A vision of Britain through time
A vision of Britain from 1801 to now.
Including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions.
A vision of Britain through time
A vision of Britain from 1801 to now.
Including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions.
Tough, a parish in Alford district, Aberdeenshire, at its northern boundary containing Whitehouse station, 2¾ miles ESE of Alford terminus, and 26½ WNW of Aberdeen, under which it has a post and railway telegraph office. It is bounded N by Keig, E by Monymusk, SE by Cluny and by Kincardine O'Neil, S by Lumphanan, W by Leochel-Cushnie, and NW by Alford. Its utmost length, from NNE to SSW, is 6½ miles; its utmost breadth is 35/8 miles; and its area is 71121/6 acres, of which 4 are water. The drainage is carried northward towards the Don; and at Whitehouse station the surface declines to 450 feet above sea-level, thence rising to 1306 feet at Green Hill on the Monymusk boundary, and 1621 at Corrennie or Benaquhallie on the Kincardine O'Neil boundary. Red and blue granites and gneiss are the predominant rocks; and hard claystone porphyry and magnesian limestone also occur. The soil, in most places light, in several shallow and stony, is here and there mixed with moss, but very deep and fertile. Less than one-half of the entire area is in tillage; some 1100 acres are under wood; and the rest of the land is either pastoral or waste. Antiquities are two or three cairns, several stone circles, an assemblage of standing-stones and small tumuli, and a standing-stone 12½ feet high and 9½ in circumference, traditionally alleged to mark the grave of Lulach or Luath, the son of Lady Macbeth. The plain farmhouse of Tillyfour, 3½ miles SSW of Whitehouse station, was the home of the 'king of Graziers,' William M 'Combie, Esq. (1805-80), whose matchless herd of polled Angus or Aberdeen cattle procured him the honour of a visit from the Queen in 1866, and who sat for West Aberdeenshire in the Liberal interest from 1868 till 1876, being the first tenantfarmer returned in Scotland. In Feb. 1883 the Tillyfour estate, of 1900 acres (1195 arable, 400 hill-pasture, and 305 wood), was sold for £23,000 to Henry Begg, Esq. of Lochnagar Distillery. Tonley House, a large old mansion, ½ mile NNW of the church, is the seat of George Moir- Byres, Esq. (b. 1813; suc. 1881), who holds 4623 acres in the shire, valued at £3527 per annum. Two more mansions are Whitehouse, standing high, to the SE of the station; and Tullochvenus, in the extreme S, 3 miles N of Lumphanan station. Two proprietors hold each an annual value of more, 2 of less, than £500. Tough is in the presbytery of Alford and the synod of Aberdeen; the living is worth £190. The parish church, 1½ mile S by W of Whitehouse station, was built in 1838, and contains 550 sittings. A new public school, opened on 2 April 1884, with accommodation for 120 children, had (1885) an average attendance of 75, and a grant of £. Valuation (1860) £3233, (1885) £5564, plus £511 for railway. Pop. (1801) 629, (1831) 828, (1861) 874, (1871) 760, (1881) 681.—Ord. Sur., sh. 76,
(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)
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| Feature Description: | "a parish" (ADL Feature Type: "countries, 4th order divisions") |
| Administrative units: | Tough ScoP Aberdeenshire ScoCnty |
| Place: | Tough |
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