KIRKLISTON, a parish, partly in the county of
Edinburgh, but chiefly in the county of Linlithgow; containing,
with the villages of Newbridge, Niddry, and
Winchburgh, about 2450 inhabitants, of whom about
450 are in the village of Kirkliston, 85 miles (S.) from
South Queensferry. This parish, of which about onefourth
lies in the county of Edinburgh, and three-fourths
in that of Linlithgow, was formerly called Temple- Liston,
an appellation partly acquired from the Knights Templars,
who obtained the chief lands in the twelth century.
The ancient name of Liston is supposed to have been
derived from some considerable family that resided here,
or from the Celtic term itoston, signifying " an inclosure
on the side of a river", and exactly answering to the
locality. Authentic information relating to the history
of Kirkliston reaches back to the year 995, when a
battle was fought between Kenneth, natural brother, and
commander of the army, of Malcolm II., King of Scotland,
and Constantinc, the usurper of the crown. The
monument here, called the Cal-stane, is said to have
been erected in memory of this battle, in which both
the generals were slain. In 1298, Edward I. of England,
when marching to engage the Scots at Falkirk, rested
for some time witli his army close to the village of Kirkliston;
and the field in which the king's tent was
pitched is still shown, immediately to the south-west of
the village, on the property of Newliston. Upon the
dissolution of the fraternity of Knights Templars, the
Knights of St. John of Jerusalem became owners of their
large estates in this district, which they held till the
Reformation, when the whole were converted into a
temporal lordship in favour of Sir James Sandilands, the
chief of the order of St. John. At an early period, a
bishop of St. Andrew's obtained possession of the church,
with the village, mill, and some contiguous lands called
the Mains, or demesne, and kirk-lands of Kirkliston.
Afterwards the bishops acquired a regal jurisdiction
over their estates on the southern side of the Forth, and
made Liston the seat of authority, where the hall in
which their bailie held his courts was standing so late
as the year 1700. On the abolition of hereditary jurisdictions
in 1748, the Earl of Hopetoun claimed £1500
for the regality of St. Andrew's south of the Forth.
The estate of Newliston, in 1543, fell to the family of
Dundas of Craigton, who enjoyed it till the Revolution,
when it came to the Dalrymples, by the marriage of
Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Dundas, with the second
Viscount of Stair, who in 1/03 was created Earl of
Stair and Lord Newliston.
The PARISH is five miles and a half in length from
east to west, and four miles and a half in breadth from
north to south, containing an area of 772'2 acres. It is
bounded on the north and north-east by the parish
of Dalmeny; on the north and north-west by that of
Abercorn; on the west and south-west by the several
parishes of Uphall, Mid-Calder, Ecclesmachen, and a
detached portion of Dalmeny, named Auldcathie; on
the south by Kirknewton and Ratho; and on the east
by Corstorphine and Cramond. A detached part of the
parish, called Liston-Shiels, lying on the slope of the
Pentland hills, is included for ecclesiastical purposes in
the parish of Kirknewton. The river Almond, rising in
Lanarkshire, and entering Kirkliston parish at the southwestern
point, winds for about four miles and a half to
the village of Kirkliston, and afterwards runs towards
the north-east for a mile and a half; it then passes into
the parish of Cramond, and at length falls into the Firth
of Forth at the village of that name. The soil varies
throughout from a strong clay to a rich dark mould, in
diflferent admixtures and proportions. On the banks of
the river, and on the neighbouring haughs, it consists of
alluvial deposits, forming in some places a fertile loam,
capable, with good husbandry, of producing the best
crops. By far the larger part of the ground is under
tillage; the wood, plantations, and permanent pasture
bearing but a small proportion to the arable tracts. On
the estates of Newliston, Clifton Hall, Carlowrie, and
Foxhall, and the lands of Niddry and Hurabie, a considerable
quantity of ancient timber may be seen; and
in different parts are young clumps of beech, ash, elm,
and fir: with these exceptions, and exclusive of the
lawns belonging to the mansions of the gentry, the
whole of the lands are cultivated. All kinds of grain,
with potatoes, turnips, and the several grasses, are produced.
Few parishes have made such rapid improvements
in agriculture within the last half century as this,
the face of the district having been completely changed
by the consolidation of small farms, by the introduction
of extended leases, by inclosures, superior drainage, and
manuring, with the rotation system modified to suit
every peculiarity of soil. The cattle are generally a
cross between the Teeswater and Ayrshire breeds, but in
Ayrshire cows are preferred for the dairy; the sheep
are the black-faced. Cheviots, and Leicesters. Few
sheep and cattle, however, are kept here, as the ground is
turned to better account. The rocks in the parish are
chiefly sandstone, limestone, and trap, and ironstone and
shale are found in large quantities: coal is supposed to
exist, but none has yet been discovered. On the farm
of Humbie is a quarry which produces a beautiful and
durable stone, suited to a superior class of buildings.
