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Title: Aberdeenshire
Author: Mackie, Alexander
Language: English
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CAMBRIDGE COUNTY GEOGRAPHIES
ABERDEENSHIRE
[Illustration]
[Illustration:
_The Cambridge University Press_
[Illustration:
PHYSICAL MAP OF
COUNTY OF
ABERDEEN
_Copyright. George Philip & Son L^{td}_
]
CAMBRIDGE COUNTY GEOGRAPHIES
SCOTLAND
General Editor: W. MURISON, M.A.
ABERDEENSHIRE
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
London: FETTER LANE, E.C.
C. F. CLAY, MANAGER
[Illustration]
Edinburgh: 100, PRINCES STREET
Berlin: A. ASHER AND CO.
Leipzig: F. A. BROCKHAUS
New York: G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD.
_All rights reserved_
_Cambridge County Geographies_
ABERDEENSHIRE
by
ALEXANDER MACKIE, M.A.
Late Examiner in English, Aberdeen University, and
author of _Nature Knowledge in Modern Poetry_
With Maps, Diagrams and Illustrations
Cambridge:
at the University Press
1911
Cambridge:
PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
CONTENTS
PAGE
1. County and Shire. The Origin of Aberdeenshire 1
2. General Characteristics 4
3. Size. Shape. Boundaries 10
4. Surface, Soil and General Features 15
5. Watershed. Rivers. Lochs 20
6. Geology 35
7. Natural History 43
8. Round the Coast 52
9. Weather and Climate. Temperature. Rainfall.
Winds 64
10. The People—Race, Language, Population 70
11. Agriculture 76
12. The Granite Industry 83
13. Other Industries. Paper, Wool, Combs 89
14. Fisheries 94
15. Shipping and Trade 102
16. History of the County 105
17. Antiquities—Circles, Sculptured Stones, Crannogs,
Forts 112
18. Architecture—(_a_) Ecclesiastical 121
19. Architecture—(_b_) Castellated 132
20. Architecture—(_c_) Municipal 145
21. Architecture—(_d_) Domestic 154
22. Communications—Roads, Railways 160
23. Administration and Divisions 166
24. The Roll of Honour 170
25. The Chief Towns and Villages of Aberdeenshire 178
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
The lone Kirkyard, Gamrie 3
Town House, Old Aberdeen 5
Consumption Dyke at Kingswells 7
The Punch Bowl, Linn of Quoich, Braemar 9
Pennan, looking N.W. Showing old and new houses of
Troup 12
Loch Avon and Ben-Macdhui 14
Benachie 19
Linn of Dee, Braemar 21
Old bridge of Dee, Invercauld 22
View from old bridge of Invercauld 23
Falls of Muick, Ballater 24
Birch Tree at Braemar 26
Fir Trees at Braemar 28
The Don, looking towards St Machar Cathedral 30
Brig o’ Balgownie, Aberdeen 31
Loch Muick, near Ballater 32
Loch Callater, Braemar 34
Loch of Skene 36
Deer in time of snow 47
The Dunbuy Rock 48
Girdleness Lighthouse 53
Sand Hills at Cruden Bay 56
“The Pot,” Bullers o’ Buchan 58
Buchan Ness Lighthouse 60
Kinnaird Lighthouse, Fraserburgh 61
Entrance to Lord Pitsligo’s Cave, Rosehearty 62
Aberdour Shore, looking N.W. 63
Inverey near Braemar 67
Aberdeen-Angus Bull 81
Aberdeen Shorthorn Bull 82
Granite Quarry, Kemnay 84
Granite Works, Aberdeen 86
Making smoked haddocks, Aberdeen 93
Fish Market, Aberdeen 97
Fishwives, The Green, Aberdeen 98
North Harbour, Peterhead 99
Herring boats at Fraserburgh 100
Fishing Fleet going out, Aberdeen 101
At the docks, Aberdeen 103
White Cow Wood Cairn Circle; View from the S.W. 113
Palaeolithic Flint Implement 114
Neolithic Celt of Greenstone 114
Stone at Logie, in the Garioch 116
“Picts” or “Eirde House” at Migvie, Aberdeenshire 118
Loch Kinnord 120
From _The Book of Deer_ 125
St Machar Cathedral, Old Aberdeen 127
St Machar Cathedral (interior) 128
King’s College, Aberdeen University 129
East and West Churches, Aberdeen 130
Kildrummy Castle 133
The Old House of Gight 138
Craigievar Castle, Donside 140
Crathes Castle, Kincardineshire 141
Castle Fraser 142
Fyvie Castle, South Front 144
Municipal Buildings, Aberdeen, and Town Cross 146
Marischal College, Aberdeen 147
Union Terrace and Gardens, before widening of Bridge 149
Grammar School, Aberdeen 150
Gordon’s College, Aberdeen 151
Bridge of Don, from Balgownie 152
Old Bridge of Dee, Aberdeen 153
Balmoral Castle 155
Cluny Castle 157
Haddo House 158
Midmar Castle 159
Spittal of Glenshee 161
Professor Thomas Reid, D.D. 175
The Old Grammar School, Schoolhill 179
Birsemore Loch and Craigendinnie, Aboyne 182
Mar Castle 183
Ballater, view from Pannanich 184
Braemar from Craig Coynach 186
The Doorway, Huntly Castle 188
The Bass, Inverurie 189
The White Horse on Mormond Hill 193
Diagrams 195
MAPS
Orographical Map of Aberdeenshire _Front Cover_
Geological Map of Aberdeenshire _Back Cover_
Rainfall Map of Scotland 65
The illustrations on pp. 3, 12, 62, 63 are from photographs by W.
Norrie; those on pp. 5, 9, 14, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 28, 30, 31, 32,
34, 36, 48, 53, 56, 58, 60, 61, 67, 86, 93, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 103,
120, 127, 128, 129, 130, 133, 140, 141, 144, 146, 147, 149, 150, 151,
152, 153, 155, 157, 158, 159, 161, 182, 183, 184, 186, 188 and 189,
are from photographs by J. Valentine and Sons; that on p. 7 from a
photograph by J. Watt; that on p. 47 from a photograph by Dr W. Brown;
that on p. 84 from a photograph by A. Gordon; that on p. 193 from a
photograph by A. Gray.
Thanks are due to W. Duthie, Esq., Collynie, for permission to
reproduce the illustration on p. 82; to J. M^{c}G. Petrie, Esq.,
Glen-Logie, for permission to reproduce that on p. 81; to Messrs T. and
R. Annan and Sons, for permission to reproduce that on p. 175; to the
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland for permission to reproduce those
on pp. 113 and 118; and to Alexander Walker, Jr., Esq., Aberdeen, for
permission to reproduce that on p. 179.
1. County and Shire. The Origin of Aberdeenshire.
The term “shire,” which means a division (Anglo-Saxon _sciran_: to cut
or divide), has in Scotland practically the same meaning as “county.”
In most cases the two names are interchangeable. Yet we do not say
Orkneyshire nor Kirkcudbrightshire. Kirkcudbright is a stewartry and
not a county, but in regard to the others we call them with equal
readiness shires or counties. County means originally the district
ruled by a Count, the Norman equivalent of Earl. It is said that
Aberdeenshire is the result of a combination of two counties, Buchan
and Mar, representing the territory under the rule of the Earl of
Buchan and the Earl of Mar. The distinction is in effect what we mean
to-day by East Aberdeenshire and West Aberdeenshire; and the local
students of Aberdeen University when voting for their Lord Rector by
“nations” are still classified as belonging to either the Buchan nation
or the Mar nation according to their place of birth.
The counties, then, are certain areas which it is convenient for
political and administrative purposes to divide the country into
for the better and more convenient management of local and internal
affairs. To-day Scotland has thirty-three of these divisions. In a
public ordinance dated 1305, twenty-five counties are named. They would
seem to have been first defined early in the twelfth century, but as a
matter of fact nothing very definite is known, either as to the date
of their origin or as to the principles which regulated the making of
their geographical boundaries. It is certain, however, that the county
divisions were in Scotland an introduction from England. The term came
along with the people who were flocking into Scotland from the south.
The lines were drawn for what seemed political convenience and no doubt
they were suited to the times. To-day the boundaries seem on occasion
somewhat erratic. Banchory, for example, is in Kincardineshire, while
Aboyne and Ballater on the same river bank and on the same line of road
and railway are in Aberdeenshire. If the carving were to be done over
again in the twentieth century, more consideration would probably be
given to the railway lines.
A commission of 1891 did actually rearrange the boundaries. Of the
parishes partly in Aberdeen and partly in Banff, some were transferred
wholly to Aberdeen (Gartly, Glass, New Machar, Old Deer and St Fergus),
while others were placed in Banffshire (Cabrach, Gamrie, Inverkeithny,
Alvah and Rothiemay). How it happened that certain parts of adjoining
counties were planted like islands in the heart of Aberdeenshire may
be understood by reference to such a case as that of St Fergus.
A large part of this parish belonged to the Cheynes, who being
hereditary sheriffs of Banffshire were naturally desirous of having
their patrimonial estates under their own legal jurisdiction, and were
influential enough to be able to stereotype this anomaly. This explains
the place of St Fergus in Banffshire; it is now very properly a part of
Aberdeenshire.
[Illustration: The lone Kirkyard, Gamrie]
The county took its name from the chief town—Aberdeen—which is
clearly Celtic in origin and means the town at the mouth of either
the Dee or the Don. Both interpretations are possible; but the fact
that the Latin form of the word has always been _Aberdonia_ and
_Aberdonensis_, favours the Don as the naming river. As a matter of
fact, Old Aberdeen, though lying at no great distance from the bank
of the Don, can hardly be said to be associated with Donmouth, whereas
a considerable population must from a remote period have been located
at the mouth of the Dee. Whatever interpretation is accepted, it was
this city—the only town in the district conspicuous for population and
resources—that gave its name to the county as a whole.
The whole region between the river Dee and the river Spey, comprising
the two counties of Banff and Aberdeen, forms a natural province.
There is no natural, or recognisable line of demarcation between the
two counties. Their fortunes have been one. The river Deveron might
conceivably have been chosen as the dividing line, but in practice it
is so only to a limited extent. The whole district, which if invaded
was never really conquered by the Romans, made one of the seven
Provinces of what was called Pictland in the early middle ages, and
it long continued to assert for itself a semi-independent political
existence.
2. General Characteristics.
[Illustration: Town House, Old Aberdeen]
The county is almost purely agricultural. It has always enjoyed a
certain measure of maritime activity and of recent years the fishing
industry, especially at Aberdeen, has made immense progress, but as a
whole the area is a well-cultivated district. Round the coast and on
all the lower levels tillage is the rule. In the interior the level of
the land rises rapidly, and ploughed fields give place to desolate
moors and bare mountain heights in which agriculture is an impossible
industry. The surface of the lowland parts, now in regular cultivation,
was originally very rough and rock-strewn. It was covered with erratic
blocks of stone, gneiss and granite (locally called “heathens”), left
by the melting of the ice fields which overspread all the north-east of
Scotland during the Ice Age. These stones have been cleared from the
fields and utilised as boundary walls. Some idea of the extraordinary
energy and excessive labour necessary to clear the land for tillage may
be gathered from a glance at the “consumption” dyke at Kingswells, some
five miles from Aberdeen. This solid rampart stretches like a great
break-water across nearly half a mile of country, through a dip to the
south of the Brimmond Hill. It is five or six feet in height and twenty
to thirty in breadth and contains thousands of tons of troublesome
boulders gathered from the surrounding slopes. The disposal of these
blocks was a serious problem. It has been solved by this rampart. In
other parts the stones were built up into enclosing walls and now serve
the double purpose of enclosing the fields and providing a certain
amount of shelter for crops and cattle. The slopes of the Brimmond Hill
are in certain parts still uncleared and the appearance of these areas
helps us to realise what this section of the country looked like before
the enterprising agriculturist braced himself to prepare the surface
for the use of the plough.
[Illustration: Consumption Dyke at Kingswells]
The soil, except in the alluvial deposits on the banks of the Don and
the Ythan, is not of great natural fertility, yet by the exceptional
industry of the inhabitants and their enterprise as a farming community
it has been raised to a high degree of productiveness. The county now
enjoys a well but hard earned reputation for progressive agriculture.
Notably so in regard to cattle-breeding. It is the home of a breed
of cattle called Aberdeenshire, black and polled, but it is just as
famous for its strain of shorthorns which have been bred with skill and
insight for more than a century. In spite, then, of its inferior soil,
its wayward climate and its northern latitude, the inborn stubbornness
and determination of its people have made it a great and prosperous
agricultural region and only those who on a September day have seen
from the top of Benachie the undulating plains of Buchan glittering
golden in the sun can realise what a transformation has been effected
on a barren and stony land by the industry of man.
The most easterly of the Scottish counties, it abuts like a prominent
shoulder into the North Sea. It has, therefore, a considerable
sea-board partly flat and sandy, partly rocky and precipitous. The
population of the numerous villages dotted along this coast used in
time past to devote themselves to fishing, but the tendency of recent
years has been to concentrate this industry in the larger towns,
Fraserburgh, Peterhead and Aberdeen.
Other industries there are few. Next to agriculture and fishing comes
granite, which is the only mineral worthy of mention found in the
county. It is the prevailing rock of the district and is quarried to a
considerable extent in various parts. A large part of the population
earn their living by this industry, and Aberdeen granite, like Aberdeen
beef and Aberdeen fish, is a well-known product and travels far. Paper
and wool are also manufactured but only on a moderate scale.
There is only one other general feature of the county that deserves
mention and that is its attractiveness as a health resort. The banks
of the Dee, more especially in its upper regions, is a much frequented
holiday haunt; and every summer and autumn Braemar, Ballater and Aboyne
are crowded with visitors from all parts of the country. The late Queen
Victoria no doubt gave the
[Illustration: The Punch Bowl, Linn of Quoich, Braemar]
impetus to this fashion. Her majesty at an early period of her reign
bought the estate of Balmoral, half-way between Ballater and Braemar,
and having built a royal castle there made it her practice to reside
for a large part of every year amongst the Deeside hills. Apart from
this royal advertisement the high altitude of the district, and its
dry, bracing climate, as well as its romantic mountain scenery, have
proved permanently attractive. Here are Loch-na-gar (sung by Byron),
Ben-Macdhui, Brae-riach, Ben-na-Buird, Ben-Avon and other Bens,
all of them 4000, or nearly 4000, feet above sea-level, and all of
them imposing and impressive in their bold and massive forms. These
mountains supply elements of grandeur which exercise a fascination upon
people who habitually live in a flat country, and Braemar is not likely
to lose its merited popularity.
3. Size. Shape. Boundaries.
Aberdeenshire is one of the large counties in area, standing fifth in
Scotland. Although Inverness contains more than twice the number of
square miles in Aberdeenshire, its population is far behind that of
Aberdeen, which in this respect is the third county in Scotland. Its
greatest length from N.E. to S.W. is 102 miles; its greatest breadth
from N.W. to S.E. is 50. The coast line measures 65 miles and is
little indented. The whole area of the county is 1970 square miles, or
1,261,971 acres, of which 6400 are water.
