The Hill

From the tower on top of the Castle Hill it is easy to imagine this commanding height, (230 feet above sea level), surmounted in mediaeval times by a stronghold from which control could he exercised over Strathmore and the glens to the north.  The Hill was indeed the site of the Castle of Forfar, with which the town may have had its beginnings and around which the ancient burgh gradually developed.

The Castle
Hector Boece, (1465-1536), in his "History of Scotland", (1527), refers to a strong castle within a loch at Forfar where the kings of the confederate tribes met to consider how resistance might be offered to the Romans, who invaded the district on four occasions between 83A.D. and 306, but never established any permanent settlement.

In the ninth century A.D., Alpin, King of Scots, laid siege to Forfar Castle which Feredith, King of the Picts, sought to relieve.  Battle was joined at Restenneth, a mile to the east, and the Scots were victorious.  Feredith was slain, possibly near "Ferryton", and was buried at Forfar.  Kingsmuir and Cunninghill may derive their names from this king whose burial place one historian calls "Agroforfariensis", (Auchterforfar?).

Forfar Castle was used as a base by Malcolm II for raising an army to repel the Danish invaders under Camus, resulting in victories at Aberlemno and Barry in the year 1012.

The Castle of Malcolm III Canmore, (1057-1093), is reported to have stood on an island at the east end of Forfar Loch.  In those times the Loch was much larger than it is now and the Castle Hill was very probably an island at its cast end.  The mound formerly known as "the Hill", to the west of Castle Hill, has since time immemorial been known as "The Manor" as place names continue to testify.  This area, too, in early times, may have been an island but its gentler slopes support its traditional role of "Queen's manoure" or "pleasaunce".  Castle Hill is slightly higher and has the support of tradition for its claim to have been the site of King Malcolm's Castle, to which he repaired soon after his victories over Macbeth and where in the year 1057 he held a "Parliament" at which the title of Earl was first conferred on the Scots nobility.  Forfar may have been created a Royal Burgh on the same occasion.

The peninsula on the north side of the Loch, known as Queen Margaret's Inch, may also have been in those days an island where a small castle might have stood.  Having regard to the extent of the site, and the size of the same Queen's Chapel at Edinburgh Castle, it seems more likely that, as tradition has it, it was the location of the devout Queen's Chapel.  A new castle was certainly built at Forfar in the reign of William the Lion, (1165-1214), on the eminence called Castle Hill. About 1291 this castle was surrendered to Edward I of England.  The Governor, d'Urnfraville, was careful, before submitting, to secure an indemnity from all the parties concerned in the dispute about the Scottish throne, an early example, perhaps, of Forfar "canniness".  Edward visited Forfar in 1296, describing it as "une bonne ville", and lodged in the Castle from 3rd to 6th July.

Sir William Wallace (of Braveheart fame), Governor of Scotland, took the Castle in 1298 from the partisans of England who held it, and in 1306 it was reported to Edward that Forfar Castle had been destroyed.  He authorised its restoration in 1308, but in the same year Philip, the Forester of Platane (to the north of Forfar) scaled its walls, took it. and held it for Bruce.  He accomplished the capture during the night, scaling the wall "with ledderis all prevely", and opening the gate to admit his men.  Later, Bruce ordered that the Castle be razed to the ground and it was never rebuilt.

Pieces of armour and other antiquities have been found from time to time near Castle Hill and may have been relics of the struggles for possession of the Castle.  About 1760 a kettle-like vessel and some arrows were found and a pit of hewn stone about eighteen feet deep was discovered.

No trace of any castle is now to be seen on Castle Hill although ruins were visible about 1684 and remains are mentioned as late as 1843 at which time it is recorded "a stone wall of great thickness and strongly cemented encloses the Palace, and a moat at least twenty feet broad and twelve feet deep encompasses the whole".  In the course of excavations at the beginning of this century when extensions were being made to some of the shops facing Castle Street, evidence of an ancient building was found, including portions of a wall of great thickness, part of which appeared to be a gateway.  Some relics were found also, but these apparently fell to dust when lifted.  In 1935, when an adjacent site was being levelled for a house, a very thick wall was uncovered to the extent only of its outer edge, further excavation being, unnecessary for the immediate purpose, and the full extent of the wall has not so far been ascertained.

