BORROWSTOUNNESS, a parish and sea-port and burgh of
barony, in the county of Linlithgow,
3 miles (N.) from Linlithgow; containing, with the
villages of Borrowstoun and Newton, 2347 inhabitants,
of whom 1790 are in the town. This place appears to
have originated in the erection of some buildings on a
7iess, or a point of land, boldly projecting into the Firth
of Forth, about three-quarters of a mile to the north of
the small village of Burwardstown, or Borrowstoun;
from which circumstance it derived its name, Borrowstounness,
or, by contraction, Bo'ness. In 1600, there was
only one solitary house on the site of the present town,
while the ancient town of Kinneil, which had grown up
near the baronial castle of Kinneil, contained more than
500 inhabitants; but the advantageous situation of the
ness, and the abundance of coal in the immediate
vicinity, soon attracted shipping to its port; and the
prosperous state of trade about the commencement of the
seventeenth century, induced many rich merchants and
ship-owners to settle in the town, which from that time
rapidly advanced. In 1634, the increase of its population,
and the distance of the parish church of Kinneil,
situated near the baronial mansion, induced the inhabitants
to erect a church for themselves, in which the
minister of Kinneil continued to officiate alternately, for
their accommodation, till the year 1649, when, on their
petition to parliament, the town of Borrowstounness,
with its environs, was separated from the parish of
Kinneil, and erected into an independent parish. In
1669, the Duke of Hamilton obtained from the Scottish
parliament an act declaring the church of this town the
parish church of the whole barony of Kinneil and Borrowstounness,
since which time the two have been
consolidated into one parish. The place continued to
increase in prosperity, and, from the superiority of its
situation for trade, to withdraw the population from
Kinneil, which in I69I contained only a few families,
and now has wholly disappeared: in 1*48 the town
upon the ness was erected into a burgh of barony,
under the Duke of Hamilton. Kinneil was the head of
the barony of that name, granted by Robert Bruce to
the ancestor of the Dukes of Hamilton, in acknowledgment
of his services on the field of Bannockburn.
The TOWN is situated in the north-eastern extremity
of the parish, on the south shore of the Firth of Forth,
and consists principally of narrow streets, of houses of
ancient and irregular appearance. It was formerly one
of the most thriving towns on the eastern coast, ranking,
prior to I7SO, as the third sea-port in Scotland; and
though the opening of the Forth and Clyde canal, and
the establishment of the port of Grangemouth, have
contributed much to diminish its commerce, it is still
far from being inconsiderable. The female population
were once employed in tambour-work to a very large
extent, and many females are yet engaged in that pursuit.
A pottery was established in 1784, and has since
that time been greatly increased. There is an extensive
foundry, and chemical works are carried on upon a large
scale. A distillery is in full operation, paying weekly
to government more than £300 for duties. There are
several large malting estabhshments; and at the east
end of the town, and on the links, are a rope-walk and
extensive wood-yards, connected with which is a sawmill
worked by steam, the engine of which is also employed
in the preparation of bone-dust for manure.
The chief trade of the port is in grain, for which the
merchants have extensive granaries, capable of warehousing
15,000 quarters; a considerable trade is also
carried on in the exportation of salt, coal, ironstone,
and earthenware: the imports are principally timber,
iron, flax, grain, bark, and madder. The number of
vessels registered as belonging to the port, in a late year,
was 101, of the aggregate burthen of 6521 tons; and
the amount of duties paid at the custom-house was
£4824. The harbour, which has been greatly improved,
under the superintendence of fifteen trustees, chosen
from the merchants and ship-owners, is one of the
safest and most accessible on this part of the coast, and
is formed by two piers, extending 568 feet into the Firth.
It is 240 feet wide, and at spring tides has an average
depth of from sixteen to eighteen feet. Between the
piers a broad wall has been constructed, cutting off,
towards the land, a basin, which is filled with water b\-
the tide, and at low water emptied by sluices, by which
means the harbour is cleansed and deepened; and on the
west side of the basin is a patent-slip, to which vessels
are admitted for repair. There were once eight ships
belonging to the place employed in the whale-fishery,
but that trade has for some years been decreasing, and
at present only one vessel is engaged in it; there are
two boiling-houses for extracting the oil, one of which
has been lately much improved. The Stirling steamers
touch here on their passage to and from Edinburgh.
