Place:Kincardine O'Neil, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

the text in this section is partly based on an article in Wikipedia Kincardine O'Neil (Scottish Gaelic: Cinn Chàrdainn) is one of the oldest villages in Deeside, or the valley of the River Dee, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is situated between Banchory and Aboyne. The village is known locally as Kinker, and was formerly known as Eaglais Iarach in Gaelic. Kincardine O'Neil is also the name of the local parish.

Area history

Since ancient times there was a crossing of the River Dee at Kincardine O'Neil. Locations of the Dee crossings along with alignment of ancient trackways formed a major impetus for location of early castles and settlements. In the vicinity of Kincardine O'Neil the Middle Ages trackways to the south had a particular influence on development in and around Kincardine O'Neil and Aboyne Castle.

In the 19th century, the Deeside Railway bypassed the village, impeding the expansion of the settlement, unlike towns nearby. By 1895 the population of Kincardine O'Neil exceeded 200, however the parish (see population table below) was much larger. Most of the extant buildings were built in the 19th century.

Torphins (redirected here) is another village in the parish of Kincardine O'Neil. It lies on the A980 highway between Banchory and Alford.

Geography of the parish

[From A New History of Aberdeenshire, Alexander Smith (Ed), 1875]

The name "Kincardine" is derived from the Gaelic Ceann-na-cearn, which signifies either "the head of the hill," or the head of the quarter, region, or district. "O'Neil" is said to have been derived from the barony of Oneil, viz., the lands of Coule, Kincragy and le Corss, which in 1234 belonged to Colin Durward, Lord of Oneil, and that Kincarden, as the name is uniformly written in old deeds, was appointed to be "the head place of the district of Onele, in all time coming."

The parish is bounded on the north by the parishes of Tough and Cluny, on the east by Midmar and Banchory Ternan, on the south by the River Dee and the parish of Birse, on the southwest by Aboyne, and on the west by Lumphanan.

The maximum length of the parish from north to south is nearly eight miles; and the greatest breadth is seven miles. The whole area is calculated to be 18,260 acres.

Craigmile, Learney, Campfield, Kincardine Lodge, and Stranduff are mentioned as the main houses in the parish, but the names of the resident families of these houses are not given.

Kincardine O'Neil was the name of the local presbytery of the Church of Scotland which contained a number of other parishes in the neighbourhood. These are listed by F. H. Groome (see below).

Further notes on Kincardine O'Neil can be found in Samuel Lewis's A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland (1851) and A New History of Aberdeenshire, Alexander Smith (Ed), 1875], both available on GENUKI, and in F. H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4), available on 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 Kincardine O'Neil, 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.