The annual value of real property in the parish is returned
at £3966. Newliston, the residence of the Hog
family, is a large and elegant house, built at the close of
the last century: it stands in the midst of extensive
pleasure-grounds and plantations, disposed in a somewhat
original style. Clifton Hall, a very ancient mansion,
is the seat of Sir Alexander Maitland Gibson, Bart.,
a family of considerable antiquity; and Carlowrie also
an ancient mansion, is the residence of the Falconers.
The principal villages are Kirkliston and Winchburgh
in the county of Linlithgow, and Newbridge in the
county of Edinburgh. At the western extremity of the
village of Kirkliston is a distillery, established about
thirty years ago; but with the exception of the hands
here employed, and those engaged in domestic trades, the
whole population are occupied in agriculture. A fair
is held at Kirkliston on the lastTuesday in July, and one
at the village of Winchburgh on the first Friday in the
month of June, at neither of which, however, is any business
transacted. There is a post-office that receives and
despatches letters once a day. Three turnpike-roads run
through the parish, viz., the road from Edinburgh to
Stirling, and to Glasgow by Falkirk, which passes through
the village; the road from Edinburgh to Glasgow by
Bathgate; and the road from Queensferry to the lastmentioned
road. The Union canal also intersects the
parish, and is conveyed over the river Almond by an
aqueduct. There are two good bridges, likewise, over
the Almond, one of which is on the line of the Stirling
road, and the other on the middle or Bathgate road to
Glasgow. The railroad between Edinburgh and Glasgow
crosses the Almond, near the village of Kirkliston, by a
splendid stone viaduct, forming one of the most extensive
works of the kind: this viaduct is 7^20 yards in
length, twenty-eight feet in width, and fifty feet above
the level of the water, resting upon thirty-six segmental
arches, each of seventy-five feet span, with piers seven
feet in thickness; the whole presenting a very noble
appearance. At Winchburgh the railway passes through
a tunnel 330 yards in length, twenty-six feet in breadth,
and twenty-two in height, the second in extent of the
five on the line. The Bathgate railway crosses the river
Almond between the aqueduct of the Union canal and
the viaduct of the Edinburgh and Glasgow railway.
For ECCLESIASTICAL purposcs the parish is within the
limits of the presbytery of Linlithgow, synod of Lothian
and Tweeddale, and the patronage is vested in the Crown.
The stipend of the minister averages about £300, and he
has also £5. 11. 7., feu-duties of Hallyards, an annual
gift from the crown; with a manse, built in 1692, and
repaired and enlarged in 1808, and again in 1S38, and a
glebe of seven acres of land valued at £30 per annum.
Kirkliston church was thoroughly repaired in 1822; it
will accommodate 7OO persons, and has a fine-toned bell,
which is rung every morning at five in summer and six
in winter, and every evening at eight o'clock. This
ancient structure is supposed to have been built in the
twelfth century. The members of the Free Church of
Scotland have a place of worship. There is a parochial
school, at which the usual branches of education are
taught; the master has the maximum salary, with the
fees, and a house and garden. In 1*98 a friendly society
was established, the benefit of which to the sick members
and the widows of members has been very considerable.
Among the antiquities of Kirkliston, one of the chief is the
monument erected to perpetuate the battle between Kenneth
and Constantine, already noticed. At Clifton, under
an old cot-house, there was found, some time since,
an earthen money-box containing between 300 and 400
silver coins of England and Scotland; and near this spot
was discovered a gold coin, about fifteen feet under the
ground, with the inscription Robertas II., Rex Scotorum.
In the south-western part of the parish, on the Hopetoun
estate, is an ancient baronial residence named IIListon,
supposed to have been a hunting-seat of James
II., James IV., and other kings. About two miles west
of the village of Kirkliston stands Niddry Castle, a fine
ruin, formerly possessed by the Earls of Wintoun, and
where Queen Mary is said to have slept when on her
flight from Lochleven Castle to join her supporters at
Hamilton, in the year 1568. Andrew Dalzel, professor
of Greek in the university of Edinburgh, was a native
of this parish; and the celebrated John, second Earl
of Stair, who succeeded to the estate of Newliston in
1725, has left behind him lasting memorials of his skill,
spirit, and perseverance, in the agricultural improvements
introduced here under his immediate auspices.
Indeed, the superior state of husbandry attained in this
district may be fairly traced to the efforts of this distinguished
nobleman. There are several springs in the
parish impregnated with lime, iron, and magnesia.