In shape the county might be likened to a pear lying obliquely on its
side, the narrow stalk-end being in the mountains, while the rounded
bulging head is the north-eastern sea-board. The flattest portion is
the region lying north of the Ythan, called Buchan, and even this can
hardly be called flat, for the level is broken by Mormond Hill, near
Strichen, rising to a height of 810 feet. All the way to Pennan Head
the contour of the land is irregularly wavy. The narrower portion in
the S.W., called Mar, is entirely mountainous, and midway between
these two extremes lie the Garioch and Formartin—districts which
are undulating in character. A crescent line drawn from Aberdeen to
Turriff, the convex side being to the S.W., would divide the county
into two parts, which might be described as lowland and highland. The
lowland portion contains the lower valley of the Don as far up as
Inverurie, the valley of the Ythan and all the remaining northern part
of the county. South of this imaginary line the ground rises in ridge
after ridge until it culminates in the lofty Grampian range of the
Cairngorms. The bipartite character of the county, which is reflected
in the occupation and pursuits as in the character and language of
the two populations, is of some importance, and yet must not be
pressed too far, because the population in the one half is practically
insignificant as compared with that of the other. It follows that when
Aberdeenshire men and Aberdeenshire ways are referred to, nine times
out of ten it is the lowland part of the county that is in question.
[Illustration: Pennan, looking N.W. Showing old and new houses of Troup]
The boundaries are, on the east, the North Sea, and on the north
as far west as Pennan Head, the Moray Firth. There Banffshire and
Aberdeenshire meet. From that point inland a wavy boundary separates
the two counties, the Deveron being for part of the way the dividing
line. Above Rothiemay the boundary mounts the watershed between
Deveronside and Speyside, and keeping irregularly to this line past
the Buck of the Cabrach, and the upper waters of the Don, reaches
Ben-Avon. Thence the line moves on to Ben-Macdhui with Loch Avon on
the right, and at Brae-riach Banffshire ceases to be the boundary.
For several miles, almost due south in direction, Inverness comes
in as the county on the west. The southern boundary touches three
counties, Perth, Forfar and Kincardine. At Cairn Ealar, which is the
angle of turning and almost a right angle, the direction changes and
runs east alongside of Perthshire to the Cairnwell Road, and crossing
this leaves Perthshire at Glas Maol, where it touches Forfarshire.
The line continues east but with a trend to the north, passing on
the left Glenmuick, Glentanar and the Forest of Birse, in which the
Feugh takes its rise. On the top of Mount Battock three counties
meet, Forfar, Aberdeen and Kincardine. Henceforth we are alongside of
Kincardineshire and the line bends north-west with a semi-circular
sweep round Banchory-Ternan and the Hill of Fare to Crathes, from a
little beyond which, the bed of the Dee becomes the boundary line all
the way to Aberdeen. In all this area of high ground the line of march
is practically the watershed throughout, marking off the drainage area
of the Don and the Dee from that of the Deveron and the Avon (a
tributary of the Spey) on the one hand, and from that of the Tay and
the two Esks (south and north) on the other.
[Illustration: Loch Avon and Ben-Macdhui]
4. Surface, Soil and General Features.
From what has been already said of the contour of the county it may
be inferred that its surface is extremely varied. Every variety of
highland and lowland country is to be found within its limits. Near
the sea-board the land is gently undulating, never quite flat but
not rising to any great height till Benachie (1440) is reached. From
that point onwards, whether up Deveronside or Donside or Deeside, the
mountains rise higher and higher till the Cairngorms, which comprise
some of the loftiest mountains in the kingdom, are reached. At that
point we are more than half-way across Scotland, and in reality are
nearer to the Atlantic than to the North Sea. Less than half the land
is under cultivation. Woods and plantations occupy barely a sixth part
of the uncultivated area. The rest is mountain and moor, yielding a
scanty pasturage for sheep and red-deer, and on the lower elevations
for cattle.
In the fringe round the sea-board no trees will grow. It is only when
several miles removed from exposure to the fierce blasts that come
from the North Sea that they begin to thrive, but the whole Buchan
district is conspicuously treeless. Almost every acre is cultivated and
the succession of fields covered with oats, turnips and grass, which
fill up the landscape as with a great patchwork, is broken only here
and there by belts of trees round some manor-house or farm-steading.
Except in a few places the scenery of this lowland portion is devoid
of picturesque interest, yet the woods of Pitfour and of Strichen,
the policies of Haddo House near Methlick, the quiet silvan beauty
of Fyvie, which more resembles an English than a Scotch village,
the wooded ridge that overlooks the Ythan at the Castle of Gight,
are charming spots that serve by contrast to accentuate the general
tameness of this lower area.
In the higher region, the south-western portions of the county,
agriculture is, to some extent, practised, but it is necessarily
confined to narrow strips in the valleys of the rivers. The hills,
which are rarely wooded, and that only up to fifteen hundred feet above
sea-level, are rounded in shape, not sharp and jagged. They are, where
composed of granite, invariably clothed in heather and are occasionally
utilised for the grazing of sheep, but this is becoming less common,
and year by year larger areas are depleted of sheep for the better
protection of grouse. All the heathery hills up to 2000 feet are grouse
moors. Throughout the summer these display the characteristic brown
tint of the heather—a tint which gives place in early August to a
rich purple when the heather breaks into flower. Long strips of the
heather-mantle are systematically burned to the ground every spring.
Such blackened patches scoring with their irregular outlines the sides
of the hills in April and May give a certain amount of variety to the
prevailing tint of brown. They serve a very useful purpose. The young
grouse shelter in the long and unburnt heather but frequent the cleared
areas for the purpose of feeding on the tender young shoots which
spring up from the blackened roots of the burned plants.
Further inland still, where the hills rise to a greater height, they
become deer-forests. As a rule these forests are without trees and
are often rockstrewn, bare and grassless. It is only in the sheltered
corries or by the sides of some sparkling burn, that natural grasses
spring up in sufficient breadth to provide summer pasturage for the
red-deer, which are carefully protected for sporting purposes. Here
too the ptarmigan breed in considerable numbers. The grouse moors
command higher rents than would be profitable for a sheep-farmer to
give for the grazing, and every year prior to the 12th of August, when
grouse-shooting begins, there is an influx of sportsmen from the south,
to enjoy this particular form of sport. The red grouse is indigenous
to Scotland; it seems to find its natural habitat amongst the heather,
where in spite of occasional failures in the nesting season, and in
spite of many weeks’ incessant shooting, it thrives and multiplies.
Deer-stalking begins somewhat later; in a warm and favourable summer,
the stags are in condition early in September. This sport is confined
to a comparative few.
The highest mountain in the Braemar district is Ben-Macdhui (4296
feet). A few others are over 4000—Brae-riach and Cairntoul.
Ben-na-Buird and Ben-Avon, which last is notable for the numerous
tors or warty knots along its sky-line, are just under 4000 feet.
Loch-na-gar, a few miles to the east and a conspicuous background
to Balmoral Castle, is 3789. Byron called it “the most sublime and
picturesque of the Caledonian Alps,” and Queen Victoria writing from
Balmoral in 1850 described it as “the jewel of all the mountains
here.” Its contour lines, which are somewhat more sharply curved than
is usual in the Deeside hills, and the well-balanced distribution of
its great mass make it easily recognised from a wide distance. This
partly explains the pre-eminence which notwithstanding its inferiority
of height it undoubtedly possesses. Due north from Ballater are Morven
(2880) and Culblean, and due south is Mount Keen; a little east and
on the boundary line of three counties is Mount Battock. Perhaps the
most prominent hill, and the one most frequently visible to the great
majority of Aberdeenshire folks, is Benachie, which stands as a fitting
outpost of the vast regiment of hills. It stands apart and although
only 1440 feet in height is an unfailing landmark from all parts of
Buchan, from Aberdeen, from Donside, and even from Deveronside. Its
well-defined outline and projecting “mither tap” render it an object of
interest from far and near, while the presence or absence of cloud on
its head and shoulders serves as a barometric index to the state of the
weather.
[Illustration: Benachie]
5. Watershed. Rivers. Lochs.
As we have already pointed out, the watershed coincides to a large
extent with the boundary line of the county. The lean of Aberdeenshire
is from west to east so that all the rivers flow in an easterly
direction to the North Sea. On the west and north-west of the highest
mountain ridges, the slope of the land is to the north-east, and the
Spey with its several tributaries carries the rainfall to the heart of
the Moray Firth.
The chief river of the county is the Dee. It is the longest, the
fullest-bodied, the most picturesque of all Aberdeenshire waters.
Taking its rise in two small streams which drain the slopes of
Brae-riach, it grows in volume and breadth, till, after an easterly
course of nearly 100 miles, it reaches the sea at Aberdeen. The
head-stream is the Garrachorry burn, which flows through the cleft
between Brae-riach and Cairntoul. A more romantic spot for the cradle
of a mighty river could hardly be found. The mountain masses rise
steep, grim and imposing—on one side Cairntoul conical in shape, on
the other Brae-riach broad and massive, a picture of solidity and
immobility. The Dee well is 4060 feet above sea-level and 1300 above
the stream which drains the eastern side of the Larig—the high pass to
Strathspey. As it emerges from the Larig, it is a mere mountain torrent
but presently it is joined at right angles by the Geldie from the
south-west, and the united waters move eastward through a wild glen of
rough and rugged slopes
[Illustration: Linn of Dee, Braemar]
and ragged, gnarled Scots firs to the Linn of Dee, 6-3/4 miles above
Braemar. There is no great fall at the Linn, but here the channel of
the river becomes suddenly contracted by great masses of rock and the
water rushes through a narrow gorge only four feet wide. The pool below
is deep and black and much overhung with rocks. For 300 yards stretches
this natural sluice, formed by rocks with rugged sides and jagged
bottom, the water racing past in small cascades. The river is here
spanned by a handsome granite bridge opened in 1857 by Queen Victoria.
[Illustration: Old bridge of Dee, Invercauld]
As the river descends to Braemar, the glen gradually widens out,
and the open, gravelly, and sinuous character of the bed, which is
a feature from this point onwards, is very marked. Pool and stream,
stream and pool succeed one another in shingly bends, clean, sparkling
and beautiful. At Braemar the bed is 1066 feet above sea-level. Below
Invercauld the river is crossed by the picturesque old bridge built by
General Wade, when he made his well-known roads through the Highlands
after the rebellion of 1745. Here the Garrawalt, a rough and obstructed
[Illustration: View from old bridge of Invercauld]
[Illustration: Falls of Muick, Ballater]
tributary, joins the main river. From Invercauld past Balmoral Castle
to Ballater is sixteen miles. Here the bottom is at times rocky, at
times filled with big rough stones, at other times shingly but never
deep. The average depth is only four feet, and the normal pace under
ordinary conditions 3-1/2 miles an hour. From Ballater, where the
river is joined by the Gairn and the Muick, the Dee maintains the same
character to Aboyne and Banchory, where it is joined by the Feugh from
the forest of Birse. Just above Banchory is Cairnton, where the water
supply for the town of Aberdeen, amounting on an average to 7 or 8
million gallons a day, is taken off. The course of the river near the
mouth was diverted some 40 years ago to the south, at great expense,
by the Town Council, and in this way a considerable area of land was
reclaimed for feuing purposes. The spanning of the river at this point
by the Victoria bridge, which superseded a ferry-boat, has led to the
rise of a moderately sized town (Torry) on the south or Kincardine side
of the river.
The scenery of Deeside, all the way from the Cairngorms to the old
Bridge of Dee, two miles west of the centre of the city, is varied
and attractive. It is well-wooded throughout; in the upper parts the
birch, which would seem to be indigenous in the district, adds to the
beauty of the hill-sides, while the clean pebbly bed of the river and
its swift, dashing flow delight the eyes of those who are familiar only
with sluggish and mud-stained waters. It is not surprising therefore
that the district has attained the vogue it now enjoys.
The Don runs parallel to the Dee for a great part of its course, but it
is a much shorter river, measuring only 78 miles. It rises at the very
edge of the county close to the point where the Avon emerges from Glen
Avon and turns north to join the Spey. It drains a valley which is only
ten or fifteen miles separated from the valley of the larger river. In
its upper reaches it somewhat resembles Deeside, being quite highland
in character; but lower down the river loses its rapidity, becoming
sluggish and winding. Strathdon, as the upper area is called, is
undoubtedly picturesque, but it lacks the bolder features of Deeside,
being less wooded and graced with few hills on the grand scale. It has
not, therefore, become a popular
[Illustration: Birch Tree at Braemar]
summer resort, but its banks form the richest alluvial agricultural
land in the county—
A mile o’ Don’s worth twa o’ Dee
Except for salmon, stone and tree.
This old couplet is so far correct. The Dee is a great salmon river,
providing more first-class salmon angling than any other river of
Scotland, while the Don, though owing to its muddy bottom a stream
excellent beyond measure and unsurpassed for brown trout, is not now,
partly owing to obstruction and pollution, a great salmon river. But
the agricultural land on Donside, which for the most part is rich deep
loam, about Kintore, Inverurie and the vale of Alford is much more
kindly to the farmer than the light gravelly soil of Deeside, which is
so apt to be burnt up in a droughty summer. In the matter of stone,
things have changed since the couplet took shape. The granite quarries
of Donside are now superior to any on the Dee; but the trees of Deeside
still hold their own, the Scots firs of Ballochbuie forest, west of
Balmoral, being the finest specimens of their kind in the north.
The nether-Don has been utilised for more than a century as a driving
power for paper and wool mills. Of these there is a regular succession
for several miles of the river’s course, from Bucksburn to within a
mile of Old Aberdeen. After heavy rains or a spring thaw the lower
reaches of the river, especially from Kintore downwards, are apt to be
flooded, and in spite of embankments which have been erected along the
river’s course, few years pass without serious damage being done to the
[Illustration: Fir Trees at Braemar]
crops in low-lying fields. Some parts of Donside scenery, notably
at Monymusk (called Paradise), and at Seaton House just below the
Cathedral of Old Aberdeen, and before the river passes through the
single Gothic arch of the ancient and historical bridge of Balgownie,
are very fine—wooded and picturesque, and beloved of more than one
famous artist.
The next river is the Ythan, which, rising in the low hills of the
Culsalmond district and flowing through the parish of Auchterless and
past the charming hamlet of Fyvie, creeps somewhat sluggishly through
Methlick and Lord Aberdeen’s estates to Ellon. A few miles below Ellon
it forms a large tidal estuary four miles in length—a notable haunt
of sea-trout, the most notable on the east coast. The river is only
37 miles long. It is slow and winding with deep pools and few rushing
streams; moreover its waters have never the clear, sparkling quality of
the silvery Dee. Yet at Fyvie and at Gight it has picturesque reaches
that redeem it from a uniformity of tameness.
