Cleish

"CLEISH, a parish, containing the post-office station of Blairadam, the post-office village of Cleish, and two other villages in Kinross-shire. It is bounded on the north by Fossoway and Kinross parishes; on th east by the parishes of Portmoak and Ballingray; on the south by the parishes of Beath and Dunfermline; and on the west by the parish of Saline. It is of an oblong form, stretching nearly due west from the low heights on the east which divide Kinross-shire from Fifeshire; and is 6½ miles in length, by about 1 in average breadth; and contains about 7½ square miles ... A short distance from the parish-church stood a rock called 'The Lecture stane,' which was used, in the days of popery, as a support for the coffin during the reading of the burial-service at funerals. At the east end of the parish, a stone, inserted in a bridge, bears an inscription indicating the road beneath it to have been that by which Queen Mary fled from Lochleven castle ... Population in 1831, 681; in 1861, 649."

From the Imperial Gazetteer of Scotland, edited by John Marius Wilson, 1868.

"CLEISH, a parish in the county of Kinross, Scotland. It extends westward from the hills separating Fifeshire from Kinross-shire. It is 7 miles long by 1 broad, and is separated by the Cleish hills (some of which are over 1,000 feet in height) from Dunfermline. Springs and brooks are numerous, and, like the lakes among the hills, are well stocked with fish. Freestone, limestone, and whinstone are abundant. On the summit of Dumglow, at an elevation of 1,200 feet, and on other high eminences, are remains of ancient forts, supposed to be Roman. Near the farm of Gairney Bridge stood the tavern in which the originators of the secession first met. This parish is in the presbytery of Dunfermline, and in the patronage of Young of Cleish. Stipend, £157."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]