Occasionally in the past I have looked at the Lost Houses of Angus, usually those large castles and mansions where the gentry lived. Lost place-names have cropped up occasionally and this piece will examine another batch along with mention of villages and hamlets which no longer exist.
Arthur Dalgetty's The Church and Parish of Liff (1940) has some relevant information from the parish to the west of the city of Dundee. His informant was Miss Mary Balharry, resident of Denhead of Gray, who died in 1939, at the age of 86. Like remembered lines on vanished places elsewhere the follow local extinct places have a music in their repetition:
Arthur Dalgetty's The Church and Parish of Liff (1940) has some relevant information from the parish to the west of the city of Dundee. His informant was Miss Mary Balharry, resident of Denhead of Gray, who died in 1939, at the age of 86. Like remembered lines on vanished places elsewhere the follow local extinct places have a music in their repetition:
Denhead, Denmill, Balgarthno and Smiddy Hill,
Corscrook, Cosienook, Groggie Wells and Dubton.
Dalgetty picks out some other choice ancient places which can be identified from older maps. Some remain mysterious, such as the spot marked in a field opposite the entrance to Balruddery - Cleekemin. Another former parish resident, Mr James Lawson, provided more intrigue when he stated that his mother's house was named Yearn Ane Blade. Mr Dalgetty linked this to the only property in the parish which had house leek growing on the roof, often used to make cosmetics.
A more recently abandoned place is Smithton, at Lundie, north-west of Dundee. This was a very small settlement sitting near a rise called Smith's Knowe, past Lunding village. The story to find this place is the subject of a very informative piece on Grant Hutchison's website The Oikofuge. This place was abandoned as recently as the 1960s and its existence quietly slipped into nothingness without the outside world actually noticing. The place was too small to actually quality as a bona fide village, but what else shall we call it: clachan? farm toun? crofting community? settlement? None seem entirely accurate enough to encompass a community whose people have been scattered to God knows where. Hutchison notes that David Doward mentions the place in his book The Sidlaws (2004) and also that it merits inclusion in Angus or Forfarshire by Alexander Warden. The latter gave a folk derivation of the name, surmising that it was actually 'Mist-toun', so called because of the perpetual haar hanging over the place, but Dorward is undoubtedly right when he says it must represent 'Smith's toun'.
Other settlements, of course, lost their identity and sometimes their names by being absorbed by their expansive larger neighbours. Small places around Dundee and all the larger towns in Angus have shared this peculiar fate. But there were also smaller examples, such as Hunter's Town, which stood between Barry and Carnoustie. Like Burnside of Dun, it vanished as a distinct entity in the 19th century. Those looking for its ghost can look in the area of Barry Road in Carnoustie.
Some other places, particularly large houses and castles, may never have existed at all, despite the evidence of local people who assert that there certainly was such a building at such and such a place, once upon a time. This seems to be the case with Claverhouse Castle, just north of Dundee. The minister who wrote the Old Statistical Account for the area at the end of the 18th century asserted that the remains of stones from the castle had been unearthed. C. Sandford Terry carefully scanned the written records and found scant evidence for the existence of any castle on the site. The first of the famous family associated with the estate was John Graham, son of Robert Graham of Strathcarron and Fintry. His first base in Angus was Ballargus in the regality of Kirriemuir, followed by his acquisition of the Claverhouse lands (between 1503 and 1511). The family later bought Claypotts, but this was never the favoured residence for them . Their primary home, purchased in the 1640s, was in Glen Ogilvy, a few miles north of Claverhouse.
There may have been a large laird's house at Claverhouse, but never a castle, and any such building had vanished by the end of the 17th century. Later map makers, however, added the spurious presence of 'castle' against the location. In fact a mock ruined 'castle' was added to the location in the mid-19th century. The reason why the family home, which must in any case have been extensive, has vanished is unknown. The Graham residence in Glen Ogilvy has likewise (mysteriously?) vanished out of existence.
http://www.abandonedcommunities.co.uk/sources.html
Arthur Dalgetty, The Church and Parish of Liff (Dundee, 1940).