The Ugie, a small stream of 20 miles in length, is the only other river
worthy of mention. It joins the sea north of the town of Peterhead. In
character it closely resembles the Ythan, having the same kind of deep
pools and the same sedge-grown banks.
The Deveron is more particularly a Banffshire river, yet in the Huntly
district, it and its important tributary the Bogie (which gives its
name to the well-known historic region called Strathbogie) are wholly
in Aberdeenshire.
[Illustration: The Don, looking towards St Machar Cathedral]
The Deveron partakes of the character of the Dee and the character of
the Don. It is neither so sparkling and rapid as the one nor so slow
and muddy as the other. Around Huntly and in the locality of Turriff
and Eden, where it is the boundary between the counties, it has some
charmingly beautiful reaches. Along its banks is a succession of
stately manor-houses, embosomed in trees, and these highly embellished
demesnes enhance its natural charms.
[Illustration: Brig o’ Balgownie, Aberdeen]
Lakes are few in Aberdeenshire, and such as exist are not specially
remarkable. The most interesting historically are the Deeside Lochs
Kinnord and Davan which are held by antiquarians to be the seat of
an ancient city Devana—the town of the two lakes. In pre-historic
times there dwelt on the shores of these lakes as also in the valleys
that converge upon them a tribe of people who built forts, and lake
retreats, made oak canoes, and by means of palisades of the same
material created artificial islands. The canoes which have been
recovered from the bed of the loch are hollowed logs thirty feet in
length. Other relics—a bronze vessel and a bronze spearhead, together
with many beams of oak—have been fished up, all proving the existence
of an early Pictish settlement.
[Illustration: Loch Muick, near Ballater]
Besides these, there is in the same district—but south-east of
Loch-na-gar, another and larger lake called Loch Muick. From it flows
the small river Muick—a tributary of the Dee, which it joins above
Ballater. South-west of Loch-na-gar is Loch Callater, which drains
into the Clunie, another Dee tributary, which joins the main river at
Castleton of Braemar. On the lower reaches of the Dee are the Loch of
Park or Drum, and the Loch of Skene, both of which drain into the Dee.
Both are much frequented by water-fowl of various kinds.
The Loch of Strathbeg, which lies on the east coast not far from
Rattray Head, is a brackish loch of some interest. Two hundred years
ago, we are told, it was in direct communication with the sea and small
vessels were able to enter it. In a single night a furious easterly
gale blew away a sand-hill between the Castle-hill of Rattray and the
sea, with the result that the wind-driven sand formed a sand-bar where
formerly there was a clear
[Illustration: Loch Callater, Braemar]
water-way. Since that day the loch has been land-locked and though
still slightly brackish may be regarded as an inland loch.
6. Geology.
Geology is the study of the rocks or the substances of which the
earthy crust of a district is composed. Rocks are of two sorts: (1)
those due to the action of heat, called igneous, (2) those formed and
deposited by water, called aqueous. When the earth was a molten ball,
it cooled at the surface, but every now and again liquid portions were
ejected from cracks and weak places. The same process is seen in the
eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, which sends out streams of liquid lava
that gradually cools and forms hard rock. Such are _igneous_ rocks.
But all the forces of nature are constantly at work disintegrating the
solid land; frost, rain, the action of rivers and the atmosphere wear
down the rocks; and the tiny particles are carried during floods to
the sea, where they are deposited as mud or sand-beds laid flat one on
the top of the other like sheets of paper. These are _aqueous_ rocks.
The layers are afterwards apt to be tilted up on end or at various
angles owing to the contortions of the earth’s crust, through pressure
in particular directions. When so tilted they may rise above water and
immediately the same process that made them now begins to unmake them.
They too may in time be so worn away that only fragments of them are
left whereby we may interpret their history.
[Illustration: Loch of Skene]
To these may be added a third kind of rock called _metamorphic_, or
rocks so altered by the heat and pressure of other rocks intruding upon
them, that they lose their original character and become metamorphosed.
They may be either sedimentary, laid down originally by water, or they
may be igneous, but in both cases they are entirely changed or modified
in appearance and structure by the treatment they have suffered.
The geology of Aberdeenshire is almost entirely concerned with igneous
and metamorphic rocks. The whole backbone of the county is granite
which has to some extent been rubbed smooth by glacial action; but in a
great part of the county the granite gives place to metamorphic rocks,
gneiss, schist, and quartzite. A young geologist viewing a deep cutting
in the soil about Aberdeen finds that the material consists of layers
of sand, gravel, clay, which are loosely piled together all the way
down to the solid granite. This is the glacial drift, or boulder clay,
a much later formation than the granite and a legacy of what is called
the great Ice Age. Far back in a time before the dawn of history all
the north-east of Scotland was buried deep under a vast snow-sheet.
The snow consolidated into glaciers just as in Switzerland to-day, and
the glaciers thus formed worked their way down the valleys, carrying a
great quantity of loose material along with them. When a warmer time
came, the ice melted and all the sand and boulders mixed up in the ice
were liberated and sank as loose deposits on the land. This is the
boulder clay which in and around Aberdeen is the usual subsoil. It
consists of rough, half-rounded pebbles, large and small, of clay,
sand, and shingle, and makes a very cold and unkindly soil, being
difficult to drain properly and slow to take in warmth.
Below this boulder clay are the fundamental rocks. At Aberdeen these
are pure granite; but in other parts of the county they are, as we have
said, metamorphic, that is, they have been altered by powerful forces,
heat and pressure. Whether they were originally sedimentary, before
they were altered, is doubtful; some geologists think the crystalline
rocks round Fraserburgh and Peterhead were aqueous. Mormond Hill was
once a sandstone, and the schists of Cruden Bay and Collieston were
clay. The same beds traced to the south are found to pass gradually
into sedimentary rocks that are little altered. Whether they were
aqueous or igneous originally, they have to-day lost all their original
character. No fossils are found in them. These rocks are the oldest
and lowest in Aberdeenshire. After their formation, they were invaded
from below by intrusive masses of molten igneous rock, which in many
parts of the county is now near the surface. This is the granite
already referred to. Its presence throughout the county has materially
influenced the character and the industry of the people.
Wherever granite enters, it tears its irregular way through the
opposing rocks, and sends veins through cracks where such occur. The
result of its forcible entrance in a molten condition is that the
contiguous rocks are melted, blistered, and baked by the intrusive
matter. Why granite should differ from the lava we see exuding from
active volcanoes is explained by the fact that it is formed deep below
the surface where there is no outlet for its gases. It cools slowly
and under great pressure and this gives it its special character. If
found, therefore, at the surface, as it is in Aberdeen, this is because
the rocks once high above it, concealing its presence have been worn
away, which gives some idea of the great age of the district. One large
granitic mass is at Peterhead, where it covers an area of 46 square
miles, and forms the rocky coast for eight miles; but the whole valley
of the Dee as far as Ben Macdhui, and a great part of Donside, consist
of this intrusive granite. It varies in colour and quality, being in
some districts reddish in tint as at Sterling Hill near Peterhead, at
Hill of Fare, and Corennie; in other parts it is light grey in various
shades.
The succession in the order of sedimentary rocks is definitely settled,
and although this has little application to Aberdeenshire, an outline
may be given. The oldest are the Palaeozoic which includes—in order of
age—
Cambrian,
Silurian,
Old Red Sandstone or Devonian,
Carboniferous,
Permian.
Of these the only one represented in Aberdeenshire is the Old Red
Sandstone, which occupies a considerable strip on the coast from
Aberdour to Gardenstown, and runs inland to Fyvie and Auchterless
and even as far as Kildrummy and Auchindoir. The deposit is 1300
feet thick. A visitor to the town of Turriff is struck by the red
colour of many of the houses there, a most unusual variant upon the
blue-grey whinstone of the surrounding districts. The explanation is
that a convenient quarry of Old Red Sandstone exists between Turriff
and Cuminestown. Kildrummy Castle, one of the finest and most ancient
ruins in the county, is not like the majority of the old castles built
of granite but of a sandstone in the vicinity. The same band extends
across country to Auchindoir, where it is still quarried.
The next geological group of Rocks, the Secondary or Mesozoic,
includes—in order of age—
Triassic,
Jurassic,
Cretaceous.
These are not at all or but barely represented. A patch of clay at
Plaidy, which was laid bare in cutting the railway track, belongs
to the Jurassic system and contains ammonites and other fossils
characteristic of that period. Over a ridge of high ground stretching
from Sterling Hill south-eastwards are found numbers of rolled flints
belonging to the Cretaceous or chalk period, but the probability is
that they have been transported from elsewhere by moving ice and are
not in their natural place.
The Tertiary epoch is just as meagrely represented as the Secondary.
Yet this is the period which in other parts of the world possesses
records of the most ample kind. The Alps, the Caucasus, the Himalayas
were all upheaved in Tertiary times; but of any corresponding activity
in the north-east of Scotland, there is no trace. It is only when the
Tertiary merges in the Quaternary period that the history is resumed.
The deposits of the Ice Age, when Scotland was under the grip of an
arctic climate, are much in evidence all over the county and have
already been referred to. It is necessary to treat the subject in some
detail.
During the glacial period, the snow and ice accumulated on the west
side of the country, and overflowed into Aberdeenshire. There were
several invasions owing to the recurrence of periods of more genial
temperature when the ice-sheet dwindled. One of the earlier inroads
probably brought with it the chalk flints now found west of Buchan
Ness; another brought boulders from the district of Moray. South of
Peterhead a drift of a different character took place. Most of Slains
and Cruden as well as Ellon, Foveran, and Belhelvie are covered with
a reddish clay with round red pebbles like those of the Old Red
Sandstone. This points to an invasion of the ice-sheet from Kincardine,
where such deposits are rife. Dark blue clay came from the west, red
clay from the south, and in some parts they met and intermixed as at St
Fergus. A probable third source of glacial remains is Scandinavia. In
the Ice Age Britain was part of the continental mainland, the shallow
North Sea having been formed at a subsequent period. The low-lying land
at the north-east of the county was the hollow to which the glaciers
gravitated from west and south and east, leaving their _débris_ on the
surface when the ice disappeared. So much is this a feature of Buchan
that one well-known geologist has humorously described it as the
riddling heap of creation.
Both the red and the blue clay are often buried under the coarse earthy
matter and rough stones that formed the residuum of the last sheet of
ice. This has greatly increased the difficulty of clearing the land
for cultivation. Moreover a clay subsoil of this kind, which forms a
hard bottom pan that water cannot percolate through, is not conducive
to successful farming. Drainage is difficult but absolutely necessary
before good crops will be produced. Both difficulties have been
successfully overcome by the Aberdeenshire agriculturist, but only by
dint of great expenditure of time and labour and money.
The district of the clays is associated with peat beds. There is peat,
or rather there was once peat all over Aberdeenshire, but the depth
and extent of the beds are greatest where the clay bottom exists. A
climate that is moist without being too cold favours the growth of
peat and the Buchan district, projecting so far into the North Sea and
being subject to somewhat less sunshine than other parts of the county,
provides the favouring conditions. The rainfall is only moderate but
it is distributed at frequent intervals, and the clay bottom helps to
retain the moisture and thus promotes the growth of those mosses which
after many years become beds of peat. These peat beds for long provided
the fuel of the population. In recent years they are all but exhausted,
and the facility with which coals are transported by sea and by rail is
gradually putting an end to the “casting” and drying of peats.
Moraines of rough gravel—the wreckage of dwindling glaciers—are found
in various parts of the Dee valley. The soil of Deeside has little
intermixture of clay and is thin and highly porous. It follows that in
a dry season the crops are short and meagre. The Scots fir, however, is
partial to such a soil, and its ready growth helps with the aid of the
natural birches to embellish the Deeside landscape.
In the Cairngorms brown and yellow varieties of quartz called
“cairngorms” are found either embedded in cavities of the granite or
in the _detritus_ that accumulates from the decomposition of exposed
rocks. The stones, which are really crystals, are much prized for
jewellery, and are of various colours, pale yellow (citrine), brown or
smoky, and black and almost opaque. When well cut and set in silver,
either as brooches or as an adornment to the handles of dirks, they
have a brilliant effect. Time was when they were systematically dug and
searched for, and certain persons made a living by their finds on the
hill-sides; but now they are more rare and come upon only by accident.
7. Natural History.
As we have seen in dealing with the glacial movements, Britain was
at one time part of the continent and there was no North Sea. At the
best it is a shallow sea, and a very trifling elevation of its floor
would re-connect Scotland with Europe. It follows that our country was
inhabited by the same kind of animals as inhabited Western Europe.
Many of them are now extinct, cave-bears, hyaenas and sabre-toothed
tigers. All these were starved out of existence by the inroads of
the ice. After the ice disappeared this country remained joined to
the continent, and as long as the connection was maintained the
land-animals of Europe were able to cross over and occupy the ground;
if the connection had not been severed, there would have been no
difference between our fauna and the animals of Northern France and
Belgium. But the land sank, and the North Sea filled up the hollow,
creating a barrier before all the species in Northern Europe had
been able to effect a footing in our country. This applies both to
plants and animals. While Germany has nearly ninety species of land
animals, Great Britain has barely forty. All the mammals, reptiles
and amphibians that we have, are found on the continent besides a
great many that we do not possess. Still Scotland can boast of its red
grouse, which is not seen on the continent.
With every variety of situation, from exposed sea-board to sheltered
valley and lofty mountain, the flora of Aberdeenshire shows a pleasing
and interesting variety. The plants of the sea-shore, of the waysides,
of the river-banks, and of the lowland peat-mosses are necessarily
different in many respects from those of the great mountain heights. It
is impossible here to do more than indicate one or two of the leading
features. The sandy tracts north of the Ythan mouth have characteristic
plants, wild rue, sea-thrift, rock-rose, grass of Parnassus, catch-fly
(_Silene maritima_). The waysides are brilliant with blue-bells,
speedwell, thistles, yarrow and violas. The peat-mosses show patches
of louse-wort, sundew, St John’s wort, cotton-grass, butterwort and
ragged robin. The pine-woods display an undergrowth of blae-berries,
galliums, winter-green, veronicas and geraniums. The _Linnaea borealis_
is exceedingly rare, but has a few localities known to enterprising
botanists. The whin and the broom in May and June add conspicuous
colouring to the landscape while a different tint of yellow shines in
the oat-fields, which are throughout the county more or less crowded
with wild mustard or charlock. The granitic hills are all mantled with
heather (common ling, _Calluna erica_) up to 3000 feet, brown in winter
and spring but taking on a rich purple hue when it breaks into flower
in early August. The purple bell-heather does not rise beyond 2000 feet
and flowers much earlier. Through the heather trails the stag-moss,
and the pyrola and the genista thrust their blossoms above the sea
of purple. The cranberry, the crow-berry and the whortle-berry, and
more rarely the cloudberry or Avron (_Rubus chamaemorus_) are found
on all the Cairngorms. The Alpine rock-cress is there also, as well
as the mountain violet (_Viola lutea_), which takes the place of the
hearts-ease of the lowlands. The moss-campion spreads its cushions
on the highest mountains; saxifrages of various species haunt every
moist spot of the hill-sides and the Alpine lady’s mantle, the Alpine
scurvy-grass, the Alpine speedwell, the trailing azalea, the dwarf
cornel (_Cornus suecica_), and many other varieties are to be found by
those who care to look for them.
