FORGANDENNY, a parish, partly in the county of
Kinross, but chiefly in the county of Perth, 3^ miles (W.) from
Bridge-of-Earn; containing 796 inhabitants, of whom
66 are in the village. This parish is about ten miles in
length and two in average breadth, and comprises
12,800 acres, of which 2000 have never been cultivated.
It is divided into the upper and lower districts: the
former comprehends a part of the Ochils, covering full
three-fourths of the surface of the parish; and the
latter, stretching from the foot of these hills on the
south to the river Earn on the north, consists of a wellcultivated
tract, somewhat similar in character to the
Carse of Gowrie. The scenery is good, from the beautiful
variations of the surface; the land gradually rises
from the river southward, and the acchvities of the
Ochils by degrees attain the height of 1000 feet above
the level of the sea. Considerable beauty is likewise
conferred on the scenery by the course of the picturesque
Earn, which is well stocked with salmon, sea-trout, and
other varieties, with pike and eels. The May, also, a
fine mountain stream rising among the Ochils in Auchterarder,
enters the parish from the south, and after winding
through it for several miles in a northern direction,
and forming some pretty cascades, runs off to the west
into the parish of Forteviot, among the beautiful and romantic
" Birks of Invermay ": it contains a large supply
of fine trout.
The higher district is cold, its soil light, and though
it bears good crops of other grain, wheat is never sown
here; but on the lower grounds all kinds of white and
green crops are produced of excellent quality, the soil
being rich and strong. Much of the hilly waste, particularly
on the estate of Condie, has been recently laid
down in excellent sheep pastures: some of the highest
grounds have been made to yield fine crops of turnips,
and furrow-draining has been much practised in the
lower parts of the parish, where, also, the farm-buildings
are almost entirely constructed after an improved method.
The annual value of real property in the parish is £5879,
of which £340 are for the Kinross-shire portion. Trap
rocks constitute nearly the whole of the substrata; but
they are so soft and friable as to be almost useless, even
for the construction of stone fences, or any other purpose
except the repair of roads. The old red sandstone
lies under this rock, though at too great a depth to
admit of quarrying. In the upper district are to be seen
beautiful specimens of conglomerate, and numerous blue
and purple pebbles appear in the decomposed trap. A
thin vein of limestone exists on the estate of Dumbuils,
but on account of its sandy character, and the distance
of coal, it is not wrought. Copper is said to have been
formerly obtained in the wood of Condie, although no
traces of it are now visible. The natural wood covers
about forty acres, and 400 acres are in plantations,
comprising the trees usually grown in the country.
Freeland, the property of Lord Ruthven, is a modern
residence, having been remodelled about the year 1834;
and that of Condie, an ancient structure, has received
some recent additions: the other mansions are Rossie
and Torrance, the former erected about eighty or ninety
years since, and the latter about half a century since.
The population are entirely agricultural. Besides the
village of Forgandenny, there is a small hamlet in the
Ochils, called Path-Struie, or the Path of Condie. The
road from Stirling to Bridge-of-Earn passes through the
village, and the Scottish Central railway along the banks
of the river Earn, affording great facility for the conveyance
of the produce, which is disposed of at Perth, Newburgh
in Fifeshire, i<cc.
Ecclesiastically the parish is in the presbytery of
Perth, synod of Perth and Stirling, and in the patronage
of the Crown: the minister's stipend is £200, with a
manse, and a glebe of six acres, valued at £1.5 per annum.
Forgandenny church, a plain edifice of considerable
antiquity, was formerly one of the eleven prebendal
churches of Dunkeld cathedral; it has lately
undergone repair, and accom modates 410 persons. There
are places of worship for members of the Free Church
and the United Presbyterian Synod. The parochial
school, situated in the village of Forgandenny, affords
instruction in the usual branches; the master has a
salary of £34, with a house and garden, and £10 fees.
There is also a school at the Path of Condie, instituted
by an act of the presbytery of Perth, dated 1660, and
confirmed by the privy council in 1663, empowering the
heritors to appropriate the vacant stipend of 1659 to its
endowment; the money was placed at mterest for the
payment of the teacher, and was augmented by the Rev.
Mr. Willison, a late incumbent, who made a bequest of
a small field, producing £*. 10. annually. A library of
religious books, and one of miscellaneous works, are
attached to the parochial school. On the north side of
the Ochils is a hill called Castle-Law, on which formerly
stood an important fortification, supposed by some to
have been of the vitrified class, but considered by most
as Danish. Its boundary line, once formed by a circular
stone wall, circumscribes an area 170 yards in diameter.
The hill commands most extensive prospects, embracing
the mouth of the Tay, and the German Ocean, on the
east J Strathearn, to the Grampian mountains, on the
west; a large part of the counties of Perth and Angus,
on the north and north-east; and the Lomond hills, on
the south.