It has been suggested that the burghers of Forfar utilised the ruins of the Castle as a source of prepared stone for building the original Steeple, the west entry to the old Parish Church and a large number of houses in the town.

The Cross, Forfar

The Cross The enclosed area on top of the Hill, measuring some twenty-five yards by sixteen yards, is part of the site of the Castle and now contains the tower which bore the Mercat Cross of the burgh and originally stood in front of the old Tolbooth in the street still called The Cross.  The Tolbooth was replaced in 1781 by the present Town and County Hall and, a few years later, the Cross itself was moved from its site in the centre of the town. Its location is still marked out in coloured causeway setts now hidden under a coat of asphalt. Situated at the point where the road leading to the Castle of Forfar joined the main highway through Strathmore from Perth to the north, the Mercat Cross in early times was the traditional centre for the transaction of business and the focus for the life of the town.  There proclamations were made and news disseminated.  It was the custom to read out annually at the Cross the Acts of the Town Council which were in force within the burgh, and Kin's Messengers were frequently at the Cross proclaiming death or outlawry for the King's enemies or mustering men for war.

In the year 1230, after a proclamation by the public crier, the infant daughter and the last of the line of Gillescop McWilliam, a claimant for the kingship of Scotland, being a descendant of Malcolm Canmore and his first wife Ingibiorg, was put to death by having her head struck against the column of the Cross of Forfar.  In 1557 the "legis" between the ages of sixty and sixteen were called to assemble at the Cross with provisions for forty days.  Musters were also called at the Cross in June 1572 and at various later dates.  In 1661 the Council ordained that on 23rd July at 5 a.m. "the whole of the inhabitants appear at the Cross with their arms" for the Riding of the Town's Marches.  Proclamations are still made at the Cross, for there, with due ceremony, the death of the Monarch is announced and his successor proclaimed.

When lands at Westfield and elsewhere were feued out by the Town Council in 1568 part of the reddendo required of the feuars was "carriages of horses in times of encampments and war and at other times for the benefit of the community for building a church, Mercat Cross and Tolbooth . .

The building of "a very stately'' cross, presumably a replacement, and almost certainly comprising the tower now on Castle Hill, is referred to in the burgh records on 9th October 1682.  In 1683, after having, inspected the Mercat Cross in Dundee with the Provost of the town, Alexander Adam was contracted to build a cross in front of the old Tolbooth of Forfar for 600 rnerks.

The Burgh accounts for the year 1684 contain a record of the expenditure on the work, including the hewing of the stone, its transport from "Glames", and the loan of James Gordon's "extrie (axletree) to bring home the said stone, James Guild having broken his extrie in the cause".

In 1799, however, the Town Council found the Cross to be "a piece of elegant antiquity" and resolved to rebuild it upon the Castle Hill because it was "a great inconveniency and obstruction to the public road in its new direction to Brechin".  It was to be built there in a manner as near as possible to its old form. but only the tower is erected on the hill.  A suggestion at that time that a powder magazine be built under the Cross was not pursued.  The pillar of the Cross cannot now be found, having, possibly been taken for use in some other building.  The carved finial, hewn out of hard stone and about two feet high, which surmounted the Cross, was in the form of a castellated tower, rather than the unicorn bearing a shield with a Saltire which often decorates burgh crosses in Scotland.  The finial was found built into a garden wall in the town, and placed at the base of the tower, but there it was damaged and had to be removed. Now it cannot be traced.

The Town Council purchased a road to the Castle Hill through a yard belonging to John Smith in 1801 and, in 1828, decided to enclose the Hill with stone walls and to plant trees there.

The Tower
Octagonal in form, the tower, fourteen feet high and nine feet in diameter, has been re-erected on a rendered stone base six feet in height, making the total height twenty feet above the ground and two hundred and fifty feet above sea level.  Its adaptation for use as an outlook tower and a base for a flagpole has led to the provision of access by a necessary but unsightly iron stair affixed to six of its sides.  Raising the tower has produced a structure of awkward proportions.  It has also been fully exposed to the elements and the sculptured panels on the topmost part of the tower are now rather weathered but the designs can still be made out.

