Abernethy and Kincardine

The Church of Scotland parish was created in the 16th century by the combination of the parishes of Kincardine and Abernethy, both of which have ancient origins and past or later associations with other churches. Both parish churches (and associated burial grounds) remain in use.

The baptism registers (up to 1856, since deposited with the Registrar General with microfilm copies at a number of places) have poor coverage around the 1820s, apart from those events not recorded if the parishioners were members of other churches. The pre-1855 marriage registers are in a similar condition but also contain some "extra" entries concerning parishioners who married in other parishes or denominations, including some Roman Catholic marriages (indicated as "married by a priest").

Changes in modern church-going habits have led to Church of Scotland ministers usually covering more than one of the original parishes, in this case resulting in the once "United Parish" of Abernethy and Kincardine becoming separated again and the parts joined to neighbouring parishes; the 2006 circuits for the area are now advertised[1] as "Abernethy, Cromdale and Advie" and "Boat of Garten and Kincardine with Duthil Carrbridge".

The civil parish (based on the boundary of the ecclesiastical parish) originally straddled parts of Inverness-shire and Morayshire; county boundary changes in the latter half of the 19th century resulted in the entire parish being contained within Inverness-shire. The parish council has since been abolished.

It remained as a registration district (since 1972 renamed as Nethybridge) until 2001, generally matching the 19th century census district; from 2002 it became part of the Grantown on Spey and Nethybridge registration district.[6] Due to a combination of registration district boundaries not being tied to local authority boundaries and later changes of the county boundary, events will be found described as happening in Invernessshire or (until 1862) Morayshire but (barring any confusion with the Perthshire town of Abernethy) the same address within this parish is usually being referred to if only the county varies. The Glenmore area (at the southern end of the parish) was moved to the Rothiemurchus registration district on 1 October 1956[7] thus transferring some places which would have been recorded as being within Kincardine in this parish and still might be so described in some more recent registrations.

• Colonel John Roy Stewart (1700–1752), poet, soldier and Jacobite.
• Duncan Phyfe (1770-1854), United States most celebrated cabinetmaker.
• Rev. William Forsyth (1825–1907), parish minister and author of In the Shadow of Cairngorm; his book is now out of copyright and online copies other than those listed below can usually be found.
• Thomas King, Police Constable, was killed by Allan McCallum, a local poacher, when he and a Constable MacNiven attempted to execute an arrest warrant on 20 December 1898. Allan McCallum was tried in Inverness for murder in February 1899,[8] but found guilty of culpable homicide and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment; he was released in 1910.[9] Constable King is buried at Abernethy Kirk.

• A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland (1846) A description of the parish; note that the supposed derivation of "Kincardine" in this book appears fanciful and the implied location of Abernethy Kirk is incorrect.
• Origin of the Kincardine Camerons An extract from In the Shadow of Cairngorm by Rev. W.Forsyth.
• In the Shadow of Cairngorm (Chronicles of the United Parishes of Abernethy and Kincardine) The complete text of the book by the Rev. W. Forsyth, published in 1900 and recently re-printed in a limited edition. It describes many features, people and legends of the area as they were at the time of writing and in earlier times.