As we have said, no trees thrive near the coast. The easterly and
northerly winds make their growth precarious, and where they have been
planted they look as if shorn with a mighty scythe, so decisive is the
slope of their branches away from the direction of the cold blasts.
Their growth too in thickness of bole is painfully slow, even a period
of twenty years making no appreciable addition to the circumference of
the stem. Convincing evidence exists that in ancient times the county
was closely wooded. In peat-bogs are found the root-stems of Scots fir
and oak trees of much larger bulk than we are familiar with now. The
resinous roots of the fir trees, dug up and split into long strips,
were the fir-candles of a century ago, the only artificial light of the
time.
The district is not exceptional or peculiar in its fauna. The grey or
brown rat, which has entirely displaced the smaller black rat, is very
common and proves destructive to farm crops—a result partially due to
the eradication of birds of prey, as well as of stoats and weasels, by
gamekeepers in the interest of game. The prolific rabbit is in certain
districts far too numerous and plays havoc with the farmer’s turnips
and other growing crops. Brown hares are fairly plentiful but less
numerous than they were in the days of their protection. Every farmer
has now the right to kill ground game (hares and rabbits) on his farm
and this helps to keep the stock low. The white or Alpine hare is
plentiful in the hilly tracts and is shot along with the grouse on the
grouse moors. The otter is occasionally trapped on the rivers, and a
few foxes
[Illustration: Deer in time of snow]
are shot on the hills. The mole is in evidence everywhere up to the
1500 feet level, by the mole-heaps he leaves in every field, and the
mole-catcher is a familiar character in most parishes. The squirrel
has worked his way north during the last sixty years, and is now to
be found in every fir-wood. The graceful roedeer is also a denizen of
the pine-woods, whence he makes forays on the oat-fields. The red-deer
is abundant on the higher and more remote hills, and deer-stalking is
perhaps the most exciting as it certainly is the most exacting of all
forms of Scottish sport. The pole-cat is rarely seen; he is best known
to the present generation in the half-domesticated breed called the
ferret. The hedge-hog, the common shrew, and the water-vole are all
common.
[Illustration: The Dunbuy Rock]
The birds are numerous and full of interest. The coast is frequented
by vast flocks of sea-gulls, guillemots, and cormorants, while the
estuary of the Ythan has many visitants such as the ringed plover, the
eider-duck, the shelduck, the oyster-catcher, redshank, and tern. On
the north bank of this river the triangular area of sand-dunes between
Newburgh and Collieston is a favourite nesting-place for eider-duck and
terns. The nests of the eider-duck, with their five large olive-green
eggs embedded in the soft down drawn from the mother’s breast, are
found in great numbers amongst the grassy bents. The eggs of the tern,
on the other hand, are laid in a mere hollow of the open sand, but
so numerous are they that it is almost impossible for a pedestrian
to avoid treading upon them. Puffins or sea-parrots are conspicuous
amongst the many sea-birds that frequent Dunbuy Rock. This island
rock, half-way up the eastern coast, is a typical sea-bird haunt,
where gulls, puffins, razorbills and guillemots are to be seen in a
state of restless activity. A colony of black-headed gulls has for a
number of years bred and multiplied in a small loch near Kintore. A
vast number of migratory birds strike the shores of Aberdeenshire every
year in their westward flight. The waxwing, the hoopoe, and the ruff
are occasional visitors, the great northern diver and the snow-bunting
being more frequent.
The game-birds of the district are the partridge and the pheasant
in the agricultural region, and the red grouse on the moors. The
higher hills, such as Loch-na-gar, have ptarmigan, while the wooded
areas bordering on the highland line are frequented by black-cock and
capercailzie. These last are a re-introduction of recent years and
seem to be multiplying; but, like the squirrel, they are destructive
to the growing shoots of the pine trees and are not encouraged by some
proprietors. The lapwing or green plover’s wail is an unfailing sound
throughout the county in the spring. These useful birds are said to be
fewer than they were fifty years ago—a result probably due to the
demand for their eggs as a table delicacy. After the first of April
it is illegal to take the eggs, and this partial protection serves
to maintain the stock in fair numbers. The starling, which, like the
squirrel, was unknown in this district sixty years ago, has increased
so rapidly that flocks of them containing many thousands are now a
common sight in the autumn. The kingfisher is met with, very, very
rarely on the river-bank, but the dipper is never absent from the
boulder-strewn beds of the streams. The plaintive note of the curlew
and the shriller whistle of the golden plover break the silence of the
lonely moors. The golden eagle nests in the solitudes of the mountains
and may occasionally be seen, soaring high in the vicinity of his eyrie.
Of fresh-water fishes, the yellow or brown trout is plentiful in
all the rivers, especially in the Don and the Ythan. The migratory
sea-trout and the salmon are also caught in each, although the Dee is
pre-eminently the most productive. The salmon fisheries round the coast
and at the mouth of the rivers are a source of considerable revenue.
The fish are caught by three species of net, bag-nets (floating nets)
and stake-nets (fixed) in the sea, and by drag-nets or sweep-nets in
the tidal reaches of the rivers. Time was when drag-nets plied as far
inland as Banchory-Ternan (19 miles), but these have gradually been
withdrawn and are now relegated to a short distance from the river
mouth, the rights having been bought up by the riparian proprietors
further up the river, who wish to obtain improved opportunities for
successful angling. The Dee has, in this way, been so improved that it
is now perhaps the finest salmon-angling river in Scotland.
The insects of the district call for little remark. Butterflies are
few in species and without variety. It is only in certain warm autumns
that the red admiral puts in an appearance. The cabbage-white, the
tortoise-shell, and an occasional meadow-brown and fritillary are the
prevailing species.
The waters of the Ythan, the Ugie, and the Don are frequented by
fresh-water mussels which produce pearls. These grow best on a pebbly
bottom not too deep and are 3 to 7 inches long and 1-1/2 to 2-1/2
broad. The internal surface is bluish or with a shade of pink. The
search for these mussels in order to secure the pearls they may and
do sometimes contain was once a recognised industry. To-day it is
spasmodic and mostly in the hands of vagrants. Many beds are destroyed
before the mussels are mature and this lessens the chances of success.
The pearl-fisher usually wades in the river, making observation of the
bottom by means of a floating glass which removes the disturbing effect
of the surface ripple. He thus obtains a clear view of the river-bed,
and by means of a forked stick dislodges the mussels and brings them
to bank, 150 making a good day’s work. He opens them at leisure and
finds that the great majority of his pile are without pearls. If he
be lucky enough, however, to come upon a batch of mature shells he
may find a pearl worth £20. As a rule the price is not above ten or
twenty shillings. Much depends on the size and the colouring. The most
valuable are those of a pinkish hue.
8. Round the Coast.
The harbour-mouth, which is also the mouth of the Dee, is the beginning
of the county on the sea-board. It is protected by two breakwaters,
north and south, which shelter the entrance channel from the fury of
easterly and north-easterly gales. To the south, in Kincardineshire, is
the Girdleness lighthouse, 185 feet high, flashing a light every twenty
seconds with a range of visibility stated at 19 miles. To the north of
the harbour entrance are the links and the bathing station. The latter
was erected in 1895 and has since been extended, every effort being
made to add to the attractiveness of the beach as a recreation ground.
A promenade, which will ultimately extend to Donmouth, is in great part
complete; and all the other usual concomitants of a watering-place have
been introduced with promising success so far, and likely to be greater
in the near future.
From Donmouth the northward coast presents little of interest. All
the way to the estuary of the Ythan is a region of sand-dunes bound
together by marum grass and stunted whins, excellent for golf courses,
but lacking in variety. In the sandy mounds in the vicinity of the
Ythan have been found many flint chippings and amongst them leaf-shaped
flint arrow-heads, chisels and cores, as well as the water-worn stones
on which these implements were fashioned. These records of primitive
man as he was in the later Stone Age are conspicuous here, and are
[Illustration: Girdleness Lighthouse]
to be seen in other parts of the county. In the rabbit burrows, which
are abundant in the dunes, the stock-dove rears her young. In 1888
a migratory flock of sand-grouse took possession of the dunes, and
remained for one season.
Beyond the Ythan are the Forvie sands—a region of hummocks under which
a whole parish is buried. The destruction of the parish took place
several centuries ago, when a succession of north-easterly gales,
continued for many days, whipped up the loose sand of the coast-dunes
and blew it onward in clouds till the whole parish, including several
valuable farms, was entirely submerged. The scanty ruins of the old
church of Forvie is the only trace left of this sand-smothered hamlet.
Not far from the site of the Forvie church is a beautiful semi-lunar
bay called Hackley Bay, where for the first time since Aberdeen
was left behind, rocks appear, hornblende, slate, and gneiss. At
Collieston, a village consisting of a medley of irregularly located
cottages scrambling up the cliff sides, a thriving industry used to
be practised, the making of Collieston “speldings.” These were small
whitings, split, salted and dried on the rocks. Thirty years ago they
were considered something of a delicacy and were disposed of in great
quantities; now they have lost favour and are seldom to be had. At the
north end of the village is St Catherine’s Dub, a deep pool between
rocks, on which one of the ships of the Spanish Armada was wrecked in
1588. Two of the St Catherine’s cannon very much corroded have been
brought up from the sea-floor. One of them is still to be seen at
Haddo House, the seat of the Earl of Aberdeen.
Northward we come upon a region of steep grassy braes, consisting
of soft, loamy clay, 20 to 40 feet deep, and covered with luxuriant
grasses in summer and ablaze with golden cowslips in the spring
months. Along the coast are several villages which once populous with
busy and hardy fishermen are now all but tenantless. Such are Slains
and Whinnyfold crushed out of activity by the rise of the trawling
industry. The next place of note is Cruden Bay Hotel built by the Great
North of Scotland Railway Company, and intended to minister specially
to the devotees of golf, for which the coast links are here eminently
suitable. The fine granite building facing the sea is a conspicuous
landmark. Just north of the Hotel is the thriving little town of Port
Errol, through which runs the Cruden burn—a stream where sea-trout are
plentifully caught at certain seasons. The next prominent object is
Slains castle—the family seat of the Earls of Errol. It stands high
and windy, presenting a bold front to the North Sea breezes. All its
windows on the sea-face are duplicate, a necessary precaution in view
of the fierceness of the easterly gales. Very few plants grow in this
exposed locality, and these only in the hollow and sheltered ground
behind the castle, where some stunted trees and a few garden flowers
struggle along in a precarious existence. As we proceed, the rocky
coast rises higher and bolder and presents variable forms of great
beauty. Beetling crags enclose circular bays with perpendicular walls
on which the kittiwake, the guillemot, the jackdaw and the starling
breed by the thousand. The rock of Dunbuy, a huge mass of granite,
surrounded by the sea, and forming a grand rugged arch, is a summer
haunt of sea-birds and rock-pigeons.
[Illustration: Sand Hills at Cruden Bay]
After this, we reach the picturesque and much visited Bullers of
Buchan—a wide semi-circular sea cauldron, the sides of which are
perpendicular cliffs. The pool has no entry except from the seaward
side, and it is only in calm weather that a boat is safe to pass
through the low, open archway in the cliff. In rough weather, the waves
rush through the narrow archway with terrific force, sending clouds
of spray far beyond the height of the cliffs. Under proper conditions
the scene is one of the grandest in Aberdeenshire, and is a fitting
contrast to the sublimely impressive scenes at the source of the Dee,
right at the other end of the county. Beyond the Bullers, the coast
consists of high granite rocks, behind which are windswept moors. Near
Boddam is Sterling Hill quarry, the source of the red-hued Peterhead
granite. Here too is Buchan Ness, the most easterly point on the
Scottish coast, and a fitting place for a prominent lighthouse. The
lantern of the circular tower (erected in 1827) stands 130 feet above
high-water mark and flashes a white light once every five seconds. The
light is visible at a distance of 16 nautical miles.
[Illustration: “The Pot,” Bullers o’ Buchan]
At Peterhead, which is a prosperous fishing centre and the eastern
terminus of the bifurcate Buchan line of railway, is a great convict
prison, occupying an extensive range of buildings on the south side of
the Peterhead bay. The convicts are employed in building a harbour of
refuge, which is being erected under the superintendence of the
Admiralty at a cost of a million of money. The coast onwards to the
Ugie mouth is still rocky, but from the river to Rattray Head, the
rocks give place to sand-dunes similar in character to those further
south. Alongside of the dunes is a raised sea beach. They form the
links of St Fergus. Rattray Head is a rather low reef of rock running
far out to sea and highly suitable as a lighthouse station. In the
course of twelve years, the reef was responsible for 24 shipwrecks.
The lighthouse erected in 1895 is 120 feet high and the light gives
three flashes in quick succession every 30 seconds. It is visible 18
miles out to sea. Beyond this point is a region of bleak and desolate
sands. Not a tree nor a shrub is to be seen. The inland parts are
under cultivation, but the general aspect of the country is dismal and
dreary, and the very hedgerows far from the sea-board lean landwards
as if cowering from the scourges of the north wind’s whip. The country
is undulatory without any conspicuous hill. Beyond Rattray Head is
the Loch of Strathbeg already referred to. The tradition goes that
the same gale as blighted Forvie silted up this loch and contracted
its connection with the sea. On the left safely sheltered from the
sea-breezes are Crimonmogate, Cairness and Philorth—all mansion-houses
surrounded by wooded grounds. At the sea-edge stand St Combs (an echo
of St Columba), Cairnbulg and Inverallochy. Here occurs another raised
sea beach. Our course from Rattray Head has been north-west and thus we
reach the last important town on the coast—Fraserburgh.
[Illustration: Buchan Ness Lighthouse]
[Illustration: Kinnaird Lighthouse, Fraserburgh]
Fraserburgh lies to the west of its bay. Founded by one of the Frasers
of Philorth (now represented by Lord Saltoun), it is like Peterhead a
thriving town. Like Peterhead too, it is the terminus of one fork of
the Buchan Railway and a busy fishing centre. In the month of July,
which is the height of the herring season, “the Broch,” as it is called
locally, is astir with life from early morn.
