St Fort (/sənˈfrt/, /sntfrt/, /ˈsɑːnfərd/ or /ˈsɑːnfər/) is a rural area, largely in Forgan parish, Fife. The current form of the name is late eighteenth century, the origin being a sandy ford on the Motray Water,[1][2][3] in all likelihood the ford earlier known as Adnectan or Nechtan's ford.[3] St Fort Hill lies immediately to the south of Newport-on-Tay and William Burn’s St Fort House, a large baronial mansion, demolished in 1953, lay on its southern slopes. The Home Farm, to its west, survives.[4]

St Fort
St Fort Hill
St Fort is located in Fife
St Fort
St Fort
Location within Fife
OS grid referenceNO4125
Civil parish
Council area
Lieutenancy area
CountryScotland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townNEWPORT-ON-TAY
Postcode districtDD6
Dialling code01382
PoliceScotland
FireScottish
AmbulanceScottish
UK Parliament
Scottish Parliament
List of places
UK
Scotland
56°24′47″N 2°57′29″W / 56.413°N 2.958°W / 56.413; -2.958
Sandford House Hotel

Further south, the area was formerly served by St Fort railway station, on the Edinburgh–Aberdeen line. The triangular adjunct of the St Fort junctions, connecting the now-defunct Newburgh and North Fife Railway, lay to the station's south-east.

Baillie Scott’s Arts and Crafts style Sandford House Hotel, taking the earlier form of the area's name, lies immediately to the station's west, just into Kilmany parish.[5][1][2][6][7] Its restoration as a residence and holiday cottages was documented in the BBC television series Restoration Home.[8][9][10]

The area is one of the origins of the surname Sandford.[11] It is not to be confused with St Ford, 15 miles to the southeast in the parish of Kilconquhar, similarly sharing its origin as Sandford.[12]

References

edit
  1. ^ a b "Fife Place-name Data :: St Fort". fife-placenames.glasgow.ac.uk.
  2. ^ a b "Fife Place-name Data :: Ploughlands Of St Fort". fife-placenames.glasgow.ac.uk.
  3. ^ a b "Fife Place-name Data :: Naughton". fife-placenames.glasgow.ac.uk.
  4. ^ "St Fort | Canmore". canmore.org.uk.
  5. ^ "Sandford House near Newport on Tay, from hotel to haven". www.scotsman.com. 2 December 2015.
  6. ^ "Sandford House from The Gazetteer for Scotland". www.scottish-places.info.
  7. ^ Stuff, Good. "Sandford Hill Hotel, Kilmany, Fife". britishlistedbuildings.co.uk.
  8. ^ "History". Sandford Country Cottages.
  9. ^ "BBC Two - Restoration Home, Series 2, Sandford House". BBC.
  10. ^ "Restoration Home: Sandford House (Before and After) | History Documentary | Reel Truth History". YouTube. 27 June 2019. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  11. ^ Black, George F. (1946). The Surnames of Scotland (1993 ed.). Edinburgh: New York Public Library/Birlinn. p. 710. ISBN 1-874744-07-6. SANDFORD. From Sandford, now St. Fort in the parish of Forgan, Fife. William de Sandfor witnessed a charter of part of the lands of Carrecros (= Cairncross), c. 1239... Thomas Sandfurd was slain in 1538... The form Santford with unvoiced t due to the following f is the source of the popular etymology of the place name from a mythical St. Fort.
  12. ^ "Fife Place-name Data :: St Ford". fife-placenames.glasgow.ac.uk.