Place:Dyce, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

The following description is based on an article in Wikipedia

Dyce (Scottish Gaelic: Deis) is now an area of the City of Aberdeen, Scotland, about 6 miles (9.7 km) northwest of the city centre, and best known as the location of the city's airport. It is on the River Don.

History

Dyce is the site of an early medieval church dedicated to the 8th century missionary and bishop Saint Fergus (died 738) who is otherwise associated with Glamis, Angus. Today the cemetery, north of the airport, and overlooking the River Don, hosts the roofless but otherwise virtually complete former St. Fergus Chapel, within which Pictish and early Christian stones from the 7th–9th centuries, found in or around the churchyard, are displayed.

...The graveyard surrounding the old church was used into the 20th century, and retains almost no old gravestones. There is a small 'mort house' [where bodies were stored during the winter awaiting formal burial in the spring] in one corner of the enclosure, which is adjoined by a modern extension, still in use for burials.

end of Wikipedia contribution

Geography

The extreme length of the parish from east to west, in a direct line, is fully 4¼ miles, and the extreme breadth from south to north is 3 miles; and the whole area is estimated to be 5,285 acres. The parish is bounded on the north by the parish of Fintray; on the east by the parishes of New Machar and Old Machar; on the south by the parish of Newhills; and on the west by the parish of Kinellar. Old Machar and Newhills are now also located within the City of Aberdeen. The other parishes are in the Aberdeenshire Council Area.

The lowest point of the parish, on the Don, is at the influx of the Far burn, and it is 104 feet above sea level, and the highest point on the river is at the influx of the Blackburn, where it is 146 feet.

Granite, the stone used so much for building in Aberdeen, was quarried in Dyce in the 19th century. Continuation of this industry into the 20th century is not mentioned in references consulted.

The village of Dyce is located near the Don's right bank, 4½ furlongs north-northeast of Dyce Junction on the Great North of Scotland [railway], this being 6¼ miles northwest of Aberdeen, under which it has a post office, with money order, savings' bank, and railway telegraph departments. ....Fully one-half of the entire area is in tillage, extensive reclamations having been carried out within the last thirty years; and plantations of larch and Scotch firs may cover about one-fourth more. ....Pitmedden and Caskieben are the chief mansions; and the property is divided among 13, four holding each an annual [assessable] value of £500 and upwards.

Gazetteers consulted A New History of Aberdeenshire, Alexander Smith (Ed), 1875] (GENUKI)
Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4) by F. H. Groome (Gazetteer for Scotland)

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 Aberdeen, 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.