[Illustration: Entrance to Lord Pitsligo’s Cave, Rosehearty]
More herrings are handled at Fraserburgh than anywhere else on this
coast, from Eyemouth to Wick. Between Fraserburgh and Broadsea is
Kinnaird’s Head. Here we have another lighthouse which has served that
purpose for more than a century, an old castle having been converted
to this use in 1787. It was one of the first three lighthouses in
Scotland. Kinnaird’s Head is believed to be the promontory of the
Taixali mentioned by the Alexandrian geographer Ptolemy as being at the
entrance of the Moray Firth. Here the rocks are of moderate height but
further west they fall to sea-level and continue so past Sandhaven and
Pittullie to Rosehearty. A low rocky coast carries us to Aberdour bay,
where beds of Old Red Sandstone and conglomerate rise to an altitude of
300 feet.
[Illustration: Aberdour Shore, looking N.W.]
The conglomerate extends to the Red Head of Pennan—once a quarry for
mill-stones—where an attractive and picturesque little village nestles
at the base of the cliff. The peregrine falcon breeds on the rocky
fastnesses of these lofty cliffs, which continue to grow in height and
grandeur till they reach their maximum (400 feet) at Troup Head. Troup
Head makes a bold beginning for the county of Banff.
9. Weather and Climate. Temperature. Rainfall. Winds.
The climate of a county depends on a good many things, its latitude,
its height above sea-level, its proximity to the sea, the prevailing
winds, and especially as regards Scotland whether it is situated on the
east coast or on the west. The latitude of Great Britain if the country
were not surrounded by the sea would entitle it to a temperature only
comparable to that of Greenland but its proximity to the Atlantic
redeems it from such a fate. The Atlantic is 3° warmer than the air and
the fact that the prevailing winds are westerly or south-westerly helps
to raise the mean temperature of the western counties higher than that
of those on the east. The North Sea is only 1° warmer than the air so
that its influence is less marked.
Still, considering its latitude (57°-57° 40’), Aberdeenshire enjoys a
comparatively moderate climate. It is neither very rigorous in winter
nor very warm in
[Illustration: Rainfall Map of Scotland. (After Dr H. R. Mill)]
summer. Of course in a large county a distinction must be drawn between
the coast temperature and that of the high lying districts such as
Braemar. The fringe round the coast is in the summer less warm than the
inland parts, a result due to the coolness of the enclosing sea, but in
the winter this state of affairs is reversed and the uplands are held
in the grip of a hard frost while the coast-side has little or none.
The mean temperature of Scotland is 47°, while Aberdeen has 46°·4 and
Peterhead 46°·8. That of Braemar, the most westerly station in the
county, though in reality very little lower, is arrived at by entirely
different figures; the temperature being much higher during July,
August and September, but lower in December, January and February.
Braemar is 1114 feet above sea-level and since there is a regular and
uniform decline in temperature to the extent of 1° for every 270 feet
above the sea, the temperature of this hill-station should be low. As
a matter of fact, from June to September it is only 9° and in October
7°·5 below that of London. Yet its maximum is 10° higher than is
recorded at Aberdeen, only in winter its minimum is 20° lower than the
minimum of the coast.
Braemar and Peterhead as lying at the two extremes of the county
may be compared. Peterhead receives the uninterrupted sweep of the
easterly breezes, for it has no shelter or protection either of forests
or mountains. The impression a visitor takes is that Peterhead is
an exceptionally cold place. As a fact, its mean winter temperature
is above the average for Scotland, but the lack of shelter and the
constant motion of the air give an impression of coldness. In the
summer and autumn its mean falls below that of Scotland. It is
therefore less cold in the cold months and less warm in the warm months
than Braemar and has a seasonal variation of only 16°·3 between winter
and summer, whereas Edinburgh has a range of 21° and London of 26°.
[Illustration: Inverey near Braemar]
The rainfall over the whole county is also moderate, ranging from less
than 25 inches at Peterhead—the driest part of the area—to 40 inches
at Braemar, and 32 at Aberdeen. This is a small rainfall compared
with 60 or 70 inches on parts of the west coast. The driest months
in Aberdeenshire are April and May, and generally speaking less rain
falls in the early half of the year when the temperature is rising
than in the later half when the temperature is on the decline. Two
inches is about the average for each month from February to June, but
October, November and December are each over three inches. The most of
the rainfall of Scotland comes from the west and south. This explains
why the west coast is so much wetter than the east. The westerly winds
from the Atlantic, laden with moisture, strike upon the high lands
of the west, but exhaust themselves before they reach the watershed
and, having precipitated their moisture between that and the coast,
they reach the east coast comparatively dry. Braemar just under the
watershed is relatively dry. Its situation as an elevated valley, 1114
feet above sea-level and surrounded on three sides by hills of from
three to four thousand feet, and the fact that it is 60 miles from the
sea combine to make it one of the most bracing places and give it one
of the finest summer climates in the British Isles. This sufficiently
accounts for its popularity as a health resort. May is its driest
month, October its wettest.
Easterly winds bring rain to the coast, but as a rule the rain extends
no further inland than 20 miles. Easterly winds prevail during March,
April and May, which make this season the most trying part of the
year for weakly people. In summer the winds are often northerly, but
the prevailing winds of the year, active for 37 per cent. of the 365
days or little less than half, are west and south-west. East winds
bring fog, and this is most prevalent in the early summer, June being
perhaps the worst month. The greatest drawback to the climate from an
agriculturist’s point of view is the lateness of the spring. The summer
being short, a late spring means a late harvest, which is invariably
unsatisfactory.
The low rainfall of the county is favourable to sunshine. Aberdeen has
1400 hours of sunshine during the year in spite of fogs and east winds;
the more inland parts being beyond the reach of sea-fog have an even
better record.
The great objection—an objection taken by folks who have spent part
of their life in South Africa or Canada—is the variableness of the
climate from day to day. There is not here any fixity for continued
periods of weather such as obtains in these countries. The chief factor
in this variability is our insular position on the eastern side of the
Atlantic. When, on rare occasions, as sometimes happens in June or in
September, the atmosphere is settled, Aberdeenshire enjoys for a few
weeks weather of the most salubrious and delightful kind.
10. The People—Race, Language, Population.
The blood of the people of Aberdeenshire, though in the main Teutonic,
has combined with Celtic and other elements, and has evolved a
distinctive type, somewhat different in appearance and character from
what is found in other parts of Scotland. How this amalgamation came
about must be explained at some length.
The earliest inhabitants of Britain must have crossed from Europe when
as yet there was no dividing North Sea. They used rough stone weapons
(see p. 114) and were hunters living upon the products of the chase,
the mammoth, reindeer and other animals that roamed the country. Such
were _palaeolithic_ (ancient stone) men. Perhaps they never reached
Scotland: at least there is no trace of them in Aberdeenshire. They
were followed by _neolithic_ (new stone) men, who used more delicately
carved weapons, stone axes, and flint arrows. Traces of these are to be
found in Aberdeenshire. A few short cists containing skeletal remains
have been found in various parts of the county. In the last forty years
some fifteen of these have been unearthed. From these anthropologists
conclude that neolithic men lived here at the end of the stone age,
men of a muscular type, of short stature and with broad short faces.
They were mighty hunters hunting the wild ox, the wolf and the bear
in the dense forests which, after the Ice Age passed, overspread the
north-east. They clothed themselves against the cold in the skins of
the animals which they made their prey and were a rude, savage, hardy
race toughened by their mode of life and their fierce struggle for
existence. They did not live by hunting alone; they possessed herds
of cattle, swine and sheep and cultivated the ground but probably
only to a slight extent. Their weapons were rude arrow-heads, flint
knives and flint axes; and a considerable number of these primitive
weapons as well as the bones of red-deer and the primeval ox—_bos
primigenius_—have been recovered from peat-mosses and elsewhere
throughout the district. Such have been found at Barra, at Inverurie
and at Alford.
Besides these remains, have been found urns made of boulder clay,
burned by fire and rudely ornamented. These were very likely their
original drinking vessels, afterwards somewhat modified as food
vessels, and were, it is supposed, deposited in graves with a religious
motive in accordance with the belief common among primitive peoples
that paradise is a happy hunting-ground in which the activities of the
present life will continue under more favourable conditions.
In addition to these relics the county has a great number of stone
circles, circles of large upright boulders set up not at hap-hazard
but evidently with some definite object in view. These will be dealt
with in a later chapter. The probability is that the so-called Pictish
houses, the earth or Eirde houses found on Donside and the lake
dwellings at Kinnord already referred to, were the homes of these
people. But the whole subject is by no means clear. The general opinion
is that the north-east was first inhabited by Picts, who may or may
not have been Iberians, and that after the Picts came the Celts; but
some critics hold that the Picts were only earlier Celts. In any case
the Stone Age was succeeded by the Bronze Age, when Bronze took the
place of Stone in the formation of weapons. The Celts made their way
through Central France to Britain and ultimately to Scotland. Unlike
the people they found in possession of Scotland, they were tall (5
ft. 9 in.) These are the ancestors of the Gaelic speaking people of
Scotland. They are supposed to have amalgamated to some extent with
the Neolithic men whom they found on the spot, and it is certain that
they were christianised at an early period. Later on Teutonic tribes,
tall, longheaded and fairhaired men crossed from the Baltic to Britain
and in due course they too reached Aberdeenshire. But up to the time of
David I (1124-1153) the population and institutions of the north-east
were entirely Celtic. The Saxon or Teutonic element was introduced
by way of the coast and the trading towns. From the towns it spread
to the country districts. When Henry II expelled the Flemish traders
from England many migrated to the north and formed settlements in many
parts of the country, establishing trade and handicraft, particularly
weaving, and reclaiming waste land. The defeat of Comyn, the Earl of
Buchan, by Bruce in 1308, when Bruce harried Buchan from end to end
and spared none, opened the way for lowland immigrants and not only
gave an impetus to Teutonic settlements, but helped to kill out the
Celtic language and the Celtic ways. These immigrants are really the
ancestors of the present Aberdeenshire people, but they have been
greatly modified by absorbing the Celtic population and mixing with it,
for though reduced by slaughter, and by an exodus to the hills, it had
not entirely disappeared. Scandinavians from Norway and Denmark also
found a footing at various periods in this north-eastern region and
these elements are all blended in the modern Aberdonian. Celt, Saxon,
Fleming and Scandinavian came in one after the other and possessed the
land, forming a new people in which all these elements were fused.
Aberdonians are credited with a distinct individuality, partly the
result of race, partly due to environment. The strain of practicality
in the Teuton toned down the Celtic imagination and warmth of feeling,
and added a certain tincture of the phlegmatic such as is so prominent
in the Dutchman. Hence the cautious “canny” nature of the typical
Aberdonian, dreading innovations, resisting agricultural novelties, and
disliking ecclesiastical changes. They have been described as people
Who are not fond of innovations,
Nor covet much new reformations;
They are not for new paths but rather
Each one jogs after his old father.
This requires some elucidation. They are far from slothful or
indifferent. They will uphold with zeal the cause they think right, but
they must first reach assured conviction that it _is_ right. They are
not swift nor slow to change, but firm.
The Celtic population was in fact absorbed, as we have said, but a
certain contingent betook themselves to the mountains and for long
kept up a warfare of reprisals upon those who had dispossessed them.
This caused no end of trouble in Aberdeenshire but not without its uses
for it braced the occupants in the arts of defence and made them alert
and courageous.
No less potent a factor in the evolution of the Aberdonian has been
his struggle with a well-nigh irreclaimable soil. The county is
without mineral wealth, and the only outlet for his energy was found
in attacking the boulder-strewn moors and in clearing them for the
plough. To this he set his mind in the eighteenth century with grim
determination. Small farmers and crofters by dint of great personal
toil and life-long self-sacrifice transformed stony tracts of poor
and apparently worthless land into smiling and productive fields. It
is this struggle with a malignant soil, more than anything else, that
has made the Aberdonian; one triumph led on to another, and to-day the
spirit of enterprise in farming is nowhere more pronounced than in this
difficult county.
The place names are almost entirely Celtic, and even when they appear
to be Saxon they are only Gaelic mispronounced or assimilated to
something better known. The parish of King Edward might very plausibly
be referred to the northern visits paid by the Hammer of the Scots, but
it is really Kinedar, with the Gaelic _Kin_ (seen in Kinnaird, Kintore
and Malcolm Canmore), meaning a head.
The county has a distinctive dialect, really imported and originally
uniform with the dialect of the Mearns, and of Northumbria, the dialect
spoken at one time all the way from Forth to Humber. To-day it is
called the Buchan Doric and though varying somewhat in different parts
of the county and hardly intelligible in the Highlands of Braemar,
where Gaelic still survives, it is a Teutonic speech with a thin
tincture of Gaelic words such as _bourach_, _closach_, _clachan_,
_brochan_, etc.
The dialect contains many vocables not found in literary English, such
as _byous_ and _ondeemis_ for extraordinary, but where the words are
English, they are greatly altered. It is characterised by broad, open
vowels; “boots” is pronounced “beets,” “cart” is “cairt,” “good” is
“gweed.” The final _l_ is dropped; “pull” is “pu,” “fall” is “fa.”
Final _ol_ becomes _ow_; “roll” is made “row,” and “poll” is “pow.”
_Wh_ is always _f_: “white” is “fite” and “who?” (interrogative)
is “fa?” It is rich in diminutives like the Dutch—_a lassie_, _a
basketie_. The finest embodiment of this striking dialect, giving
permanent life to its wealth of pathos and expressiveness, is Dr
William Alexander’s _Johnny Gibb of Gushetneuk_.
_Scots wha hae_, which is supposed to be a characteristic phrase
common to all the dialects, would be in Buchan—_Scots at hiz_, which
is largely Norse. “The quynie coudna be ongrutten” is Buchan for “The
little girl could not help crying.”
The population of the county which a hundred years before was 121,065
in 1901 was 304,439. Since the county contains 1970 square miles this
brings out an average of 154 to the square mile—just a little over
the average of Scotland as a whole, but as Aberdeen city accounts for
more than half of the total, and towns like Peterhead and Fraserburgh
between them represent 25,000, the figure is greatly reduced for
the rural districts. The country districts are but thinly peopled,
especially on the Highland line, and the tendency is for the rural
population to dwindle. They either emigrate to Canada, which is a
regular lodestone for Aberdonians, or they betake themselves to the
towns, chiefly to Aberdeen itself. Except in and around the principal
town, the county has hardly any industries that employ many hands.
Agriculture is the main employment, and modern appliances enable
the farmer to do his work with fewer helps than formerly: hence the
depopulation of the rural districts. The towns tend to grow, the rural
parishes to become more sparsely inhabited.
