Cameron is a parish in east

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, 3½ miles south-west of

St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...

.Gazetteer of Scotland, publ, by W & AK Johnston, Edinburgh, 1937. Article on Cameron. Places are presented alphabetically It is bounded on the north by the parish of St Andrews, on the east by

Dunino :''See also Dunino, Poland.'' Dunino is a village and parish in the East Neuk of Fife. It is 10 km from the nearest town, St Andrews, and 8 km from the fishing village of Anstruther. It is a small village with no local shops or service ...

, on the south by Carnbee and

Kilconquhar Kilconquhar ( or ; sco, also Kinneuchar, from the gd, Cill Dhúnchadha or gd, Cill Chonchaidh, Church of (St) Duncan or Conchad) is a village and parish in Fife in Scotland. It includes the small hamlet of Barnyards. It is bounded by the paris ...

, and on the west by

Ceres Ceres most commonly refers to: * Ceres (dwarf planet), the largest asteroid * Ceres (mythology), the Roman goddess of agriculture Ceres may also refer to: Places Brazil * Ceres, Goiás, Brazil * Ceres Microregion, in north-central Goiás ...

. From east to west it is 5 – 6 miles long and in breadth about 4 miles.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 Cameron The earliest forms of the name are from the twelfth century and appear as ''Cambrun''. The etymology of the name is uncertain: it may derive from

Pictish Pictish is the extinct language, extinct Brittonic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited num ...

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...

, or be a Gaelicised Pictish name. The first element could thus be Gaelic ''cam'' or its Pictish cognate *''cam'' (both meaning 'crooked'), and the second element could be a Pictish word *''brun'', cognate with Welsh ''bryn'' ('hill'), or Gaelic ''bruinne'' ('chest, front, breast') or perhaps ''brú'' ('belly'). The later development of the name was influenced by the widespread Scottish personal name ''Cameron'' (from Gaelic ''cam shròn'' 'crooked nose'). It contains the hamlets of Lathones, Denhead (first mentioned in 1581, from Scots ''den'', 'steep valley', and ''heid'', 'head or end', thus 'the end of the steep valley') and Radernie (first mentioned in 1329, from Gaelic ''ràth'' 'ring-fort' and an uncertain second element, possibly Gaelic ''àirne'' 'sloe', ''feàrnach'' 'alder', or ''Èirinn'' 'Ireland').Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland, by Francis Groome, 2nd edition 1896; article on Cameron Cameron_Fife_Parish_Map

The civil parish has a population of 415Census of Scotland 2011, Table KS101SC – Usually Resident Population, publ. 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 9325 acres. It is also a Community Council area. The number of community councillors to which each area is entitled is determined by population and Cameron is therefore entitled to eight councillors.Cameron Community Council http://www.cameroncc.org.uk/ retrieved May 2016 Cameron was originally part of the parish of St Andrews, but was erected into a separate parish in 1645 by Act of Parliament and the first minister of the parish, George Nairne, was inducted in 1646. With the

Local Government (Scotland) Act 1894 The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1894 (57 & 58 Vict. c. 58) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It created a Local Government Board for Scotland, and replaced existing parochial boards with parish councils. Part I of the ac ...

the Parish Council was established. It ceased in 1930 when parish councils in Scotland were abolished, but civil parishes persist for census and other non-administrative purposes. The church is nearly in the centre of the parish, just north of Cameron Burn as its leaves

Cameron Reservoir Cameron Reservoir is an artificial loch in the parish of Cameron in east Fife, Scotland. Covering an area of 69 hectares, it serves as a domestic water supply and contains beds of aquatic and marginal vegetation. Cameron Reservoir is an importan ...

. It was built in 1808 to a plain design, replacing the old church on the same site which was in a very ruinous state. The church is covered in blue slate, with a belfry on the west gable.Web site of Historic Environment Scotland (former

Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) was an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government that was "sponsored" inanced and with oversightthrough Historic Scotland, an executive ...

),
Cameron Kirk
Canmore retrieved 2 April 2019 Ecclesiastically the parish is now linked to the parish of St. Leonards in the town of St Andrews, with the minister covering both churches.St Andrews Presbytery web site http://www.standrewspresbytery.org.uk/standrewschurches.cfm?ChurchID=18 retrieved May 2016 The most significant mansion in the parish is that of Mount Melville, former residence of the Melville family, which lies just inside the northern boundary of the parish. It was acquired in 1698 for General George Melville of Strathkiness and the present house was constructed in 1820-1821. The house and grounds continued in Melville family ownership until 1901. In 1947 Mount Melville house and gardens were acquired by Fife County Council with the mansion becoming a maternity hospital known as Craigtoun Hospital. The gardens were then established as

Craigtoun Country Park Craigtoun Country Park is a country park located approximately 4 miles to the south-west of St Andrews in the county of Fife, Scotland. The site is currently owned by Fife Council, with park amenities being operated as of 2012 by the charitable org ...

. In 1911 the burgh of St Andrews completed the construction of the Cameron reservoir, in the centre of the parish, which supplies water to St Andrews to the present day.Control of Infectious Disease in Fife, by Stephen Patterson, 1989 (PhD Thesis) - St Andrews Research Repository https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/10023/2753/4/StephenPattersonPhDThesisV1.pdf

References

{{Authority control Parishes in Fife 1645 establishments in Scotland