In 1882-4, Frances Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland described Alves like this:
Alves, a village and a coast parish of Elginshire. The village stands ½ mile NE of a station of its own name on the Great North of Scotland railway, at the junction of the Burghead branch, and 5¼ miles W of Elgin, is small and straggling, and has a post office under Forres. The parish formerly included a large portion of what is now Kinloss, but was curtailed in 1659 or 1660. ...
It is bounded NW for 3½ furlongs by Burghead Bay, NE by Duffus, E by Spynie, SE by Elgin, SW by Rafford, and W by Kinloss. Its length, from N to S, is 6½ miles: its greatest breadth is 5½ miles: and its land area is 9404 acres. Alves contains no stream of any size: and the conical Knock (335 feet), at the eastern extremity of the parish, is the only noteworthy summit in its upper half. This is crowned by the modern York Tower, and claims, like several neighbouring localities, to have been the meeting-place of Macbeth and the Witches. The lower half of the parish consists entirely of wooded uplands, that culminate in Eildon Hill (767 feet) on the SE border. A hard and very durable sandstone is quarried for building purposes, and a rock suitable for millstones is also worked. Aslisk Castle, 2 miles SW of the village, is a ruined baronial fortalice: and near the old Military Road stood Moray's Cairn, thought to commemorate a battle, but now destroyed. Near it some Lochaber and Danish axes have been exhumed. Four landowners hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 3 of between £100 and £500, and 1 of from £50 to £100. Alves is in the presbytery of Elgin an synod of Moray: its minister's income is £351. The church is a long, narrow building, erected in 1760, and containing 590 sittings. There is also a Free church, rebuilt in 1878 at a cost of £1000, which measures 50 by 42 feet, seats 500, and has a spire 53 feet high. A board school, with accommodation for 200 children, had (1879) an average attendance of 90, and a grant of £100,5s. Pop. (1831) 945, (1871) 1018, (1881) 1117.—Ord. Sur., shs. 85,95,1876.
Alves through time
Alves is now part of Moray district. Click here for graphs and data of how Moray has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Alves itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Alves in Moray | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/16770
Date accessed: 26th April 2024
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