Flisk
| Flisk Gaelic: Fleasg | |
| Fife | |
|---|---|
 Flisk Old Church. | |
| Location | |
| Location: | 56°23’22"N, 3°5’43"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 86 |
| Post town: | Cupar |
| Postcode: | KY14 |
| Dialling code: | 01337 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Fife |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath |
Flisk is a parish on the Tay coast of Fife. Its name is from the Gaelic Fleasg, meaning "Stalk" or "Rod". It is bounded on the north by the Tay, on the south by Creich and Dunbog, on the east by Balmerino and on the west by Dunbog. It is four miles in length from east to west and a mile in breadth. Occupying the northern slope of the Ochils, a considerable portion of its surface is hilly and irregular, except about mile from the river, where it is level ground along the whole extent of the parish: the hills are Lyndemus, nearly 750 feet above sea level, Logie Law and Glenduckie Hill. With the exception of the Tay, the parish is watered by small burns and supplied by innumerable springs of the finest water.
According to an 1857 Gazetteer: "there is a great deficiency of cottages in this parish, which is the cause of the continued decrease of Population. There are 3 heritors. The population in 1851 was 213. Coals have to be brought from Newburgh or Balmerino or the Balbirnie pit; though some use English coal, brought in vessels to the beach. There are 3 quarries of sandstone and clinkstone; none of them of importance, and only used for local purposes. The parish being entirely a rural one, there are no manufactures carried on within it. The patron is the Earl of Zetland... There is no Dissenting place of worship. Parish school only. There are no fairs nor public houses in the parish... The nearest market towns are Newburgh 6 miles, Cupar 8 miles and Dundee 10 miles. There is a post office at Newburgh, but the post town is Cupar. There is no village, but a small hamlet, the farm of Glenduckie, consisting of a dozen cottages...[1]
"The barony of Ballanbreich ... originally included the whole of the parish. This formed part of the great lordship of Abernethy; the extensive barony of which remained for nearly 500 years in the family of the Rothes... [1]
Natural heritage
Flisk Wood on the southern shore of the Inner Tay Estuary is a linear woodland between Balmerino in the east and Flisk Point in the west. At 157 acres, Flisk Wood is the largest and least disturbed area of mixed deciduous woodland in Fife. It includes the most extensive stand of ash-elm woodland in north-east Fife and the tree canopy is complemented with sycamore, sessile oak, wild cherry and willow. On more leached, acidic soils in the western section, pedunculate oak replaces sessile oak. There is a mixed shrub layer of hazel, hawthorn and blackthorn throughout the woodland. A large proportion of the site, particularly in the eastern, has been planted with (non-native)sycamore, beech, lime, chestnut, European and Japanese larches, Douglas fir, Norway spruce and Scots pine. (SNH SSSI Site Management Statement)
There is a right of way on the western boundary leading to Flisk Point and access along the shore from Balmerino.
It is one of Scotland's protected places for nature and designated by Scottish Natural Heritage as a site of special scientific interest - first in 1971 and most recently in 1984.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Barbieri 1857, p. 183.
Sources
- Anon (2007) Flisk Wood Site of Special Scientific Interest Site Management Statement. Scottish Natural Heritage. http://gateway.snh.gov.uk/sitelink/documentview.jsp?p_pa_code=644&p_Doc_Type_ID=3
