Arbirlot

Coordinates: 56°33′26″N 2°38′48″W / 56.557153°N 2.64675°W / 56.557153; -2.64675

Arbirlot
Arbirlot  Arbirlot shown within Angus
OS grid reference	NO602407
Council area	Angus
Lieutenancy area	Angus
Country	Scotland
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	ARBROATH
Postcode district	DD11
Dialling code	01241
Police	Tayside
Fire	Tayside
Ambulance	Scottish
EU Parliament	Scotland
UK Parliament	Angus
Scottish Parliament	Angus
List of places: UK • Scotland •

Arbirlot (Gaelic: Obar Eilid) is a village in a rural parish of the same name in Angus, Scotland. The current name is a contraction of Aberelliot - mouth of the Elliot. It is situated west of Arbroath. The main village settlement is on the Elliot Water, 2.5 miles from Arbroath. There is a Church of Scotland church and a primary school. The school lies 1 mile further west in the approximate geographic centre of the parish.

Falls at Arbirlot

A nature trail by the Elliot Water links Arbirlot with the former railway junction of Elliot on the Angus Coast. Arbirlot holds host to a spectacular 23 foot waterfall.

Kelly Castle, which overlooks the Elliot Water, comprises a four-storey tower of the 16th Century set within a 19th-century courtyard. It was a stronghold of the Mowbray family until forfeited to the Stewarts in the early 14th century and was restored by the Earl of Dalhousie in the 19th century.

In the 18th and 19th centuries Arbirlot was principally occupied by handloom weavers and farmers, Arbirlot once had a meal mill, a slaughterhouse, two schools, a post office, a savings bank, an inn, a parish library as well as a number of shops.

The parish is believed to be the original home of Clan Elliot, which was transplanted in the Scottish Borders to defend the newly-crowned Robert the Bruce's Scotland from English invaders through an intricate network of peel towers. The Elliots joined the clans of Armstrong, Scott, Douglas, Kerr, Nixon, Hepburn and Maxwell in this effort. The Border Reivers and other titles such a Outlaws of the Marshes are most informative about the Elliots and their exploits after leaving the Arbirlot parish.

Notable Natives and Residents

• George Gladstanes c1562 - 1615, Minister in Arbirlot c1597, afterwards Bishop of Caithness and later Archbishop of St Andrews
• Alexander McGill ? - 1734, Mason and Architect
• Rev Thomas Guthrie 1803 - 1873, divine and philanthropist, Minister in Arbirlot 1827-1837
• Rev John Kirk 1795 - 1858, divine and biographer (of Susannah Wesley mother of John Wesley, The Mother of the Wesleys, Jarrold, London 1868), Church of Scotland Minister in Arbirlot 1837 - 1843 and later first Free Church of Scotland Minister in Arbirlot
• Sir John Kirk 1832 - 1922, physician, naturalist, companion to explorer David Livingstone, diplomat, slavery abolitionist and photography pioneer, lived with his parents in Arbirlot as a young man. Younger son of Rev John Kirk.
• Eileen Ramsay 1940 - , Novelist

Standing Stone in New Manse garden, by Arbirlot

References

Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885

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