C. Sandford Terry, 'The Homes of the Claverhouse Grahams,' The Scottish Historical Review, Vol. 2, No. 5 (Oct., 1904), pp. 72-76
Wee Settlements, Long Gone
There has been recent interest in two minor settlements in Angus which have vanished off the face of the earth (and off maps). One is the Burnside of Dun, which features in a small book by Catherine Rice and published by the Abertay Historical Society, called All Their Good Friends and Neighbours: The Story of A Vanished Hamlet in Angus (2014). This settlement of handloom weavers, a few miles west of Montrose, held around 60 souls in the mid Victorian era and due to the transitory nature of farming economics the work there went and then so did the people. A few bare stones remain as a mark of human habitation.
A more recently abandoned place is Smithton, at Lundie, north-west of Dundee. This was a very small settlement sitting near a rise called Smith's Knowe, past Lunding village. The story to find this place is the subject of a very informative piece on Grant Hutchison's website The Oikofuge. This place was abandoned as recently as the 1960s and its existence quietly slipped into nothingness without the outside world actually noticing. The place was too small to actually quality as a bona fide village, but what else shall we call it: clachan? farm toun? crofting community? settlement? None seem entirely accurate enough to encompass a community whose people have been scattered to God knows where. Hutchison notes that David Doward mentions the place in his book The Sidlaws (2004) and also that it merits inclusion in Angus or Forfarshire by Alexander Warden. The latter gave a folk derivation of the name, surmising that it was actually 'Mist-toun', so called because of the perpetual haar hanging over the place, but Dorward is undoubtedly right when he says it must represent 'Smith's toun'.
Lundie in the snow
Other settlements, of course, lost their identity and sometimes their names by being absorbed by their expansive larger neighbours. Small places around Dundee and all the larger towns in Angus have shared this peculiar fate. But there were also smaller examples, such as Hunter's Town, which stood between Barry and Carnoustie. Like Burnside of Dun, it vanished as a distinct entity in the 19th century. Those looking for its ghost can look in the area of Barry Road in Carnoustie.
'Ghost' Homes of the Claverhouse Grahams
Some other places, particularly large houses and castles, may never have existed at all, despite the evidence of local people who assert that there certainly was such a building at such and such a place, once upon a time. This seems to be the case with Claverhouse Castle, just north of Dundee. The minister who wrote the Old Statistical Account for the area at the end of the 18th century asserted that the remains of stones from the castle had been unearthed. C. Sandford Terry carefully scanned the written records and found scant evidence for the existence of any castle on the site. The first of the famous family associated with the estate was John Graham, son of Robert Graham of Strathcarron and Fintry. His first base in Angus was Ballargus in the regality of Kirriemuir, followed by his acquisition of the Claverhouse lands (between 1503 and 1511). The family later bought Claypotts, but this was never the favoured residence for them . Their primary home, purchased in the 1640s, was in Glen Ogilvy, a few miles north of Claverhouse.
There may have been a large laird's house at Claverhouse, but never a castle, and any such building had vanished by the end of the 17th century. Later map makers, however, added the spurious presence of 'castle' against the location. In fact a mock ruined 'castle' was added to the location in the mid-19th century. The reason why the family home, which must in any case have been extensive, has vanished is unknown. The Graham residence in Glen Ogilvy has likewise (mysteriously?) vanished out of existence.
The spurious 'Claverhouse Castle' built in the 19th century
Sources
http://www.abandonedcommunities.co.uk/sources.html
Arthur Dalgetty, The Church and Parish of Liff (Dundee, 1940).
C. Sandford Terry, 'The Homes of the Claverhouse Grahams,' The Scottish Historical Review, Vol. 2, No. 5 (Oct., 1904), pp. 72-76
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