Edzell
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Edzell shown within Angus | |
OS grid reference | NO601686 |
Council area | |
Lieutenancy area | |
Country | Scotland |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | BRECHIN |
Postcode district | DD9 |
Dialling code | 01356 |
Police | Scottish |
Fire | Scottish |
Ambulance | Scottish |
EU Parliament | Scotland |
UK Parliament | |
Scottish Parliament | |
Edzell (Scots: Aigle,Scottish Gaelic: Eigill) is a village in Angus, Scotland. It is 5 miles (8 km) north of Brechin, by the River North Esk. Edzell is a Georgian-era planned town, with a broad main street and a grid system of side streets. Originally called Slateford, Edzell was renamed in 1818 after an earlier hamlet 1.5 miles (2.5 km) to the west, which by then had been abandoned. Edzell's population in 2004 was 780.
The original village of Edzell was located around the walls of the first Edzell Castle, a motte and bailey structure to the south of the present castle. Of this village, only part of the church now remains, within the original churchyard.
The existing village of Slateford was expanded in the early 19th century by the Earl of Panmure. The new parish church, replacing the one in the old village, was built in 1818 on the village's north boundary, and led to the official renaming of the village as Edzell.
In 1861, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited Edzell, as part of a Royal progress through Angus and Kincardineshire, just weeks before Albert's sudden death. Edzell was not connected to the railway until 1896, and only had a passenger service until 1931, although it reopened experimentally in the summer of 1938. The line closed to freight traffic in 1964. In the twentieth century, the increasing popularity of golf led to more tourists visiting Edzell Golf Club. At one point the village had three large hotels, but it now has only two, along with a series of B&Bs. There are two tearooms, a pharmacy, a post office, two shops and two hairdressers.
The most distinctive landmark of the village is the Dalhousie Arch, which spans the main road into Edzell from the south. It was erected in 1887 to commemorate the deaths of the 13th Earl of Dalhousie and his wife, both of whom died on the same day. Confusion with a similar arch in the neighbouring village of Fettercairn, built in 1864 to commemorate Victoria and Albert's stay at the village's Ramsay Hotel, has led some to believe that Edzell's arch was built to commemorate the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 1887, but this is not the case.