11. Agriculture.
This is the mainstay of the county, and considering the somewhat
uncertain climate, the shortness of the summer and the natural poverty
of the soil, it has been brought to marvellous perfection. The
mountainous regions are necessarily cut off from this industry except
in narrow fringes along the river banks, but in the low-lying area it
is safe to say that every acre of ground worth reclaiming has been put
to the plough. A century ago the industry was rude and ill-organised,
the county being without roads and without wheeled vehicles, but the
advent of railways gave an impetus to the farming instinct and an
extraordinary activity set in to reclaim waste land by clearing it
of stones, by trenching, by draining and manuring it. The proprietors
were usually agreeable to granting a long lease at a nominal rent to
any likely and energetic man who was willing to undertake reclamations
and take his chance of recouping himself for outlays before his lease
expired. Being thus secured, the farmer or crofter had an incentive
to put the maximum of labour into his holding. He often built the
dwelling-house, and as a rule made the enclosures by means of the
stones, which, with great labour, he dragged from the fields. In this
way a great acreage was added to the arable land of the county, and
though some of it has fallen into pasture since the great boom in
agricultural prices during the seventies in last century, the greater
part of the reclaimed soil is still in cultivation.
The area of the county, exclusive of water and roadways, is 1955
square miles, or 1,251,451 acres. Of this exactly one half is under
cultivation, 628,523 acres. When we remember that Scotland contains
some nineteen million of acres and that only 25 per cent. of this
acreage is arable land, it is apparent that Aberdeen with its 50 per
cent. is one of the most cultivated areas. As a matter of fact it has
by far the largest acreage under cultivation of any Scottish county.
Next to it is Perthshire with 336,251 acres. The uncultivated half
is made up of mountain, moor and woodlands. Part of this is used for
grazing sheep, as much as 157,955 acres being thus utilised. In the
matter of woods and plantations the county with its 105,931 acres
stands next to Inverness-shire, which has 145,629. The trees grown are
mostly larch and pine and spruce, but the deciduous trees, or hard
woods, the beech, elm and ash, are not uncommon in the low country,
more especially as ornamental trees around the manor-houses of the
proprietors.
The crops chiefly cultivated are oats, barley, turnips and potatoes.
Wheat is not grown except now and again in an odd field. The climate is
too cold, the autumn heat never rising to the point of ripening that
crop satisfactorily. Oats is the most frequent crop, and Aberdeenshire
is the oat-producing county of Scotland. A fifth of the whole acreage
under this crop in Scotland belongs to Aberdeenshire. Perth, which
is next, has only one-third of the Aberdeenshire oat-area. Twenty
thousand acres are devoted to barley, only one-tenth of the barley-area
in Scotland. Over seven thousand acres go to potatoes; the southern
counties have a soil better adapted to produce good potatoes; Forfar,
Fife, Perth and Ayrshire excel in this respect and all these give a
larger acreage to this crop. As regards turnips, however, Aberdeenshire
is easily first. Being a great cattle rearing and cattle feeding
district, it demands a large tonnage of turnip food. It is estimated
that a million and a half tons of turnips are consumed every year in
the county.
As regards cattle and horses the county has first place in Scotland. In
1909 there were 204,490 agricultural horses in the country and of these
31,592 were in Aberdeenshire, while of 1,176,165 cattle it had 168,091.
It has a quarter of a million sheep, but here it falls behind other
counties, notably Argyll, which has nearly a million, or one-seventh of
all the sheep in Scotland.
Aberdeenshire is a county of small holdings. No other county has so
many tenants. Over five thousand of these farm from five to 50 acres,
while there are nearly four thousand who farm areas ranging from 50 to
300. This is part of the secret of its success. Earlier, the number
of small farms was greater, the tendency being in the direction of
throwing several smaller holdings together to make a large farm.
The industry has been a progressive one. Up to the Union in 1707
tillage was of the most primitive kind. Sheep-farming for the sake of
exporting the wool had been the rule, but the Union stopped that branch
of commerce. Later on, about the middle of the eighteenth century, the
droving of lean cattle into England was a means of profit. Meantime
the system of cultivation was of the rudest. A few acres round the
steading, called the infield, were cropped year after year with little
manuring, while the area beyond, called the outfield, was only cropped
occasionally. There was no drainage and enclosures were unknown.
Improvement came from the south. Sir Archibald Grant of Monymusk and
Mr Alexander Udny of Udny were pioneers of better things; they brought
labourers and overseers from the Lothians and the south of England, to
educate the people in new methods of culture. At first a landlord’s, it
by and by became a farmer’s battle; and ultimately in the nineteenth
century it was the farmers who did the reclaiming. But the landlords
set a good example by sowing grasses and turnips.
Near Aberdeen, a boulder-strewn wilderness was converted into fertile
fields. The town feued the lands and the feuars cleared away the
stones, which they sold and shipped to London for paving purposes; the
process of clearing cost as much as £100 an acre, a fourth of this
being recovered by the sale of the stones. This is typical of what was
done elsewhere. Gradually the bleak moors were absorbed. A famine in
1782 opened the eyes of all concerned. Hitherto there was not as much
as 200 acres in turnips. Hitherto also the heavy work-oxen, ten or
twelve of them dragging a primitive and shallow plough, at a slow pace
and in a serpentine furrow, had been imported from the south. Now they
began to be bred on the spot. By and by cattle grew in numbers; by and
by, two horses superseded the team of oxen in the plough.
But the chief factor in evolving Aberdeenshire into a cattle-rearing
and beef-producing county was the turnip. Till turnips began to be
grown in a large acreage, no provision was possible for the cattle in
winter. Hence the beasts had to be disposed of in autumn. In 1820, as
many as 12,000 animals were sent in droves to England. The advent of
steam navigation in 1827 ended the droving. Then began the trade in fat
cattle, but it was years before the county gained its laurels as the
chief purveyor of “prime Scots” and the roast beef of Old England. The
turnip held the key of the position; but turnips will not grow well
without manure. The canal between Aberdeen and Inverurie carried great
quantities of crushed bones and guano to raise this important crop.
[Illustration: Aberdeen-Angus Bull]
Cattle-breeding began with M^cCombie of Tillyfour and the Cruickshanks
of Sittyton, one with the native black-polled cattle—the
Aberdeen-Angus—and the others with shorthorns. By dint of careful
selection, great progress was made in improving not only the symmetry
of the beasts but their size and beefy qualities. There began a furore
for cattle-rearing and prizes taken at Smithfield made Aberdeen famous.
Railway transit came in as an additional help, and to-day the Christmas
market never fails to give its top prices for Aberdeenshire beef.
Every year the beef of 60,000 cattle leaves the county for the
southern markets, chiefly London; this in addition to supplying local
needs, and Aberdeen has now 162,000 of a population. Cattle-rearing
and cattle-feeding are therefore at the backbone of Aberdeenshire
agriculture.
A recent development is the export of pure-bred shorthorns to America,
more especially the Argentine Republic, for breeding purposes. As much
as £1000 has been given for a young bull, in this connection.
[Illustration: Aberdeen Shorthorn Bull]
In the matter of fruit culture, Aberdeen is far behind Perthshire
and Lanark, which have a richer soil and a superior climate. But the
Aberdeen strawberries, grown mostly on Deeside, are noted for size
and flavour. In 1909 only 219 acres were devoted to this crop. The
cultivation of raspberries, which is so great a feature of lower
Perthshire, has made only a beginning in Aberdeen, and the small
profits that have come to southern growers of this crop in recent years
have acted as a deterrent, in its extension.
12. The Granite Industry.
Aberdeen has long been known as “The Granite City.” It is built of
granite, chiefly from its great quarries at Rubislaw. The granite is
a light grey, somewhat different in texture and grain from another
grey granite much in vogue, that of Kemnay on Donside. There are many
quarries in the county, and each has its distinctive colouring. The
Peterhead stone is red; Corrennie is also red but of a lighter hue. The
granite industry has made great strides of recent years. The modern
appliances for boring the rock by steam drills, the use of dynamite and
other explosives for blasting, as well as the devices for hoisting and
conveying stones from the well of the quarry to the upper levels by
means of Blondins have all revolutionised the art of quarrying.
[Illustration: Granite Quarry, Kemnay]
It was long before Aberdeen people realised the value of the local
rocks for building purposes. The stone used in the early ecclesiastical
buildings was sandstone, which was imported by sea from Morayshire
and the Firth of Forth. The beginnings of St Machar Cathedral and the
old church of St Nicholas as well as the church of Greyfriars, built
early in the sixteenth century and recently demolished, were all of
sandstone. Not till the seventeenth century was granite utilised. At
first the surface stones were taken, then quarrying began about 1604,
but little was done till 1725. Between 1780 and 1790 as many as 600 men
were employed in the Aberdeen quarries. Great engineering works such
as the Bell Rock Lighthouse, the Thames Embankment, the foundations
of Waterloo Bridge, the Forth Bridge and London Bridge, where great
durability and solidity are necessary, were made possible by the use
of huge blocks from Aberdeenshire. The polishing of the stone made a
beginning in 1820, and now a great export trade in polished work for
staircases, house fronts, façades, fountains and other ornamental
purposes is carried on between the county and America as well as the
British Colonies.
Apart from building purposes, granite slabs are largely used for
headstones in graveyards. This monumental department employs a great
number of skilled workmen. There are over 80 granite-polishing yards
in Aberdeen. Here too the modern methods of cutting and polishing the
stones by machinery and pneumatic tools have greatly reduced the manual
labour as well as improved the character of the work. Unfortunately the
export trade in these monumental stones has somewhat declined owing to
prohibitive tariffs. In 1896 America took £55,452 worth of finished
stones; in 1909 the value had fallen to £38,000. The tariffs in France
have also been against the trade, but an average of nearly 10,000 tons
is sent to continental countries. Strangely enough, granite in the raw
state is itself imported to Aberdeen. Swedish, Norwegian and German
granites are brought to Aberdeen, to
[Illustration: Granite Works, Aberdeen]
be shaped and polished. These have a grain and colouring absolutely
different from what is characteristic of the native stone, and the
taste for novelty and variety has prompted their importation. In 1909
as much as 27,308 tons were imported in this way. Celtic and Runic
crosses, recumbent tombs, and statuary are common as exports.
The stone is also used for the humbler purpose of street paving and is
shipped to London and other ports in blocks of regular and recognised
sizes. These are called “setts,” and of them 30,000 tons are annually
transmitted to the south. Stones of a larger size are also exported for
use as pavement kerbs.
The presence of quarries is not so detrimental to the atmosphere and
the landscape as coal mines, and yet the heaps of _débris_, of waste
and useless stone piled up in great sloping ridges near the granite
quarries, are undoubtedly an eyesore. To-day a means has been found
whereby this blot on the landscape is partially removed. The waste
_débris_ is now crushed by special machinery into granite meal and
gravel, and used as a surface dressing for walks and garden paths—a
purpose it serves admirably, being both cleanly and easily dried. Not
only so but great quantities of the waste are ground to fine powder,
and after being mixed with cement and treated to great pressure become
adamant blocks for pavements. These adamant blocks have now superseded
the ordinary concrete pavement just as it superseded the use of solid
granite blocks and Caithness flags. This ingenious utilisation of the
waste has solved the problem which was beginning to face many of the
larger quarries, namely, how they could dispose of their waste without
burying valuable agricultural land under its mass.
Granite is the only mineral worthy of mention found in the county.
Limestone exists in considerable quantities here and there, but as a
rule it is too far from the railway routes to be profitably worked. It
is, however, burned locally and applied to arable land as a manure.
In the upper reaches of Strathdon, lime-kilns are numerous. By means
of peat from the adjoining mosses the limestone was regularly burned
half a century ago. To-day the practice is dwindling. A unique mineral
deposit called Kieselguhr is found in considerable quantity in the
peat-mosses of Dinnet, on Deeside. It is really the fossil remains of
diatoms, and consists almost entirely of silica with a trace of lime
and iron. When dried it is used as a polishing powder for steel, silver
and other metals; but its chief use is in the manufacture of dynamite,
of which it is the absorbent basis. It absorbs from three to four times
its own weight of nitro-glycerine, which is the active property in
dynamite. As found in the moss it is a layer two feet thick of cheesy
light coloured matter, which is cut out into oblong pieces like peats.
When these are dried, they become lighter in colour and ash-like in
character. The Dinnet deposits are the only deposits of the kind in
the country. Inferior beds are found in Skye. The industry employs 50
hands during the summer months, and has been in operation for 28 years.
The beds show no sign of exhaustion as yet, and the demand for the
substance is on the increase.
13. Other Industries. Paper, Wool, Combs.
The industries apart from agriculture, work in granite, and the
fisheries are mostly concentrated in and around the chief city. These,
although numerous, are not carried on in a large way, but they are
varied; and there is this advantage in the eggs not being all in one
basket that when depression attacks one trade, its effect is only
partial and does not affect business as a whole. Paper, combs, wool,
soap are all manufactured. The first of these engages four large
establishments on the Don and one on the Dee at Culter. Writing paper
and the paper used for the daily press and magazines as well as the
coarser kinds of packing paper are all made in considerable quantity.
Esparto grass and wood pulp are imported in connection with this
industry. Comb-making is also carried on, and the factory in Aberdeen
is the largest of its kind in the kingdom.
Textile fabrics are still produced, but the progress made in these is
not to be compared with the advances made in the south of Scotland,
where coal is cheap. Weaving was introduced at an early period by
Flemish settlers, who made coarse linens and woollens till the end
of the sixteenth century, when “grograms” and worsteds, broadcloth
and friezes were added. Provost Alexander Jaffray the elder in 1636
established a house of correction—the prototype of the modern
reformatory—where beggars and disorderly persons were employed in the
manufacture of broadcloths, kerseys and other stuffs. A record of this
novelty in discipline survives in the Aberdeen street called Correction
Wynd.
In 1703 a joint-stock company was formed for woollen manufactures
at Gordon’s Mills on the Don, where a fulling-mill had existed for
generations, and where the making of paper had been initiated a few
years earlier. The Gordon’s Mills developed the manufacture of cloths
of a higher quality, half-silk serges, damask and plush, and skilled
workmen were brought from France to guide and instruct the operatives.
To-day high-class tweeds are made at Grandholm, and such is the
reputation of these goods for quality and durability that in spite of
high tariffs they make their way into America, where they command a
large sale at prices more than double of the home prices.
In the olden days the cloth sold in the home markets was a product
of domestic industry. The farmers’ daughters spun the wool of their
own sheep into yarn, which was sent to county weavers to be made into
cloth. Aberdeenshire serge made in this way was sold at fairs and was
hawked about the county by travelling packmen.
The hosiery trade was worked on similar lines. The wool was converted
into worsted by rock and spindle, and the worsted was knitted into
stockings by the women and girls of the rural population. One man
employed as many as 400 knitters and spinners. In the latter half of
the eighteenth century this industry brought from £100,000 to £120,000
into Aberdeenshire every year. Stockings were made of such fineness
that they cost 20s. a pair and occasional rarities were sold at four
or five guineas. In 1771 twenty-two mercantile houses were engaged in
the export trade of these goods, which went chiefly to Holland. The
merchants attended the weekly markets and country fairs, where they
purchased the products of the knitters’ labour. Such work provided a
source of income to the rural population and was indirectly the means
of increasing the number of small holdings. These were multiplied
of set purpose to keep the industrious element in the population
within the county. The invention of the stocking-frame together with
the dislocation of trade due to the Napoleonic wars made the trade
unremunerative and it came to an end with the eighteenth century.