Seal of Forfar, 1582

Burgh Seals The representation of a castle is the heraldic device adopted as a badge by the Royal Burgh of Forfar and may depict the ancient castle.  Its design and date suggest that it represents a step in the development of the Burgh coat of arms, for the earliest seal, (1562), now the badge of Forfar Academy, bears a castle with one square central tower.  On the panel the central tower is rather squat, perhaps because of the space available, and flanking turrets have appeared, which are also found on the 17th Century seals of the Burgh, on which the central tower, too, is turreted.  The castle on the present day coat of arms of the Burgh has three main towers all turreted and watch towers at each end of the battlements. The other sculptured device is the thistle, the national emblem of Scotland, with the monogram CR - Carolus Rex - of King Charles II, (1649-1685), who confirmed the ancient Charter of the Burgh in 1665 and was the reigning monarch when the tower was originally built. Standing on the site of the castle the tower links the Forfar of to-day with the royal burgh of the Restoration period and the Forfar of mediaeval times.

The Panorama
A convenient reference point for the study of the panorama from the tower is the Parish Church of Forfar (Old) which lies south-south-east.  The building dates back to 1790 and was built on the site of an earlier ecclesiastical edifice.  The original church for the parish of Forfar was at Restenneth but a church was built in the town itself around 1568.  The present Steeple, (150 ft. high), was built by the Town Council in 1815 to replace an older structure, the architect being Samuel Bell of Dundee.  On Sundays and on occasions of public rejoicing "Lang Strang" rings out from the Steeple over Forfar, the great bell being a gift to his native town by Robert Strang, merchant in Stockholm, on his death in 1651.

Balmashanner Hill, (572 ft.), seen to the right of the Steeple, may have given Forfar its name, which may be derived from the Gaelic "forfaithir", a high shelving slope.  The Hill is surmounted by the War Memorial, built by public subscription in 1921 and modelled on the Airlie Memorial near Cortachy, itself a replica of the gatehouse of Airlie Castle.

The higher points of the Sidlaws hills which stretch west and south are Craigowl Hill, (1492 ft.), with its radio masts and the wooded Auchterhouse Hill, (1399 ft.).  Between the latter and the cone of Kinpurney Hill, (1134 ft.), surmounted by an old observatory, the length of Glen Ogilvy and the valley of Denoon can be seen if conditions are favourable.

To the west, the line of Manor Street in the foreground indicates the higher parts of the ancient "Manor" and its convenience to the Castle can be appreciated.  Beyond lies Forfar Loch, (170 ft. above sea level, 1 mile long and 160/320 yards wide), a natural catchment for the waters arising around the town, which bestrides the watershed in Strathmore.  The great valley stretches beyond the Loch and on occasion the mountains of Perthshire may be seen in the distance.

The neighbouring burgh of Kirriemuir, (450 ft., pop. 4,222), can be seen to the north-west with Cat Law, (2196 ft.), rising behind it.  To the north-east and cast respectively, but much nearer the town, are Finavon Hill, (751 ft.), and Turin Hill, (825 ft.), each of which is a notable prehistoric hill fort site.  To the southeast the short spire of the Lowson Memorial Church (1914) is prominent and the northern slopes of Dunnichen Hill, (765 ft.), which overlooks on its far side the scene of the battle of Nechtansmere where in 687 the Picts defeated the Northumbrians and turned the tide of the invasion of Scotland from that quarter.

Finally the horizon to the southeast is broken by the Peel Monument, erected in 1851 on a knoll in Forfar (Newmonthill) Cemetery to the memory of Sir Robert Peel in recognition of the benefits obtained from the repeal of the Corn Laws.

The old grey town of Forfar still skirts Castle Hill and it is noticeable that only later buildings began to encroach on its slopes.  The old boundary of the Loch or its marshy shores is still evident to the north where the doubtful foundation provided by the East Greens has kept development at bay.  Here, and well within the area now built on, a prehistoric canoe was found in 1955.  Removed to Dundee Museum for examination, this ancient relic of prehistoric Forfar has its rightful place in the town's museum.

