Town in Angus, Scotland
Forfar
A Scottish town gave its name to the ship Grace Darling rescued survivors from, and to a pastry that has outlived its kings and queens.
Key information
- County
- Angus
- Nation
- Scotland
- Population
- about 14,000 (2011 Census)
- Known for
- The Forfar bridie, Forfar Athletic, Restenneth Priory and the 1661 witch trials
- What locals are called
- Forfarians
- Famous people
- Queen Margaret (royal links), Len Martin (his results reading made Forfar famous)
- Football clubs
- Forfar Athletic (the Loons), Station Park
About Forfar
The ship that carried Forfar's name into legend
In 1838 the paddle steamer Forfarshire broke up on the Farne Islands off Northumberland. Grace Darling and her father rowed out through the storm to save the survivors, and the rescue made her one of the most famous heroines in Britain. The ship took its name from the old county, Forfarshire, whose county town was Forfar. In 1928 the county was renamed Angus, and the ship's name is now one of the few places the old title still lives on in popular memory.
A pastry with its own legend: the Forfar bridie
Forfar's best-known export is a semicircular pastry of minced beef, onion and suet, folded into a crust and baked until golden. It is the Forfar bridie, and it is no relation to the potato-and-gravy pies found elsewhere. The classic version is never made with potato. The usual tale is that it was named after a woman called Maggie Bridie, who sold the pastries at fairs and markets. The bakery Jolly's of Forfar has long been associated with the product, and a hot bridie from a local baker remains the town's signature lunch. To this day, locals will tell you that a proper bridie has a little hole in the top, and that you should eat it with your hands.
Kings, queens and a priory older than the town's streets
Forfar was a royal centre in medieval Scotland. A castle stood on the hill at the heart of the town, and tradition links it with Queen Margaret, wife of Malcolm III. The castle was later taken from the English during the Wars of Independence, and the hill still carries the name Castle Hill. Just east of the town stands Restenneth Priory, one of the oldest religious sites in this part of Scotland. Its tower is a rare survivor, with stonework that dates back before the Normans reached Scotland. Nearby Pictish stones around Aberlemno give a sense of how deep the area's roots go, and Glamis Castle, childhood home of the Queen Mother, is only a few miles away.
The dark year of 1661
Forfar has a grim place in Scotland's witch-hunting story. In 1661 a wave of accusations led to a number of local women being tried and burned as witches. The case is among the better-known witch panics in Angus. The memory survives in the town's museum collection, where the iron bridle known as the witch's branks is kept. It was a punishment device used to silence and restrain prisoners, and it is one of the most chilling objects on display anywhere in the county.
The Loons and the football result everyone knows
Forfar Athletic were founded in 1885 and play at Station Park. Their nickname is the Loons, a Scots word for lads. The club has spent most of its life in the lower leagues, and it has earned a loyal following all the same. The town became a byword for lower-league football partly through the BBC's Len Martin, whose rising and falling delivery of the classified football results made names like Forfar and East Fife part of Saturday-teatime culture for generations. Forfar 5, East Fife 4 is often cited as a prime example of his style.
Walks, lochs and the view from the hill
Forfar Loch lies on the edge of the town and has been a recreation spot for generations, with a path around the water and a long history of habitation on the shoreline, including an ancient crannog. On Balmashanner Hill, above the town, the Balmashanner War Memorial, a tower erected in 1921 to commemorate Forfar's First World War dead, looks out over Strathmore, the broad valley between the Sidlaws and the Grampians. On a clear day the view takes in the farmland that has fed the town for centuries and the line of hills to the north.