The linen trade began in 1737 at Huntly, where an Irishman under the
patronage and encouragement of the Duke of Gordon manufactured yarn
and exported it to England and the southern Scottish towns. Silk
stockings were also made there. By and by linen works sprang up on the
Don at Gordon’s Mills and Grandholm as well as within Aberdeen itself.
The linen trade in the form of spinning and hand-loom weaving was
carried on in most of the towns and villages of the county and several
new villages grew up in consequence, such as Cuminestown, New Byth,
Strichen, New Pitsligo, Stuartfield and Fetterangus, in some of which
the manufacture is continued on a small scale to this day. Much flax
was grown in the county for a time to minister to this industry, but
gradually the crop disappeared as fibre of better quality was imported
from Holland. Yet the spinning of linen yarn was widely practised as a
domestic industry when the woollen trade declined, and every farmer’s
daughter made a point of spinning her own linen as the nucleus of her
future house-furnishings. The linen trade, except as regards coarser
materials such as sacking, has decayed. There is still a jute factory
in Aberdeen.
Another industry which employs a large number of hands is the
preserving of meat, fish, fruit, and vegetables. There are several
of these preserving works in Aberdeen. Dried and smoked haddocks,
usually called “Finnan Haddies,” from the village of Findon on the
Kincardineshire coast, are one of the specialities of Aberdeen. They
had at one time a great vogue, and are still largely in demand though
the quality has fallen off by the adoption of a simpler and less
expensive method of treatment.
Ship-building is another industry long established at Aberdeen. In the
days before iron steamships, fleets of swift-sailing vessels known
as “Aberdeen Clippers” were built on the Dee and made record voyages
to China in the tea trade and to Australia. The industry of to-day
is concerned, for the greater part, with the building of trawlers
and other fishing craft, but occasionally an ocean going steamer is
launched. The trade is meantime suffering from depression.
[Illustration: Making smoked haddocks, Aberdeen]
Other industries well represented are soap and candle making, coach
and motor-car building, iron-founding and engineering, rope and twine
making, the manufacture of chemicals, colours and aerated waters.
Besides, Aberdeen is a great printing centre and many of the books
issued by London publishers are printed by local presses.
14. Fisheries.
During the last quarter of a century the fishing industry has made
great strides, the value of fish landed in Scotland having more than
doubled in that period. Nowhere has the impetus been more felt than
in Aberdeenshire, which now contributes as much as one-third of the
whole product of Scotch fisheries. Since 1886 the weight of fish caught
round the Scottish coast has increased from five million hundredweights
to over nine millions, while the money value has risen in even a
greater proportion from £1,403,391, to £3,149,127. To these totals
Aberdeen alone has contributed over a hundred thousand tons of white
fish (excluding herrings), valued at over a million pounds sterling.
Peterhead and Fraserburgh are also contributors especially as regards
herrings, the former landing 739,878 hundredweights and Fraserburgh
very nearly a similar quantity. These three ports amongst them
account for one half of all the fish landed at Scottish ports. When
we consider the number of persons collaterally employed in handling
this enormous quantity of merchandise, the coopers, cleaners, packers,
basket makers, boat-builders, makers of nets, clerks and so on, apart
altogether from the army of fishermen employed in catching the fish, we
see how far-reaching this industry is, not merely in increasing the
food-supply of the country but in providing profitable employment for
the population. At Aberdeen, it is estimated, 13,512 persons are so
employed and at the other two ports combined, almost a similar number.
There are two great branches of the fishing industry—herrings and
white fish. The herrings are caught for the most part, though not
exclusively, in the summer, July being the great month. They are
captured with nets mostly by steam-drifters as they are called, but
also to some extent by the ordinary sailing boats of a smaller size
than the drifters. Fraserburgh and Peterhead land in each case double
the weight of herrings that come to Aberdeen. In recent years a
beginning has been made in May and June with gratifying success, but
July and August give the maximum returns. Later on in the year, when
the shoals have moved along the coast southwards, the herring fleets
follow them thither, to North Shields and Hartlepool, to Yarmouth and
Lowestoft; and bands of curers, coopers and workers migrate in hundreds
from one port to another, employing themselves in curing the fish. The
bulk of the herrings are cured by salting, and are then exported to
Germany and Russia, where they are much in demand.
Even more important is the white fishing. Aberdeen is here pre-eminent,
being perhaps the most important fishing centre in the world. The total
catch for Scotland in 1909 was short of three million hundredweights,
of which Aberdeen with its large fleet of trawlers and steam-liners
accounted for 67 per cent. The most important of the so-called round
fish is the haddock, of which over a million hundredweights are landed
in Scotland, Aberdeen contributing the lion’s share, three-fourths of
the whole. Next to the haddock comes the cod, of which nearly three
hundred and forty thousand hundredweights were handled in the Aberdeen
fish market. The next fish is ling, and then come whitings, saithe,
torsk, conger-eels. The flat-fish are also important, plaice, witches,
megrims, halibut, lemon soles and turbot. This last is the scarcest and
most highly prized of all flat fish, and commands a price next to that
given for salmon. Ling and halibut are still mostly caught by hook and
line; the turbot and the lemon sole on the other hand are distinctively
the product of the trawl net and were little known until trawling was
begun.
A certain small percentage of this great weight of fish is consumed
locally, but the great bulk of it is packed in ice and dispatched by
swift passenger trains to the southern markets. The Aberdeen fish
market, extending for half a mile along the west and north sides of the
Albert Basin (originally the bed of the Dee) is the property of the
Town Corporation and is capable of dealing with large catches. As much
as 760 tons of fish have been exposed on its concrete floor in a single
day. In the early morning the place is one of the sights of the city,
with the larger fish laid out in symmetrical rows on the pavement, and
the smaller fish—haddocks, whiting and soles—in boxes arranged for
the auction sale at 8 a.m.
The majority of the fishing craft are still sailing vessels, but
steam-drifters and motor-boats and steam-trawlers
[Illustration: Fish Market, Aberdeen]
are gradually driving the ordinary sail-boats from the trade, just as
the trawl net is superseding the old-fashioned mode of fishing with
set lines. Still about 86 per cent. of the number of boats employed is
made up of sailing vessels, but the tonnage is relatively small. The
quantity of fish caught by hook and line is only one-tenth of the whole.
[Illustration: Fishwives, The Green, Aberdeen]
[Illustration: North Harbour, Peterhead]
[Illustration: Herring boats at Fraserburgh]
The amount of capital invested in boats and fishing gear for all
Scotland is estimated by the Fishery Board at over £5,000,000. Of this
total, Aberdeenshire claims very nearly two millions. It is now the
case that the value of fish discharged at the fish market of Aberdeen
is as great as the yearly value of the agricultural land of the whole
county—truly a marvellous revolution.
[Illustration: Fishing Fleet going out, Aberdeen]
The herring fishery was prosecuted off the Scottish coast by the Dutch,
long before the Scotch could be induced to take part in it. Many futile
attempts were made to exploit the industry but little came of them
till the nineteenth century. A beginning was made at Peterhead in 1820
and at Fraserburgh a little earlier. Aberdeen followed in 1836 but no
great development took place till 1870. The first trawler came on the
scene in 1882; to-day there are over 200 local vessels of this type
besides many from other ports.
The salmon fishery has long been famous and at one time was relatively
a source of much greater revenue than at present. It still yields a
considerable annual surplus to the Corporation funds, but has been
eclipsed by the growth of other fisheries. The rateable value of the
salmon fishings on the Dee is nearly £19,000; those of the other salmon
rivers—the Don, Ythan and Ugie—being much less. The fish are caught
by fixed engines in the sea—stake-nets and bag-nets—set within a
statutory radius of the river mouth, and by sweep- or drag-nets in the
tidal reaches of the rivers. A good many fish are caught by rod and
line throughout the whole course of the rivers but angling is not the
commercial side of salmon-fishing.
15. Shipping and Trade.
Aberdeenshire has practically but three ports—Fraserburgh, Peterhead
and Aberdeen. The herring fishing with its concomitant activities
absorbs the energies of the two former so far as shipping is concerned,
but Aberdeen having to serve a larger and wider area than these two
northern burghs has developed a range of docks of considerable extent
and importance. During the last forty years the Harbour Commissioners
have spent £3,000,000 in improving the harbour, increasing the
wharfage, adding break-waters, diverting the course of the Dee,
deepening the entrance channel, forming a graving dock and so forth.
Still, in spite of these outlays, Aberdeen, which has been a port
for centuries, has hardly grown in shipping proportionately to its
growth in other respects. The reason is that, except fish, granite and
agricultural products, the city has nothing of much moment to export.
[Illustration: At the docks, Aberdeen]
Exclusive of fishing vessels the tonnage of home and foreign going
vessels was in 1882, 587,173; in 1909 it had advanced to over a
million, hardly doubling itself in 27 years. While its imports have
gone up from 522,544 tons in 1882 to 1,165,060 in 1909, the exports
have made only a very slight advance. The chief export is herrings, and
last year nearly 100,000 tons of these, salted and packed in barrels,
were sent by sea. The fresh fish are dispatched by rail. Stones in
the form of granite, either polished for monumental purposes or in
setts and kerbs for paving, account for 50,000 tons. The remainder (of
210,554 tons) is made up by oats, barley, oatmeal, paper, preserved
provisions, whisky, manures, flax and cotton fabrics, woollen cloth,
cattle and horses, butter and eggs, salmon and pine-wood.
The trade is mostly a coasting trade and more an import than an export
one. Coal is the chief article of import, 600,000 tons being discharged
in a year. Besides coal, esparto grass, wood-pulp and rags for
paper-making, foreign granite in the rough state sent to be polished,
flour, maize, linseed, the horns of cattle used for comb-making, and
the salt used in fish-curing, are the chief materials landed on the
Aberdeen quays. Aberdeen being the distributing centre for the county,
and all the railway routes focussing in it, the coal and the building
materials not produced in the district, such as lime, slate and cement,
all pass this way, while the tea and sugar, the tobacco and other
articles of daily use, also arrive mostly by the harbour.
There are regular lines of steamers between Aberdeen and the following
ports: London, Newcastle, Hull, Liverpool, Glasgow and Leith, as also
with continental towns such as Hamburg, Rotterdam and Christiania.
16. History of the County.
Standing remote from the centre of the country, Aberdeenshire has not
been fated to figure largely in general history. The story of its own
evolution from poverty to prosperity is an interesting one, but it is
only now and again that the county is involved in the main current of
the history of Scotland.
If the Romans ever visited it, which is highly doubtful, they left
no convincing evidence of their stay. Of positive Roman influence
no indication has survived, and no conquest of the district can
have taken place. The only records of the early inhabitants of the
district—usually called Picts—are the Eirde houses, the lake
dwellings or crannogs, the hill forts or duns, the “Druidical” circles
and standing stones and the flint arrow-heads, all of which will be
dealt with in a later chapter.
Christianity had reached the south of Scotland before the Romans left
early in the fifth century. The first missionary who crossed the Mounth
was St Ternan, whose name survives at Banchory-Ternan on the Dee,
the place of his death. St Kentigern or St Mungo, the patron saint
of Glasgow, had a church dedicated to him at Glengairn. St Kentigern
belonged to the sixth century, and was therefore a contemporary of
St Columba, who christianised Aberdeenshire from Iona. In this way
two great currents met in the north-east. Columba accompanied by his
disciple Drostan first appeared at Aberdour on the northern coast.
From Aberdour he passed on through Buchan, and having established the
Monastery of Deer and left Drostan in charge, moved on to other fields
of labour. His name survives in the fishing village of St Combs. He
is the tutelar saint of Belhelvie, and the churches of New Machar and
Daviot were dedicated to him. These facts indicate the mode in which
Pictland was brought under the influence of Christianity.
The next historical item worthy of mention is the ravages of the
Scandinavian Vikings. The descents on the coast of these sea-rovers
were directed against the monastic communities, which had gathered
some wealth. The Aberdeenshire coast, having few inlets convenient for
the entry of their long boats, was to a large extent exempt from their
raids, but in 1012 an expedition under Cnut, son of Swegen, the king of
Denmark, landed at Cruden Bay.
Another fact of interest is the death of Macbeth, who for seventeen
years had by the help of Thorfinn, the Scandinavian (whose name
may be seen in the Deeside town of Torphins), usurped the kingship
of Scotland. Malcolm Canmore led an army against him in 1057, and
gradually driving him north, beyond the Mounth, overtook him at
Lumphanan. There Macbeth was slain. A Macbeth’s stone is said to mark
the place where he received his death-wound, and Macbeth’s Cairn is
marked by a clump of trees in the midst of cultivated land. The farm
called Cairnbethie retains the echo of his name. Kincardine O’Neil,
where Malcolm awaited the result of the conflict, commands the ford of
the Dee on the ancient route of travel from south to north across the
Cairn-o-Mounth.
Malcolm shortly after passed through Aberdeenshire at the head of an
expedition against the Celtic population which had supported Macbeth.
The Norman Conquest, nine years thereafter, was the occasion of
Anglo-Saxon settlements in the county. The court of Malcolm and Queen
Margaret became a centre of Anglo-Saxon influence. The old Gaelic
language gave way before the new Teutonic speech. The Celtic population
made various attempts to recover the power that was fast slipping from
their hands. Malcolm headed a second expedition to Aberdeenshire in
1078, and on that occasion granted the lands of Monymusk and Keig to
the church of St Andrews. He is said to have had a hunting-seat in the
forest of Mar, and the ruined castle of Kindrochit in the village of
Braemar is associated with this fact.
The earliest mention of Aberdeen is in a charter of Alexander I,
granting to the monks of Scone a dwelling in each of the principal
towns—one of which is Aberdeen. A stream of Anglo-Saxons, Flemings and
Scandinavians had been gradually flowing towards the settlement at the
mouth of the Dee, where they pursued their handicrafts and established
trade with other ports. William the Lion frequently visited the town
and ultimately built a royal residence, which after a time was gifted
to the Trinity or Red Friars for a monastery. The bishopric of Aberdeen
dates from 1150.
Edward I of England in 1296 at the head of a large army paid these
northern parts a visit. He entered the county by the road leading from
Glenbervie to Durris, whence he proceeded to Aberdeen, exacting homage
from the burghers during his five days’ stay. From Aberdeen he went
to Kintore and Fyvie and on to Speyside, returning by the Cabrach,
Kildrummy, Kincardine O’Neil and the Cairn-o-Mounth.
The next year Wallace, in his patriotic efforts to clear the country
from English domination, surprised Edward’s garrison at Aberdeen, but
unable to effect anything, hastily withdrew from the neighbourhood.
