COLLESSIE, a parish, in the district of Cupar,
county of Fife; including the villages of Edenton,
Giffordton, Kinloch, Ladybank, and Monkston; and containing
1346 inhabitants, of whom 210are in the village
of CoUessie, SA miles (\V.) from Cupar. This place,
which is situated on the road from Cupar to Auchtermuchty,
is supposed to have derived its name from the
position of its village at the bottom of a glen; of which,
in the Gaelic language, the term CoUessie is significant.
The parish is about eight miles in extreme length, and
four in average breadth, and is bounded on the south
by the river Eden. It comprises about 16,540 acres,
whereof 5000 are arable, 10,000 in pasture, about 1200
woodland, and nearly 300 marsh and vmcultivated waste,
the whole of which might without difficulty be reclaimed
and rendered fertile. The surface is varied; in some
parts rising into hills of moderate height, whose sloping
sides are richly cultivated, and in others spreading into
open vales intersected by the river Eden and various
other streams, the principal of which is the Keilour,
separating the eastern portion of the parish from the
parish of Monimail. The scenery throughout is pleasingly
diversified, and embellished with natural wood and
flourishing plantations. A tract of common comprising
nearly 1000 acres has been divided and inclosed within
the last fifty or sixty years, and is now covered with
plantations, chiefly of fir; and the hills in general are
crowned with ornamental timber.
The SOIL is various; in the north and north-western
portions, extremely fertile; in others, light and sandy,
and in some parts a sterile marsh. Extensive improvements
have been made by draining. The Rossie loch,
which covered nearly 300 acres, was partly drained
towards the close of the last century, but remained little
better than a morass till 1806, when Captain Cheape
completed the undertaking. This gentleman, at an expense
of £3000, reclaimed 250 acres, which now produce
excellent grain; and left only about fifty acres in the
centre, which, though affording good crops of hay, are
still marshy. The lands have been also benefited by an
embankment of the river Eden, and by deepening the
bed of the Keilour. The system of agriculture has been
greatly improved under the auspices of an agricultural
society, supported by most of the landed proprietors in
the district, and which holds annual meetings for the
distribution of prizes. The principal crops are barley,
oats, wheat, potatoes, and turnips; and the species of
barley called Chevalier, and Italian rye grass, have been
introduced by the members of the society. Here the
pastures are very extensive, and many of them luxuriantly
rich; the cattle are of the black Fifeshire breed,
crossed occasionally with the Teeswater and the Angus
breeds. The annual value of real property in the parish
is £8032. The substratum is chiefly whinstone, which
is quarried for building purposes, and is much esteemed;
sandstone is also found in some parts, but it is not
worked to any great extent. The mansion-houses, with
their well-planted and tastefully laid-out demesnes, add
greatly to the beauty of the scenery. In the house of
Kinloch are preserved some of the earlier pictures painted
by Wilkie, one of which is " Pitlessie Fair", containing
an admirable group of more than 150 figures, chiefly portraits,
and which he presented to the late Mr. Kinnear
out of gratitude for the kindness he had experienced at
Kinloch. Great facilities of communication are afl'orded
by the Edinburgh, Perth, and Dundee railway.
For ECCLESIASTICAL purposcs the parish is within
the bounds of the presbytery of Cupar and synod of
Fife; patron, William Johnstone, Esq. The stipend of
the incumbent is £223. 4. 9-; the manse is a comfortable
residence, having been enlarged and nearly rebuilt within
the last twenty 3'ears, and the glebe is vakied at £15 per
annum. The former church, an ancient edifice, being ill
adapted for public worship, and too small for the parish,
another was lately erected, a handsome building with a
low square tower, and capable of seating 550 persons.
There is a place of worship for members of the Free
Church. CoUessie parochial school is attended by nearly
seventy scholars; the master, who, in addition to the
ordinary branches, teaches Latin and the mathematics,
has a salary of £35. 12., with £25 fees, and a house and
garden. There is also a parochial library.
A little to the south of the village, is a cairn called
the Gask Hill, consisting of loose stones overgrown with
turf, about twelve feet in height. Near this spot, an
ancient sword about eighteen inches in length, and se-'
veral fragments of human bones, covered with a few flat
stones, were dug up some years since. On the lands of
Melville, and near the site of Hall Hill, the ancient mansion
of the Melville family, is an upright block of
whinstone, about six feet in circumference and nine in
height. In the hamlet of Trafalgar are two spots, supposed
to have been the sites of military stations erected
to secure the pass from Newburgh to the interior of the
county of Fife, from which circumstance a small lake
between this place and Newburgh is called Lindores,
from the Gaelic Liiine-Doris, " the loch of the pass".
The eastern fort, called Agabatha, was seated on an eminence
surrounded with a moat; and rehcs of antiquity
have been discovered near the spot, among which were
a quern or hand-mdl of mica-slate, and a number of
coins of the date of Edward I. Maiden Castle, the
western fort, is said to have derived that name from the
daughter of the governor, who, concealing the death of
her father during a siege, continued to give, herself, the
necessary orders for its defence, till the assailants were
compelled to abandon the attempt. The site of this fort
is pointed out by some trees planted there by the late
proprietor of the land. In the interval between the
forts numerous coffins, urns, and human bones have been
discovered; the urns, one of which is still preserved at
Kinloch, were of Celtic origin, about eighteen inches in
height, fifteen inches in diameter at the base, and extremely
conical in form. Among the eminent persons
connected with the parish, was Sir James Melville, proprietor
of the lands of Hall Hill in the time of Mary,
Queen of Scots; there are no remains of the mansion,
and even the site of it has disappeared since the inclosure
of the lands. Dr. Hugh Blair was incumbent of
this parish, to which he was ordained in 1742.