Modern buildings hide the lie of the land but the contours can still be distinguished by careful examination.  The mind can then create a picture of old Forfar and capture perhaps for a fleeting moment the feelings of mediaeval man surveying the scene from the battlements of Forfar Castle, on the palisaded mount of Castle Hill with, to the west, at a slightly lower elevation, the pleasaunce of the Queen's Manor, also lapped by the protecting waters of Forfar Loch.

THERE ARE two theories regarding how Forfar, the (former) County Town of Angus, came by its name.  One belief is that it is from the Gaelic ‘for fuar’, meaning a cold place, while the other means the slope of watching, derived from ‘foither’ meaning slope and ‘faire’ which means ‘watching’.

Imagine almost the entire site of present-day Forfar covered by a huge loch and you see the area as it once was.  The loch of Forfar stretched from Lunanhead in the east towards Glamis in the west.  Great forests rose to the north and stretched far into the Angus glens.  All that remains today is what you can see between the Leisure Centre and the Kirrriemuir/Glamis bypass, but a keen eye can still pick out the banks of the loch in and around many spots throughout the town.

The Leisure Centre is erected upon reclaimed marshland while William Low’s supermarket is built on a bank of the loch.  Other banks can be seen rising from the East Greens to Victoria Road and to the south and east of Goosecroft.  Indeed, when men were digging the foundations for the houses of Goosecroft back in the early 1950s, the shell of a wooden canoe was unearthed.  If I recall correctly, it was taken off to a museum in Dundee.

Early settlers no doubt dwelt along the shoreline of Forfar Loch from earliest times.  As well as providing a rich source of food, the loch would have provided these early dwellers with a means defence.

By the 4th and 5th centuries the enigmatic people the Picts, had settled in the area.  Many no doubt lived in wattle huts constructed from wood and turf spending their time hunting, fishing, cultivating crops and tending livestock the rich farmland.

Two islands stood above the loch.  On was the site of a castle and is known to this day as Castlehill; the other was the Manorhill and is known today as Manor Street.  We don’t know whether Forfar Castle was built of wood or stone but it did have a defence, being surrounded by a loch.  Sometime during the Scottish Wars of Independence (1308) the castle was burned to the ground either by, or on the orders of, Robert the Bruce.  The site can still be visited today and is accessed from Canmore Street.

Street names are always a good start­ing point for a town study.  Canmore meaning ‘big head’ Street was named after King Malcolm III who married an Anglo-Saxon princess, later known as Saint Margaret.  Forfar seemed to be a firm favourite of this royal couple.  During their time in Forfar (11th century) it is said he built a manor house for his queen and had the gardens around the manor laid out for her pleasure.  The Manorhill in Forfar is probably the oldest cultivated area within the burgh bound­ary.

Legend has it that there was a third residence built on the Inch, where ladies of the court could seek refuge should the castle defences be threatened.  The area is still known as St. Margaret’s Inch.

Canmore Street’s older name was the Limepots - limepots being the name for pits where the tanners cured animal skins to make leather for the famous ‘Soutars of Forfar’.  The site of the New Abbeygate Co-operative superstore was known as the ‘Tails’ because animal skins hung over wooden structures during tanning and curing processes.

Other Scottish kings, particularly Malcolms III and IV, Alexanders II and III, and King Robert the Bruce, favoured Forfar and the hunting areas around the town.  This is reflected in place names such as ‘Hawkerstown’, now spelt ‘Halkerton’, and the hunting area, Kingsmuir, which seems to have stretched from Halkerton to Dunnichen in the east.  Several monarchs loved to enjoy the sport to be had on the 70 royal estates which stretched from the Carse of Gowrie in the south to the Mearns in the north,

By the mid-l2th century and because of royal connections Forfar was created a Royal Burgh.  At this time everything that came into towns came in through the ports, and tolls would be payable on these goods, but Forfar’s status meant goods bought by burgesses travelled freely throughout Scotland.  The charter also created the still-existing sheriffdom, bringing a system of law and order.  Unfortunately Forfar’s written records and original Burgh Charter were lost (circa 1295).

The oldest building in the Forfar area is Restenneth Priory, about a mile east of the town on the Montrose road.  The first building on this hallowed site was a Pictish church erected in 710AD.  Nechtan was then king of the Picts and, having been converted to Christianity, craved a place of worship.  He sent to the Abbot of Wearmouth asking for the famously pro­ficient masons from Northumbria.  A missionary, Boniface, was sent and sailed into the River Tay estuary, whence he began to spread the gospel amongst the Picts, who had once been sworn enemies of his people.

