Strathmiglo, parish

Grid reference

NO 217 102 (accurate position)

Six-figure easting & northing

321700 710200

Latitude

56.27788148921605

Longitude

-3.2647055794715505

Nearby places

Ecclesmartin, settlement Strathmiglo (0 miles)

St Martin's Church, Strathmiglo (0.06 miles)

Clements Burn, Auchtermuchty (1.14 miles)

Falkland, parish (aka Kilgour) (1.45 miles)

Kilgour, eccles. Falkland (1.45 miles)

Object Classification

Parish (extant in 1975)

Is linear feature?

No

Relationships with other places

Contains Ecclesmartin, settlement Strathmiglo

Contains St Mary's Chapel, Strathmiglo

Parish details

Strathmiglo

Parish TLA

SLO

County

Fife

Medieval diocese

Dunkeld

Parish notes

SLO was one of the nine medieval parishes in Fothrif which belonged to the diocese of Dunkeld. A large par., it became even larger in 1891 when Pitlour (garden, land and woodlands), Wester Pitlour (part of farm) and the land of Nochnarie, which had been in the Fife part of ANY, were incorporated into it (see Shennan 1892, 256). The alternative name for Strathmiglo was Eglesmartin *, which suggests a church-foundation dating back to Pictish times. It appears to refer to a site at or near the present par. kirk. It lay on what must have been a very important cross-roads, where the road south through the hills from Abernethy, and which continued south along the western edge of the huge bog of the Howe of Fife, met the east-west route which followed the foot of the Ochils along the northern edge of that bog. It was no doubt this important cross-roads, as well as its early association with St Martin, which led to the development of an important Martinmass fair at Strathmiglo. This was held until 1436, when the burgh of Cupar obtained a royal charter which moved the fair from Strathmiglo to Cupar (St Andrews University Muniments B.13.22/4; printed in translation Home 1882, no.iv). The earls of Fife were given the shire of Strathmiglo, along with other lands in north Fife, including the adjacent shire of Falkland FAL, by Malcolm IV c.1160 (RRS i no.190). Strathmiglo is first mentioned explicitly as a shire in 1294, by which time it included not only SLO but also AMY, acquired by the earls of Fife in the early 13th c. (Stevenson, Documents i, 416-17 and RRS ii nos.490 and 568). The monks of Balmerino Abbey, who held extensive lands within the par. comprising the estates of Drumdreel and Pitgorno, had a chapel-of-ease, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, at Gateside SLO (see Campbell 1899, 156-7 and Retours Fife no.1040 (1668), where dun should read den in 'pecia terre capellanie Sancte Marie de dun Gaitsyd nuncupata' i.e. ‘a piece of land of the chaplaincy of St Mary of the Den called Gateside’).