St Fort | |
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![]() St Fort Hill | |
![]() ![]() St Fort Location within Fife | |
OS grid reference | NO4125 |
Civil parish |
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Council area |
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Lieutenancy area |
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Country | Scotland |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | NEWPORT-ON-TAY |
Postcode district | DD6 |
Dialling code | 01382 |
Police | Scotland |
Fire | Scottish |
Ambulance | Scottish |
UK Parliament |
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Scottish Parliament |
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St Fort (/sənˈfoʊrt/, /seɪntfoʊrt/, /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]
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]
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.