After the demise of the Pictish race Restenneth Church fell into disuse.  In 1153, either King David I, or Malcolm IV granted rights for a cell of Augustinian Canons to use the site and they built Restenneth Priory on an island in the Loch of Restenneth.  The only means of reaching the priory was by boat or on foot over a causeway.

The house flourished under the order of Augustinians.  They owned vast tracts of land from Little Perth to Kinnaber.  Sometime between 1159 and 1163 the priory became a subordinate cell of the great Abbey of Jedburgh.  It has been said that because of its proximity to England, Jedburgh was constantly being attacked, so many of their valuable books and muniments were brought to Restenneth for safekeeping.

In 1241 a chapel, under the auspices of Restenneth, was set up in Forfar, on the site now occupied by the East and Old Parish Kirk, and dedicated to St. James the Great.  Thus the Priory was the mother church of Forfar.  By the 15th century, though, the Priory had almost ceased to exist, land-holdings were shared out amongst several local lairds and the chapel in Forfar took over as a place of worship.

Forfar had lost most of its importance by the end of the 14th century, the last parliament being held here in 1372.  At this time Forfar was still a very small place.  The heart of the town comprised the Cross, West Port, (where St. Margaret’s Church is now), East Port, which is now East High Street, the Castlegait, now Castle Street, Canmore Street and the Manor.  West High Street and Little Causeway seem to have been one broad street.  The large loch seems to have stopped the town expanding.

The town was at this time dirty, unpleasant and smelly.  Hygiene had not yet been invented and rubbish was simply tipped out into the earthen streets for pigs, dogs and hens to feed from.  You can imagine the state of the streets after a heavy downpour.  The people lived in small wooden houses thatched with reeds from the lochside and the town was several times burned to the ground.  In 1244 it was said only the castle remained standing.  Latterly it was common for ladders to be left propped against buildings so that people could fight rooftop fires more quickly.

While Forfar’s political importance waned after the Reformation, it devel­oped as a market town and still thrives in this capacity.  Weekly markets were held at the Mercat Cross.  People brought goods from Montrose, Arbroath and many rural villages and set up stalls, as there were no shops in the town.  Wool, leather goods, metalwork, pottery and food items such as herring, salmon, butter, cheese, honey and animal meat were commonly traded.  The Buttermarket still stands to the rear of the Town House today, and here would be situated the Tron.

The Mercat Cross can be traced back to 1230.  It is first mentioned in that year when a baby daughter of a rebel citizen of the town had her head struck against the mercat cross until she died.

The Reformation gripped the country after 1560 and Forfar was affected along with the rest of Scotland.  Restenneth Priory ceased to be important, and bishops and priests were replaced by low-paid ministers.

In 1625 Charles I succeeded James VI and tried to unite the Scottish and Eng­lish churches.  This was resisted by many Scots who, feeling so strongly about this situation, signed a petition against such a merger which came to be known as the National Covenant.  Forfar folk remained loyal to the crown and the town became a meeting place for those who resisted the Covenant.  Cromwell’s troops, under General Monck, torched the town in 1651, pillaged and looted, freed political detainees from the luckenbooths and destroyed the burgh charter.  This should have provided the inhabitants with a prosperous future - it didn’t.  Civil war and its aftermath of low wages, high unemployment and highly-priced goods stifled any progress.  The Reformation had given the Scots a new religion.  Protestantism.  People lived in constant fear of God, forced to attend church and facing a beating for taking the name of the Lord in vain.  Church laws were strict and civil laws even more so.  Witch hunts were a common feature of burgh life at this time.

The area known as the ‘Playfield’ between Victoria Road and Carseburn Road witnessed the burning of many ‘witches’ in the mid-1600s.  Place names such as the Witches Howe and Staikie Racie remind us of these infamous times.  The Witches Howe is no longer visible, but you can still walk to the Playfield area via the Staikie Racie, although young Forfarians once raced each other to be first at the stake.  Other punishments included nailing an offender’s ears to the Tron for simple offences.

