Place:Insch, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

[From Wikipedia]
Insch (Scottish Gaelic: An Innis or Innis Mo Bheathain) is a village and parish in the Garioch region of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is located approximately 28 miles (45 km) from the city of Aberdeen. There are Church of Scotland and Scottish Episcopal churches, and the village is served by Insch railway station and has regular bus services to Huntly and Inverurie with connections to Aberdeen and Inverness.

Insch is a parish in the central part of Aberdeenshire. It is 3¾ miles west of the village of Old Rain. The parish is situated on the northern bank of the small river Shevock, which separates it from the parishes of Premnay and Kennethmont. The Shevock eventually joins the larger River Urie. The parish is six miles in length and three miles in breadth, comprising 7,618 acres, of which 5410 are under cultivation, 108 in plantation [woodland], and the remainder waste. The surface can be described as hilly.

The hill of Foudland (rising to 1100 feet) is the highest, forming the chief of a series of slate hills stretching into the parish of Gartly on the west, and into Culsamond on the east. The hill of Dunnideer is about a mile west of the village of Insch and is only half the height of Foudland, but is the most striking object to be seen. Opposite to Dunnideer, on the west, is the equally abrupt eminence of Christ-kirk, in the parish of Kinnethmont, which is separated from Dunnideer only by a narrow valley, watered by the Shevock.

in the 1850s the soil was a light loam with a gravelly subsoil and in some places there were peat mosses, supplying fuel. However, most of the peat was by then exhausted and the inhabitants were dependent on wood and coal for fuel. Coal was brought from [[Place:Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland|Aberdeen by canal to Inverurie. Much of the arable land is of superior quality, and produces excellent crops, chiefly of oats. "The cattle are of the Aberdeen or the Angus kind, which are frequently crossed with the short-horned or Durham breed; and the improvement in the stock has been considerable, in consequence of the great encouragement offered by the cattle-shows held by the Highland and the local agricultural societies. A six years' rotation is prevalent; and the general system of husbandry includes all the modern improvements: bone-manure is liberally and successfully applied to the turnip lands; and threshing machines, generally driven by water, one of them by steam, are every where in operation. The chief deficiency is the want of inclosures and of good farm-buildings. The annual value of real property in the parish is £5,334."

"J. M. Lesly, Esq., of Balquhain, holds the estates called the Barony of Meikle-Wardhouse, Knockenbaird, and others. The slate of the Foudland hill quarries, an excellent material of blue colour, has long been highly celebrated, and wrought to a great extent. About 900,000 slates used to be annually raised, a large portion of which were sent to Aberdeen; but not more than half this number are now produced, the demand having diminished on account of the facility with which the Easdale slates, from Argyllshire, can be conveyed by sea. In the smaller hills the rock is principally gneiss, with black or grey granite; and on the low grounds, near the base of Dunnideer, considerable quantities of bogiron ore have been found.

"The only gentleman's seat is Rothney, a handsome modern mansion in the cottage style, finely situated on a gentle acclivity on the northern bank of the Shevock".

"The inhabitants are chiefly engaged in agriculture, and in trading in corn and cattle; a few are employed in making stockings for the Aberdeen manufacturers. The feuars of Insch are heritable proprietors of their houses and small gardens; they also mostly rent about four acres of ground each, under Sir Andrew Leith Hay, superior of the ancient burgh of Insch. Within the last thirty years, the village has been almost entirely rebuilt; the houses are generally of two stories, constructed of stone and lime, and there are several good shops. For some years it has been supplied with gas. The Aberdeen mail-road passes through the parish, and is of considerable service, the produce of the district being conveyed along it to the canal at Inverurie, from which place the carts bring back coal, lime, and bones for manure. Two fairs for cattle, horses, and general wares, are held respectively on the third Wednesday in May and third Tuesday in October.

"Insch church, a plain building in the village, is supposed, from a date on its fine old belfry, to have been built in the year 1613; it was well roofed in 1789, new-seated in 1793, and contains 460 sittings. The members of the Free Church also have a place of worship.

Descriptions of the parish from later dates in the 19th century can be found in A New History of Aberdeenshire, Alexander Smith (Ed), 1875, also in GENUKI; and F. H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4) provided by the Gazetteer of Scotland website.

Population Growth

Populations 1801-1951 from A Vision of Britain through Time (http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk).
2001 population from Scotland’s Census (https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk).

Research Tips

There was formerly a note on this page that the parish was linked to the Presbytery of Garioch, Synod of Aberdeen, Scotland. It would appear that since 1975 the organization of the presbyteries and synods has been revised. Readers are reminded that the Church of Scotland is Presbyterian in nature while in England the Church of England is Episcopalian. (See Wikipedia. )

• Scotlands People, the website of the Scottish Register Office provides

• official civil (from 1855) and parish registers (from when first produced) for births, marriages and deaths for all of Scotland
• original census images for all years available (1841-1911).
• references to wills and property taxes, and
• an extensive collection of local maps.

This site is extremely easy to use. There are charges for parish register entries and censuses. The charges are reasonable and payable by online transfer.

• The Statistical Accounts of Scotland Online provides access to digitised and fully searchable versions of both the Old Statistical Account (1791-99) and the New Statistical Account (1834-45). These uniquely rich and detailed parish reports, usually written by local Church of Scotland ministers, detail social conditions in Scotland and are an invaluable resource for anyone interested in Scottish history.
• Scotlands Places
• Gazetteer of Scotland includes descriptions of individual parishes from F. H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4)
• The FamilySearch Wiki
• GENUKI which provides, amongst other data, complete quotations from A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland (1851) by Samuel Lewis, John Bartholomew's A Gazetteer of the British Isles (1877), and A New History of Aberdeenshire edited by Alexander Smith (1875)
• A list of Burial Grounds in Scotland is now available on the website of the Scottish Association of Family History Societies.
• Aberdeenshire and Moray Records. Town Council minutes, accounts, letters, plans and harbour records provided by Aberdeenshire Council plus other local records.
• Aberdeen and North-East Scotland Family History Society is one of the largest and most reputable family history societies in Scotland and has a long list of publications referring to individual parishes.