Abdie is a parish in north-west
Fife
Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...
, Scotland, lying on the south shore of the
Firth of Tay
The Firth of Tay (; gd, Linne Tatha) is a firth on the east coast of Scotland, into which the River Tay (Scotland's largest river in terms of flow) empties. The firth is surrounded by four council areas: Fife, Perth and Kinross, City of Du ...
on the eastern outskirts of
Newburgh, extending about 3 miles eastwards to the boundary of
Dunbog
Dunbog is a parish in the county of Fife in Scotland. The name of the parish derives from the Scottish Gaelic, ''Dùn Bolg'', meaning "bag fort" or "bag-like, rounded hill". The parish is of entirely rural character, with no actual village - only ...
parish,
[Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland, by Francis Groome, 2nd edition 1896; article on Abdie] with which it is now united ecclesiastically
[Church of Scotland web site for Abdie and Dunbog Parish www.abdiedunbog-newburgh.org.uk/about/abdie-and-dunbog-parish/ retrieved May 2016] and for the Community Council. It is also bounded by
Collessie
Collessie is a village and parish of Fife, Scotland. The village is set on a small hillock centred on a historic church. Due to rerouting of roads, it now lies north of the A91. Though a railway embankment was constructed through the middle of ...
on the south and has a small border with the parish of
Moonzie
Moonzie is a small parish in Fife, Scotland, about 3 miles north-west of Cupar. It is bounded on the west by Creich, on the north by Kilmany, on the south-east by Cupar and on the south-west by Monimail.Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland, by Francis ...
in the south-east.
[Ordnance Survey 1 inch to 1 mile Sheet 48 Perth, publication date 1901 available from National Library of Scotland maps.nls.uk as at May 2016]
The civil parish had a population of 421 at the
2011 Census[Census of Scotland 2011, Table KS101SC – Usual Resident Population, published by National Records of Scotland. Web site http://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/ retrieved March 2016. See “Standard Outputs”, Table KS101SC, Area type: Civil Parish 1930] and its area is 4850 acres.
[Gazetteer of Scotland, publ, by W & AK Johnston, Edinburgh, 1937. Article on Abdie. Places are presented alphabetically]
The parish contains the hamlet of
Lindores
Lindores is a small village in Fife, Scotland, in the parish of Abdie, about 2 miles south-east of Newburgh. It is situated on the north-east shore of Lindores Loch, a 44 ha freshwater loch. A possible derivation of the name ''Lindores'' is 'c ...
on the north side of Lindores Loch, which is 4 miles in circumference and lies near the centre of the parish.
The present church was built in 1826/27, to a design by
William Burn
William Burn (20 December 1789 – 15 February 1870) was a Scottish architect. He received major commissions from the age of 20 until his death at 81. He built in many styles and was a pioneer of the Scottish Baronial Revival,often referred t ...
, replacing the pre-reformation church, St Magridin's, which stands as a ruin nearby. That church was consecrated by Bishop David de Bernham in 1242 and in pre-Reformation days was controlled by
Lindores Abbey
Lindores Abbey was a Tironensian abbey on the outskirts of Newburgh, Fife, Newburgh in Fife, Scotland. Now a reduced ruin, it lies on the southern banks of the River Tay, about north of the village of Lindores and is a scheduled ancient monumen ...
, whose remains lie just outside Newburgh.
[Third Statistical Account of Scotland, Fife volume,ed. A. Smith, publ. 1952; article on Abdie] Abdie and Dunbog parishes became a united charge under one minister from December 1965, with the church building in Dunbog closing in 1983 upon the ecclesiastical parish of Abdie and Dunbog being linked with Newburgh.
The parish seems originally to have had the name Lindores.
[The New Statistical Account of Scotland by the Ministers of the Respective Parishes, Vol. IX Fife-Kinross. Publ. William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh, 1845; article on Abdie] However, when Lindores Abbey was granted a charter in 1178, the monks kept the old name and thereafter called the parish Abdie (or Abden), from the
Gaelic
Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...
, apainn, meaning "church land; abbey land; abbacy".
The parish was originally wider in extent and included the parish of
Newburgh, but this was disjoined in 1633. Further in 1891 a detached portion of Abdie in the west was annexed to Newburgh, while another detached portion in the east was united with
Dunbog
Dunbog is a parish in the county of Fife in Scotland. The name of the parish derives from the Scottish Gaelic, ''Dùn Bolg'', meaning "bag fort" or "bag-like, rounded hill". The parish is of entirely rural character, with no actual village - only ...
, leaving the main portion as the present parish.
In September 1598
James VI
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguat ...
came to Abdie to arrest John Arnot, Goodman of Woodmill, for the murder of John Murray, a servant of
Lord Lindores
The title of Lord Lindores was a Lordship of Parliament in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created on 31 March 1600 for Patrick Leslie. Since the death of the eighth lord in 1813, the lordship has remained unclaimed, i.e. it has been dormant si ...
.
John Duncan Mackie
John Duncan Mackie CBE MC (1887–1978) was a distinguished Scottish historian who wrote a one-volume history of Scotland and several works on early modern Scotland.
Biography
Born in Edinburgh, Mackie was educated at Middlesbrough High S ...
, ''Calendar State Papers Scotland'', vol. 13 part 1 (Edinburgh, 1969), pp. 297, 323.
Notable residents
*
Ninian Imrie
Lieutenant-Colonel Ninian Imrie of Denmuir (died 1820) was a Scottish army officer and geologist. He gave the first wholly geological description of the Rock of Gibraltar. He stirred the Plutonist versus Neptunist debate during the Scottish Enl ...
(d. 1820) a soldier and geologist owned the Denmuir estate between Abdie and Dunbog
*The poet brothers
Alexander Bethune and
John Bethune (1812–1839)
References
{{reflist
Parishes in Fife