A branch from the town to the Forth and Clyde canal
was commenced by a subscription of £10,000, raised
under an act of parliament, in 1782, and an aqueduct
across the Avon was constructed for that purpose; but
the work was abandoned after an outlay of £7500, before
it was half completed, and has not since been resumed.
In 1846 a railway act was passed for the purpose of
connecting Borrowstounness with the Edinburgh and
Glasgow railway and the Slamannan railway. A market
is held weekly on Monday, and a fair annually on the
I6th of November; a pleasure fair is also held, in July.
The burgh is governed by a baron-bailie, appointed by
the Duke of Hamilton as superior: a building erected
by one of the dukes, for a court-house and prison, is
now occupied chiefly as a granary; it is situated at the
head of the harbour, and forms a conspicuous object.
The PARISH is bounded on the north by the Firth of
Forth, and on the south and west by the river Avon.
It is of triangular form, about four miles in length from
east to west, and two miles in breadth, comprising about
3000 acres, of which '270 are woodland and plantations,
and the remainder arable in the highest state of cultivation,
of which 430 acres are esteemed to be the richest
carse land in the country. The surface, with the exception
of the carse, is much varied, rising towards the
south-eastern extremity of the parish, to a height of 520
feet above the level of the sea. From this eminence,
which is called the Hill of Irongath, the ground slopes
gradually to the south and west, and is embellished
with stately timber and strips of planting, to the wooded
banks of the Avon. This river, from its numerous
windings at the west end of the parish, forms an interesting
feature in the scenery, from many points of view;
and the Dean and Gil burns, flowing through romantic
dells near Kinneil House, add greatly to its beauty. The
soil is mostly fertile, and the chief crops are wheat,
barley, oats, beans, and the usual green crops: the system
of agriculture is good; draining has been practised
to a considerable extent, and all the more recent improvements
in husbandry have been generally adopted.
The annual value of real property in the parish is £8369.
The substratum is of the coal formation, with very little
variety: the coal occurs in seams of great thickness,
and is of excellent quality; ironstone is likewise found,
and very extensive iron-works have been erected within
the last few years. There are some quarries of good freestone,
and also of whinstone and limestone, but the limestone
is of inferior quality, and more used for building
than for agricultural purposes. Kinneil House, one of the
seats of the Duke of Hamilton, is an ancient mansion,
beautifully situated on the brow of a steep bank, commanding
a fine view of the Firth, and has undergone various
changes at different times. The ancient castle has been
modernised by a new front, and the battlements replaced
by a balustrade; the original windows have been
enlarged, and a wing projecting at right angles from the
northern extremity has been added: a corresponding
wing on the south was probably contemplated, the
whole to form three sides of a quadrangle. The approach
is by a stately avenue of venerable trees, and the
ample and richly-varied demesne by which the mansion is
surrounded abounds with beautifully picturesque scenery.
The numerous apartments of this once princely house
are now unoccupied; and among the tenants who have
resided in it, since it was deserted by its noble proprietors,
have been the celebrated Dugald Stewart, and James
Watt, the improver of the steam-engine.
For ECCLESIASTICAL purposcs the parish is within
the bounds of the presbytery of Linlithgow, synod of
Lothian and Tweeddale; patron, the Duke of Hamilton:
the minister's stipend is about £270, partly arising from
lands bequeathed for that purpose; with a manse, and
a glebe valued at £21 per annum. The church, nearly
rebuilt in 1/75, and enlarged in 1820, is a neat plain
structure containing 950 sittings. There are still some
remains of the ancient church of Kinneil, near Kinneil
House. A place of worship is maintained in connexion
with the United Presbyterian Synod. The parochial
school is attended by about fifty children; the master
has a salary of £34. 4. ^., with a house and garden, and
the fees average about £40 per annum. A parochial
library, in which is a collection of about 1250 volumes,
is supported by subscription. In various parts of the
parish are traces of the wall of Antoninus, which is supposed
to have extended originally to Kinneil, and afterwards
to Carriden. Near the farm of Upper Kinneil
was a cairn called the Laughing Hill, in which were
found four stone coffins containing black mould, and
four urns, in an inverted position, containing human
bones. A similar coffin and urn were found in the side
of an eminence called Bell's Know, immediately above
the town of Borrowstounness. Below Kinneil House,
upon the coast, and near the lands called the Snab, was
the castle of Lyon, of which some remains of the garden
wall, and a path leading from it to the shore, called the
Castle-Loan, are the only memorials.