Blairingone is a village in
Perth and Kinross
Perth and Kinross ( sco, Pairth an Kinross; gd, Peairt agus Ceann Rois) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland and a Lieutenancy Area. It borders onto the Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Clackmannanshire, Dundee, Fife, Highland and S ...
, Scotland. It lies on the
A977 road at its intersection with Vicar's Bridge Road near the extreme south-westerly point of the region, approximately southeast of
Dollar. The Arndean agricultural estate
[Arndean Estate](_blank)
/ref> lies about northeast, near the River Devon.
Schools
Blairingone Primary School is located in Blairingone.
History
Blairingone is located in the parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...
of Fossoway and is part of the former county
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
of Kinross-shire
The County of Kinross or Kinross-shire is a historic county and registration county in eastern Scotland, administered as part of Perth and Kinross since 1930. Surrounding its largest settlement and county town of Kinross, the county borders Per ...
.County of Kinross-shire
Gazetteer for Scotland In fact it is the last village in the county of Perth and Kinross. "Blairingone" in Gaelic is ; Blàr-na-gobhainn, and the literal translation is " Smithfield" or Field of the Smith. The word "Gobhainn" is derived from Macgowan which is another name for "Blacksmith". Other local derivations of the Gaelic name are ; "Field of Arrows or Field of Spears". All of these are based on the fact that in the Middle Ages and onwards the smiddy in Blairingone was a base for the serious manufacture of weapons of war. The twin forges being maintained by the easily obtained surface coal even then. The field behind the smiddy which was incidentally the site for the recent Lambhill open-cast mine, was the probable source of the coal which fed the forges that sustained this weapons industry.
This small settlement and area was historically a base for the winning of many valuable minerals. Materials like Limestone, Alum, Iron-ore, Whinstone & Sulphur as well as coal were mined here on a regular basis. History records that the Fossoway area and over into Fife contained the most ancient coal mining operations in Scotland. During the 1700s a waggonway complex included a track from Blairingone for carrying coal which also connected the North Fife coal fields and the limeburners at Limekilns on the Forth Estuary.
The monks from
Culross Abbey obtained their coal from this area many years before this, and visiting nuns were accommodated at the still occupied "Ladieshall" on the Vicars Bridge road out of the village. Livestock drovers from the North and South passed through Blairingone on their way to the upper Forth ferry and were often known to take refreshment at one of the three Inns in the village, only one of which is left and was called the 'Devonvale Inn', In recent years renamed The Mart Inn.
See also
*
Perth and Kinross
Perth and Kinross ( sco, Pairth an Kinross; gd, Peairt agus Ceann Rois) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland and a Lieutenancy Area. It borders onto the Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Clackmannanshire, Dundee, Fife, Highland and S ...
*
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
References
Villages in Perth and Kinross
{{PerthKinross-geo-stub