Tomintoul is a village in the old county of Banffshire, now subsumed within Moray council. It claims to be the highest village in Highland Scotland, but at 345 metres is still significantly lower than the highest in Scotland (Wanlockhead, Dumfries and Galloway) or even the highest in Britain (Flash, Staffordshire). The two hotels, restaurant, bank, museum and handful of shops are scattered around the picturesque central square. Its current appearance is an improvement on that in 1860, when Queen Victoria recorded that it was "the most tumbledown, poor-looking place I ever saw".
The village was laid out on a grid pattern by the 4th Duke of Gordon in 1775. It followed the construction, twenty years previously, of a military road by William Caulfield - now the A939. By 1841 the parish reached a population of 1,722. In 1951 this had fallen to just 531. The 2001 census reveals a village population of 322 with the total parish population now unavailable.
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