[Gazetteer of Scotland Contents]
KENNOWAY, a parish in Fifeshire. It forms an irregular parallelogram, 3½ miles in length from east to west, and rather more than 2 miles in breadth from north to south; ascending gradually from the south towards the north. The prospect from almost every part of the parish is extensive and beautiful; commanding a distinct view of the island of May, the Bass rock, Inchkeith, the shipping on the Forth, and the coast south of the Forth, from Dunbar to the west of Edinburgh, including the Lammermoor hills. From the northern or elevated part of the parish, the view embraces not only the prospect to the south just described, but almost all Fifeshire, and a great part, of the counties of Angus, Perth, and Stirling, and of the Grampian mountains. The parish is bounded on the south by the parishes of Scoonie, Wemyss, and Markinch; on the east by Scoonie; on the north by the parish of Kettle; and on the west by Markinch. Of 3,750 imperial acres, being the superficies of this parish, 3,470 are arable. Coal, freestone, and whinstone, are wrought in the parish, and a considerable number of the population are employed in linen-weaving. There are three villages in the parish: 1st, Kennoway, which has a sub-post-office attached to that of Leven, and a population of 862; 2d, Star, having a population of 232; and 3d, Baneton, with a population of 125. The population of the parish, in 1801, was 1,466; in 1831, 1,721. Houses 378. Assessed property, in 1815, £5,251. Valued rent £4,131 Scots. Real rent £5,000. – On the farm of Duniface, in the southern part of this parish, is a round hill called the Maiden-castle, which seems to have been the site in ancient times of a British fort. Tradition points it out as having been a castle belonging to Macduff, Earl of Fife; but this does not appear to be probable, nor is there the slightest evidence of the fact. In the village of Kennoway is an old house in which it is said Archbishop Sharp passed the night previous to his being murdered; and in the first Statistical Account the minister says that about fourteen years ago – he wrote in 1793 – a woman had died, who remembered to have seen the Archbishop on that occasion, she having lived to an extreme old age. – The parish is in the presbytery of Kirkcaldy, and synod of Fife. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £242 17s.; glebe £20. Unappropriated teinds £9 13s. The parish-church anciently belonged to the priory of St. Andrews. It is obviously a building of great antiquity, but the period of its erection is not known. It was thoroughly repaired in 1832; sittings 463. There is a chapel in the village of Kennoway connected with the United Associate Synod; and another chapel connected with the Original Burgher Synod. – The parochial teacher has the maximum salary, and the legal accommodation. Average number of pupils 120. There are besides two unendowed schools in the parish, one of which is a female school.
