by Tibbermore, SW by Methven, and W by Methven and Moneydie. Its utmost length, from N to S, is 57/8 miles; its breadth, increasing southward, varies between 4¼ furlongs and 31/8 miles; and the area of the whole parish is 6168 acres, of which 160½ are water, and 1261 belong to the detached portion. This, bounded NE by Auchtergaven, and on all other sides by the Logiealmond section of Monzie, lies 12 miles NW of Perth, and 15/8 mile NW of the nearest point of the main body. With a rudely triangular outline, it has an utmost length from WNW to ESE of 33/8 miles and an utmost width of 71/3 furlongs. The Tay, here a splendid salmon river, curves 4½ miles south-by-westward along all the eastern border of the main division; and the Almond, its affluent, winds 5¼ miles south-eastward and east-north-eastward along most of the Methven and all the Tibbermore boundary. Shochie Burn runs 15/8 mile north-eastward, Ordie Burn 9 furlongs south-south-eastward-both mainly along the Moneydie boundary; and their united stream continues ½ mile south-eastward across the interior, and falls into the Tay near Luncarty. The gently undulating surface declines at the mouth of the Almond to less than 50 feet above sea-level, and thence rises westward to 335 feet near Cotterton, northward to 245 near Burnside. Around these higher grounds spreads one of those panoramas for which the county is famous-on the E, the palace and park and pleasant lands of Scone; on the SE, the fertile strath of the Tay, its majestic stream now seen amid openings of wood, and now hid by its bodyguard of forest; in the same direction, the bridge and city of Perth, and a semicircular sweep of the Sidlaw and Ochil Hills, cloven down at Kinnoull and Moncreiffe, and overlooked by the distant Lomonds of Fife. From a point not far below its source, Shochie Burn runs 35/8 miles east-south-eastward along all the Auchtergaven boundary of the detached section, whose surface -part of the frontier Grampians-rises west-by-northward, from 580 to 1540 feet above sea-level. Loch Mullion was greatly reduced by draining in 1836, but is still of considerable depth. The rocks are variously metamorphic, Silurian, and Devonian, and include clayslate, chlorite slate, greywacke, coarse conglomerate, grey sandstone, argillaceous red sandstone, rock marl, and thin veins of satin spar. The soil, in most parts light and fertile, is here and there a mixture of clay and black earth. About three-fourths of the entire area are in tillage; rather more than one-ninth is under wood; and the rest of the parish is pasture, roads, waste, etc. Vestiges of an ancient Caledonian camp at Pitcairn, the site of Bertha or old Perth, adjacent to the confluence of the Tay and the Almond, and the legendary battle of Luncarty, are all treated in separate articles. Robert Fraser, F.R.S. (1760-1831), an eminent statistical writer, was born in the old manse. Mr MaxtoneGraham of Cultoquhey and Redgorton is chief proprietor, 5 others holding each an annual value of £500 and upwards, and 3 of between £100 and £500. Giving off its northern portion to Stanley q.s. parish, and its detached section to Logiealmond q.s. parish, Redgorton is in the presbytery of Perth and the synod of Perth and Stirling; the living is worth £243. The parish church, 7 furlongs SSW of Luncarty station, was probably built about 1690, and was repaired in 1766. An addition was made to it in 1841; and the whole was most tastefully repaired and cleaned in 1871. The number of sittings is 450. The manse, one of the finest in the Church of Scotland, was built in 1866-67. There is a Free church of Pitcairngreen and a U.P. church of Pitcairn; and two public schools, Pitcairngreen and Redgorton, with respective accommodation for 84 and 111 children, had (1884) an average attendance of 51 and 77, and grants of £40, 10s. and £72, 9s. Valuation (1860) £8615, 11s., (1884) £9309, 5s. 11d. Pop. (1801) 2009, (1811) 2216, (1821) 1589, (1841) 1926, (1861) 1671, (1871) 1461, (1881) 1452, of whom 1100 were in the ecclesiastical parish.—Ord. Sur., shs. 48, 47, 1868-69.


(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)

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

Go to the linked place page for a location map, and for access to other historical writing about the place. Pages for linked administrative units may contain historical statistics and information on boundaries.