Magask, 10 Gowrie Street/6 Kilgask Street

This property has been divided in two flats since around 1953. A century earlier in 1853 Charles Millar, a farmer from Longforgan, and his wife bought this ground, which included a small quarry, from the Free Church. St Fillan’s Free Church had already built their manse on the ground immediately to the front.

An aerial view of Magask in the 1970s

For some reason it would be more than 20 years before Charles Millar got round to building his house here in the 1870s. Perhaps the quarry was being worked at that time to raise money for his retirement. Whatever the reason he and wife Amelia were able to retire here by the mid 1870s.

Archbishop Sharp Connection

The name Magask was chosen by the Millars as it was particularly significant in their family history. Magask was a farm on Magus Muir near Strathkinness. Two hundred years earlier, in 1679, the year of the infamous murder on Magus Muir of Archbishop Sharp by local Covenanters, Magask was farmed by Charles Millar’s great-grandfather. The murder sent shock waves through 17th century Scotland. There is further local interest here: at the time of his death, Archbishop Sharp was the owner and occupant of the Scotscraig Estate at Tayport. The newspaper article here describes how local joiner Sandy Rankine found the evidence for the above information when he was working on dividing the house in the early 1950s. In fact, it has been very noticeable while researching the material for all our houses, just how quickly most of the houses in Newport and Wormit were built. Very often the land was feued one year, and the following year the house(s) were built!

From the early 1900s the name was altered and the name Kilgask was adopted by a Robert Anderson, jute manufacturer, who was living here. This pre-dates the naming of Kilgask Street so it appears that the house gave the name to the street and not vice versa. From 1930 onwards the house was known as The Lodge.