Saline is a village and parish in
Fife, Scotland, situated to the north-west of
Dunfermline. It lies in an elevated position on the western slopes of the
Cleish Hills.
At the
2001 Census the population was 1188, a decline from the 1235 recorded in the
1991 Census
A nationwide census, commonly known as Census 1991, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday 21 April 1991. This was the 19th UK census.
''Census 1991'' was organised by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys in England and Wales, t ...
. The village has a primary school, a parish church and a golf course. The glen runs from the bottom of the main street through to neighbouring
Steelend.
The civil parish has a population of 1,762 (in 2011)
[Census 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 an area of 8,757 acres.
[Gazetteer of Scotland, publ, by W & AK Johnston, Edinburgh, 1937. Article on Saline. Places are presented alphabetically]
The village is dominated to the east-north-east by Saline Hill, 359 meters OD, with a
hill fort
A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...
on the eastern summit. The smaller hill to the south of east at Bandrum has a
standing stone on the peak.
History
A Pre-Reformation church was under control of
Dunkeld Cathedral
Dunkeld Cathedral is a Church of Scotland place of worship which stands on the north bank of the River Tay in Dunkeld, Perth and Kinross, Scotland. Built in square-stone style of predominantly grey sandstone, the cathedral proper was begun in 12 ...
.
Formerly a weaving centre, Saline was not much redeveloped during the 19th and 20th centuries as the expansion of industrial mining in west Fife largely passed it by. As a result, Saline contains a sizable number of
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
s, mostly 18th century weavers' cottages.
The parish church was designed by
William Stark in 1808 and remodelled in 1905 by
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
architect
Peter MacGregor Chalmers. Following the
Disruption of 1843
The Disruption of 1843, also known as the Great Disruption, was a schism in 1843 in which 450 evangelical ministers broke away from the Church of Scotland to form the Free Church of Scotland.
The main conflict was over whether the Church of S ...
a Free Church was built on Bridge Street by
Lewis Mercer.
Famous Residents
Thomas Bonnar (1821-1862) the
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
architect was born here.
References
External links
Gazetteer for Scotland entryAbout Salinea
Fife Council
{{authority control
Villages in Fife
Parishes in Fife