1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Queensferry

QUEENSFERRY, a royal and police burgh of Linlithgowshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 1850. It is situated on the S. side of the Firth of Forth, 9 m. by road N.W. of Edinburgh and about 1 m. from Dalmeny station on the North British railway, and is sometimes called South Queensferry, to distinguish it from the Queensferry on the opposite shore. Of old it was the ferry giving access to Dunfermline and other places on the north side of the firth, its use in this respect by Margaret, the queen of Malcolm Canmore, originating its name; just as Port Edgar, 1/2 m. W., was named after her brother, Edgar Atheling. The Hawes Inn, which figures in Scott’s Antiquary, was the terminus of the run from Edinburgh in the coaching days. Queensferry became a burgh of royalty in 1363, a royal burgh in 1639 and a police burgh in 1882, and belongs to the Stirling district group of parliamentary burghs (with Stirling, Culross, Dunfermline and Inverkeithing). The principal structures include, besides the small parish church of Dalmeny (the best example of pure Norman in Scotland), the Countess of Rosebery Memorial Hall (erected in 1893 by the earl of Rosebery), a library and reading-room, and a public hall which also does duty as a town hall. A Carmelite friary was converted into an Episcopal chapel in 1890. There is a large oil-works in the parish. Dalmeny House, the seat of the earl of Rosebery, lies in beautifully wooded grounds about 2 m. E. of the ferry. In the park, on the seashore facing Drum Sands, stands Barnbougle Castle, a building of unknown age which became the seat of the Mowbrays in the 12th century. After passing into the hands of the earls of Haddington, it was purchased in 1662 by Sir Archibald Primrose, an ancestor of the earl of Rosebery. The castle was thoroughly restored in 1880. Dundas Castle, 11/2 m. S. of Queensferry, was a seat of the Dundases from 1124 to 1875, was besieged in 1449, received a visit from Cromwell in 1651 and was partly rebuilt about 1850. Hopetoun House, nearly 3 m. W. of the ferry, was begun about 1696 from the plans of Sir William Bruce of Kinross and completed by Robert Adam. It is the seat of the marquess of Linlithgow. Abercorn, a little to the west, gave the title of duke to a branch of the Hamiltons. It was the site of an ancient monastery, and from 681 to 685 the see of the earliest bishopric in Scotland.