The Luckenbooths were behind the Town and County Hall.  Poor unfortunates would be kept there until their execution.  Many were hanged from the upper window of the east side of the Town and County Hall (the window has now been built up but is still visible from the Light Bite corner).

The last hanging at The Cross was of Margaret Wishart in 1827.  Other prisoners would be driven on an open horse-drawn cart from the Cross up West High Street, in full public view, round the Dundee Loan.  At the top of the Loan they would come to a halt outside the Tollhouse (now replaced by a modern bungalow) where they would be offered a drink of water before being driven to Gallowshade and their doom.

Until 1745 the main occupation of most Forfar folk was the production of brogues.  The souters of Forfar were well-to-do and famous for their products.  The majority were staunch Jacobites, many of them joining the rebel army in 1715, along with the Earl of Strathmore, who fell at Sheriffmuir.  In 1728 another Earl of Strathmore was killed in Forfar outside the Stag Hotel, after a Jacobite argu­ment.  He tried to separate his kinsman Lyon of Brigton and Carnegie of Finavon, but was killed in the tussle.  This event seems to have cooled the hotheads in Forfar, because very few went off to fight in the ’45.

Another trade which grew rapidly at this time was hand-loom weaving.  Forfarians were engaged in the manufac­ture of ‘osnaburgs’.  This type of coarse linen and its manufacture came from Germany.  Most of the finished cloth was sold and finished up in America.  The industry flourished right through the American Civil War.  Forfar expanded right through the 18th century and many people became really prosperous.  Houses were built at an unprecedented rate; so much so that the Town Council brought in a ruling that no houses were to be built before plans had been submitted to them and approved.  Changes were also taking place in the surrounding countryside and agricultural practices were changing fast.  The runrig system of agriculture was abolished by the beginning of the 19^th century and money was now being invested in agriculture.

Power looms and the invention of the steam engine brought factories, and an end to the cottage industry.  One of the problems with setting up factories in Forfar, though this is hard to believe, was the lack of an abundant local water sup­ply.  Not until 1878 was a reservoir built at Den of Ogil, ensuring a steady and reliable source of water.

The manufacture of linen gave way in time to the weaving of cotton and latterly jute.  Flax manufacturers built factories in the county town during the latter part of the 19th century.  Jute became increasingly popular towards the close of the 19th century.  The Franco-Prussian War and the trading agreements with the States caused a boom in the weaving trade.  The quarries around Forfar prospered and men found employment there.  Buildings such as the original Reid Hall in 1869 and then the Meffan Institute in 1898 were erected.

Before 1787 an old tollbooth, or town house, stood at The Cross in Forfar.  It consisted of many parts - a doss, prison, some early shops, and on the second floor a sheriff court and chambers where the town council of one provost and five bailies met, but not even a rough diagram remains.  It was agreed that a new town house was needed and work began building the present Town and County Hall.  The Mercat Cross, which stood beside the Tollhouse, was removed at this time because it was causing a traffic hazard, but it can be seen on the Castlehill today.

The present Town and County Hall was designed by Mr. James Playfair, a London architect, whose father had been a minister in Forfar.  Stone, quarried locally at Craignathro and Glencoepark.  Not everyone was pleased with this fine new building, however - the parish kirk minister condemned the undertaking as an extravagance.  Early pictures show the Town and County Hall with a belfry, but this was removed in 1879.

The new Town Hall had many func­tions to fulfil - Sheriff Court, prison, a base for the watch (an early police force), and the first public library in Forfar.  I am sure many ‘loons’ have spent their lives in Forfar and never set foot inside the Town Hall, which is a great pity.  Apart from the Council Chambers, the paintings, chandelier and wonderful stained glass windows, one can see the Coat of Arms.  These consist of a castle - Forfar Castle - a stag and a bull (possibly to represent the tanners and soutars), a tree representing the Forest of Platane, a Saltire, and a lion, the symbol of the early Earls of Angus.

The county town of Angus has always held a high profile in the area, which gave birth to the Scottish nation.  Centuries later during the Civil Wars when all her neighbouring towns and villages took up arms against the king, Forfar remained loyal, and suffered harshly for her ideals.  The town has seen many changes and played its role in Scotland’s history.