Port-Elphinstone

   PORT-ELPHINSTONE, a village, in the parish of Kintore, district of Garioch, county of Aberdeen, ½ a mile (S.) from Inverury; containing 112 inhabitants. This place is of recent origin, and is quickly rising into importance from its favourable situation at the head of the Aberdeenshire canal, to which goods are sent from Inverury, and from all the surrounding country, for conveyance by the passage-boats. It is three miles from the church of Kintore, and has its name from Sir Robert Elphinstone, on account of his spirited patronage of the canal, which was opened in 1807, and is eighteen and a quarter miles in length from Aberdeen to this place, having been constructed, and subsequently enlarged, at a cost of nearly £50,000. Mills on a very large scale have been erected for grinding all sorts of grain, which, when converted into meal, is sent by the enterprising proprietor of the works, Mr. Tait, throughout the whole kingdom. The village also contains several granaries, two saw-mills, and extensive storehouses for coal, lime, and bone-dust, which, with sundry other commodities, are imported in exchange for grain, slate, timber, and various other articles. The traffic and the population are rapidly on the increase; and the boats for passengers, and numerous barges for merchandise, with the bustle arising from the shipping and landing of the goods, confer on the place the appearance of a small sea-port. It is included in the parliamentary boundaries of Inverury; and all the inhabitants possessed of the £10 franchise vote in the election of a member of parliament with the constituency of that burgh. A school was opened a few years since, assisted by a government grant.