Blairhall
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Blairhall | |
|---|---|
 Blairhall village | |
  Blairhall Location within Fife | |
| Population | 930 (2020)[1] |
| Council area | |
| Country | Scotland |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Police | Scotland |
| Fire | Scottish |
| Ambulance | Scottish |
Blairhall is a town[2] in West Fife, Scotland. It is situated 1.1 miles (1.77 km) west of Comrie, and 6.7 miles (10.783 km) west of Dunfermline.[3]
The town was originally a small hamlet. Blairhall was in Culross parish as an exclave of Perthshire until May 1891, when the entire parish was attached to Fifeshire.[4] The hamlet was expanded in 1911 to house the miners from a nearby colliery. Today Blairhall has a primary school and a community leisure centre. The village has a population of around 1000 people.[5]
Nearly 1 mile (1.6 km) to the south, beyond Shiresmill, and to the west of the Bluther Burn, stands the 17th-century laird's house of Blairhall, which was the birthplace (c.1630) of Sir William Bruce, later baronet of Balcaskie and then Kinross, and Surveyor-General to King Charles II.[6]
In 2008, a further expansion of the village took place to the northwest, in an area called the Coo Park which was formerly the grounds of Comrie Castle. The park was landscaped with several parkland trees and a rigg-and-furrow system of cultivation from earlier times was evident. The house was owned by a James Anderson of Blairgowrie in the 1850s, but was demolished in the early 1960s. In the grounds there remain parkland trees, an overgrown ha-ha and the site of a curling pond.[7]
Education
Blairhall has a small primary school with approximately 60-80 pupils altogether. It was opened in 1924 as a secondary school but became a primary school in 1945 due to a lack of suitable students.[5] Pupils from Blairhall primary continue onto Queen Anne High School in Dunfermline.[8]
Transport
Bus
Blairhall is served by Stagecoach's number 4 and 28 buses and by Bay Travel's number 4B and 4C buses.
The number 4 starts and terminates in the village on Houldsworth Street and usually operates half-hourly to Dunfermline bus station, except in the evenings and on Sundays.[9]
The number 28 runs every three to four hours westbound to Falkirk or Alloa and eastbound to Dunfermline and Queen Margaret Hospital. It does not operate on a Sunday.[10]
The number 4B runs at times the number 4 does not - evenings and all day Sunday.
The number 4C runs twice a day all week northbound to 'Steelend or eastbound to Dunfermline.[11]
The village is also served by school buses which shuttle pupils to Queen Anne High School or St Columba's High School.[12][13]
Road
The village is served by two roads - the A907, which passes parallel to the north, leading west to Clackmannan, Alloa and Stirling and east to Dunfermline, and the narrower B9037, which passes perpendicular to the village on the west, meeting the A907 to the north and connecting with the A985 near High Valleyfield to the south, passing through the hamlet of Shiresmill.
Rail
The village was once served by the Stirling and Dunfermline Railway through East Grange railway station but the station closed in 1958.[14]