Edward was back in Aberdeen in 1303 and paid another visit to Kildrummy
Castle, then in the possession of Bruce. Then Bruce, having fled from
the English court and assassinated the Red Comyn at Dumfries, was
crowned at Scone and the long struggle for national independence began
in earnest. In 1307 he came to Aberdeen, which was favourable to his
cause. At Barra, not far from Inverurie and Old Meldrum, his forces met
those of the Earl of Buchan (John Comyn) and defeated them (1308). It
was not a great battle in itself, but its consequences were important.
It marked the turn of the tide in the national cause. The Buchan
district, in which the battle took place, had long been identified with
the powerful family of the Comyns; and after his victory at Barra,
Bruce devastated the district with relentless fury. This “harrying
of Buchan,” as it has been called, is referred to by Barbour as an
event bemoaned for more than fifty years. The family of the Comyns was
crushed, and their influence, which had been liberal and considerate to
the native race of Celts, came to an end. The whole of the north-east
turned to Bruce’s support, and in a short time all Edward’s garrisons
disappeared. This upheaval created a fresh partition of the lands of
Aberdeenshire. New families such as the Hays, the Frasers, the Gordons
and the Irvines, were rewarded for faithful service by grants of land.
The re-settlement of the county from non-Celtic sources accentuated
the Teutonic element in the county. After Bannockburn, Bruce rewarded
Aberdeen itself for its support by granting to the burgesses the burgh
as well as the forest of Stocket.
The great event of the fifteenth century was the Battle of Harlaw,
which took place in 1411 at no great distance from the site of the
Battle of Barra. It was really a conflict between Celt and Saxon,
and was a despairing effort on the part of the dispossessed native
population to re-establish themselves in the Lowlands. The Highlanders
were led by Donald of the Isles, who gathering the clansmen of the
northern Hebrides, Ross and Lochaber, and sweeping through Moray
and Strathbogie, arrived at the Garioch on his way to Aberdeen. The
burghers placed themselves under the leadership of the Earl of Mar
(Alexander Stewart, son of the Wolf of Badenoch), a soldier who had
seen much service in various parts of the world. The provost of
the city, Robert Davidson, led forth a body of his fellow-citizens
and joined Mar’s forces at Inverurie, within three miles of the
Highlanders’ camp. The two forces were unequally matched—Donald having
10,000 men and Mar only a tenth of that number, but of these many
were mail-clad knights on horseback and armed with spears. It was a
fiercely contested battle and lasted till the darkness of a July night.
The slaughter on both sides was great, but the tide of barbarism
was driven back. The Highlanders retreated whence they came and the
county of Aberdeen was saved from the imminent peril of a Celtic
recrudescence. This is the only really memorable battle associated
with Aberdeenshire soil. Its “red” field, on which so many prominent
citizens shed their life-blood (Provost Davidson and Sir Alexander
Irvine of Drum being of the number), was long remembered as a dreary
and costly victory.
Another battle of much less significance was that of Corrichie, fought
in Queen Mary’s reign in 1562 on the eastern slope of the Hill of Fare,
not far from Banchory. It was a contest between James Stewart (the
Regent Murray, and half-brother of the Queen) and the Earl of Huntly.
Huntly was defeated and slain, and his son, Sir John Gordon, who was
taken prisoner, was afterwards executed at Aberdeen. Queen Mary, it is
said, was a spectator both of the battle and of the execution.
In the seventeenth century, at the beginning of the Covenanting
“troubles,” Aberdeenshire gained a certain notoriety as being the place
where the sword was first drawn. In 1639 the Covenanters mustered at
Turriff under Montrose, to the number of 800. The Royalist party under
the Earl of Huntly, to the number of 2000 but poorly armed, marched
to the town with the intention of preventing the Covenanters from
meeting, but they were already in possession, and when Huntly’s party
saw how matters stood, they passed on, the two forces surveying each
other at close quarters without hostile act or word. This bloodless
affair is known as the first Raid of Turriff. A few weeks later a
somewhat similar encounter took place, when the Covenanters, completely
surprised, fled without striking a blow. The loss on either side was
trifling, still some blood was actually shed, and the Trot of Turriff,
as it was called, became the first incident in a long line of mighty
events.
Montrose, both when he was leading on the side of the Covenant,
and later when he became a Royalist leader, paid several visits to
Aberdeen, which, although supporting the Royalist cause, suffered
exactions from both parties. In 1644 Montrose made a forcible entry
of the town, which resulted in the death of 150 Covenanters, and in
the plundering of the city. Later on, after his victory over Argyll at
Inverlochy, Montrose gained a success for the Royalist cause at Alford
(1645).
In 1650, after the execution of Charles I, his son Charles II landed
at Speymouth, and on his way south to be crowned at Scone, visited
Aberdeen, where he was received with every manifestation of loyalty and
goodwill. The next year General Monk paid the town a visit, and left an
English garrison, which remained till 1659. The Restoration was hailed
with rejoicing: the Revolution with dislike. Yet at the Rebellion
of 1715 scant enthusiasm was roused for the cause of the Pretender,
who himself passed through the city on his way from Peterhead to
Fetteresso. In the thirty years that passed before the second Jacobite
Rebellion, public sentiment had grown more favourable to the reigning
House. The ’45 therefore received little support in Aberdeenshire. A
few of the old county families threw in their lot with the Prince, but
the general body of the people were averse to taking arms. The Duke
of Cumberland, on his way north to meet Prince Charlie at Culloden,
remained with his army six weeks in the city; when he started on his
northward march through Old Meldrum, Turriff and Banff, he left a
garrison of 200 men in Robert Gordon’s Hospital, lately built but not
yet opened. After Culloden small pickets of troops were stationed in
the Highland districts of the county, to suppress the practice of
cattle-lifting. Braemar Castle and Corgarff Castle in the upper reaches
of the Dee and the Don still bear evidence of their use as garrison
forts. The problem of dealing with the inhabitants of the higher glens,
where agriculture was useless, and where the habits of the people
prompted to raiding and to rebellion, was solved by enlisting the young
men in the British Army. The Black Watch (42nd) as reorganised (1758)
and a regiment of Gordon Highlanders (1759) were largely recruited from
West Aberdeenshire, and this happy solution closed the military history
of the district.
17. Antiquities—Circles, Sculptured Stones, Crannogs, Forts.
Aberdeenshire is particularly rich in stone-circles. No fewer than 175
of them have been recorded as existing in the district. Unfortunately
many of them entirely disappeared when the sites were turned to
agricultural uses; others have been mutilated, and owing to the
removal of some of the stones, stand incomplete; a few have been
untouched, and from these we may judge what the others were like. One
of the best preserved is that at Parkhouse, a mile south-west of the
Abbey of Deer. A circle of great blocks of stone, irregular and of
unequal height, some standing erect, some evidently fallen down, is the
general feature. Sometimes inside the circle, but more usually in the
circumference of the circle itself, there is one conspicuously larger
stone, in a recumbent position. This it has been usual to call the
rostrum or altar stone. It is well marked at Parkhouse, being 14 feet 9
inches long, 5 feet 9 inches high, and estimated to weigh 20 tons. The
so-called rostrum is usually on the south side of the circle and the
stones facing it on the north are of smaller size.
[Illustration: White Cow Wood Cairn Circle; View from the S.W.
From _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, 1903-4]
[Illustration: Palaeolithic Flint Implement
(_From Kent’s Cavern, Torquay_.)
Neolithic Celt of Greenstone
(_From Bridlington, Yorks._)]
The size of the circles varies, the largest being over 60 feet in
diameter, the smaller ones less than 30. Parkhouse measures 50 feet.
They are found all over the county, in the valley of the Dee, in
the valley of the Don at Alford, Inverurie and Dyce, as well as in
Auchterless, Methlick, Crimond and Lonmay. The recumbent stone
is invariably a feature of the larger circles. One of the largest is
in the circle at Old Keig in Alford—a huge monolith computed to be 30
tons in weight. Other good examples are at Auchquorthies, Fetternear
and at Balquhain near Inveramsay.
In the smaller and simpler circles, there is no recumbent stone, and
the blocks are of more uniform height.
What the circles were used for is still a matter of dispute. They have
for long been called “Druidical” circles, and the received opinion
was that they were places of worship, the recumbent stone being the
altar. But there is no certitude in this view; and, indeed, the fact
that several exist at no great distance from each other (more than a
dozen are located in Deer) would seem to be adverse to it. They were
certainly used as places of burying, and some antiquarians hold that
they were the burying grounds of the people of the Bronze Age. A later
theory is that they were intended to be astronomical clocks to a people
who knew nothing of the length of the year, and who had no almanacs to
guide them in the matter of the seasons. The stone-circles, however,
still remain an unsolved problem.
[Illustration: Stone at Logie, in the Garioch (4 feet high)
From Anderson’s _Scot. in Early Ch. Times_, 2nd Series]
Besides the circles, Aberdeenshire has another class of archaeological
remains, called sculptured stones. These are of three kinds: (1) those
with incised symbols only, (2) those with in addition Celtic ornament
carved in relief, and (3) monuments with Celtic ornament in relief
and no symbols. The first class is the only one largely represented
in Aberdeenshire and a good many representatives are in existence.
The symbols most commonly seen are the crescent and sceptre, the
spectacles, the mirror and comb, and the so-called “elephant” symbol,
a representation of a beast with long jaws, a crest and scroll feet.
Another is the serpent symbol. What the symbols signify is still a
mystery, but the fact that the stones with symbolism are unusually
common in what was known as Northern Pictland seems to point to their
being indigenous to that area. Out of 124 stones in the first class
Aberdeenshire has 42. It would seem as if the county had been the focus
where the symbolism originated. The richness of the locality round
Kintore and Inverurie in symbol stones is taken to indicate that region
as the centre from which they radiated.
Another form of archaeological remains found in the county is the
Eirde or Earth-Houses. These are subterranean dwellings dug out of
the ground and walled with unhewn, unmortared stones, each stone
overlapping the one below until they meet at the top which is crowned
with a larger flag-stone, or sometimes with wood. The probability is
that in conjunction with the underground chambers there were huts above
ground, which, being composed of wood, have now entirely disappeared.
At many points in these earth-houses traces of fire and charcoal are
to be seen, stones blackened by fire and layers of black ashes. In
one at Loch Kinnord a piece of the upper stone of a quern as well
as an angular piece of iron was found. It may be inferred that the
inhabitants, whoever they were, were agriculturists, and that the
period of occupation lasted down to the Iron Age. Specimens of these
houses, which usually go by the local name of Picts’ houses, are found
in the neighbourhood of Loch Kinnord on Deeside, at Castle Newe on the
Don, and at Parkhouse, not far from the circle already referred to.
[Illustration:
“PICTS” OR “EIRDE HOUSE”
AT
MIGVIE
ABERDEENSHIRE
From _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, Vol. V.
1865]
The common notion of the purpose of these underground dwellings was
that they were meant for hiding-places in which the inhabitants took
refuge when unable to resist their enemies in the open, but if, as has
now been discovered, they were associated with wooden erections above
ground, they could not have served this purpose. On the surface beside
them were other houses, cattlefolds and other enclosures; once an enemy
was in possession of these, he could hardly miss the earth-houses.
Moreover, the inhabitants, if discovered, were in a trap from which
there was no escape. It is more probable that the dwellings were
adjuncts of some unknown kind to the huts on the surface. The fact that
pottery and bronze armlets have been unearthed from these underground
caverns proves that the earth-dwellers had reached a certain
advancement in civilisation. They reared domestic animals, wove cloth
and sewed it, and manufactured pottery. They used iron for cutting
weapons and bronze for ornament, and must have possessed a wonderfully
high standard of taste and manual skill.
Along with the earth-houses at Kinnord are found crannogs or
lake-dwellings. Artificial islands were created in the loch by forming
a raft of logs, upon which layers of stones and other logs were
deposited. As fresh materials were added the raft gradually sank till
it rested on the bottom. The sides were afterwards strengthened with
the addition of stones and beams. In this way was formed what is called
the Prison Island on Loch Kinnord. In all probability the other island
in the same loch, the Castle Island, may also be artificial, although
it has usually been regarded as natural. Crannogs in pairs—one large
and the other small—occur in several lochs.
[Illustration: Loch Kinnord]
A number of hill-forts, more or less disintegrated, are traceable in
the higher ground in the vicinity of Lochs Kinnord and Davan. These
show concentric lines of circumvallation, with stronger fortifications
at various points. Vitrified forts, where the stones have been run
together by the application of heat, are found at Dunnideer near Insch,
and on the conical summit of Tap o’ Noth near Rhynie. The Barmekin at
Dunecht encloses an area of more than two acres, and consists of five
concentric walls, three of earth-works and two of stone.
Numerous cairns, barrows or tumuli exist all over the county, at
Aberdour on the coast, at Birse, Bourtie, Rhynie, Turriff, and
elsewhere. Human remains have been found in most of these; and as a
rule flint arrow-heads and other implements are also associated with
them.
18. Architecture—(_a_) Ecclesiastical.
The history of Scotland from an architectural point of view does not
reach very far back into the past. Till the tide of civilisation flowed
into Scotland from the south in the eleventh and twelfth centuries,
there existed in the country no architecture worthy of the name.
When the Normans became the ruling power in Britain, they brought
architectural ideas with them and these superseded the crude attempts
at church building hitherto made. The Scottish churches built under the
influence of Columba were simple and rude, consisting of a small oblong
chamber with a single door and a single window. The Norman style, which
obliterated these structures, dates from the twelfth century and, being
carried along the coast of lowland Scotland, gradually changed the
manner of building. It is characterised by simple, massive forms and
especially by arches of a semi-circular shape, sometimes enriched by
zig-zag, and by the use of nook shafts and cushion capitals. Of this
period the remains in Scotland are not numerous, and they are very few
in Aberdeenshire. The earliest specimen we can point to is the ancient
church of Monymusk, which contains some Norman building incorporated in
the modern church erected on the old site. Monymusk is on Donside seven
miles up the river from Kintore. It is a place of great antiquity. The
Culdees first appear there in the twelfth century, and the Earl of
Mar built a convent for them on condition that they should submit to
canonical rule. The lower part of the church tower and the chancel arch
are of the Norman style. The tower has been entirely rebuilt except the
lower doorway, which has a round arch-head with a hood mould enclosing
it. These small fragments suggest that they were part of the convent
erected by the Earl of Mar very early in the thirteenth century.
The rounded arch gave place in the thirteenth century to the early
Gothic, of which the most striking feature is the pointed arch.
This is the _First Pointed Period_. Ornament was more general, the
mouldings were richer and more graceful and the foliage of trees
was occasionally copied. The windows were narrow, lofty and pointed,
giving an impression of space and lightness. Aberdeenshire is too far
north to have developed many examples of this early style, but it has
some. The Abbey of Deer is perhaps the most ancient ecclesiastical
building, but it is now a complete ruin, all the best parts of it
having disappeared within the last fifty years. It was founded in the
thirteenth century. Deer had been an ecclesiastical centre long before
that time. The story goes that Columba and his pupil Drostan travelled
from Iona to Aberdeenshire when Bede was Mormaer (Earl) of Buchan. They
were first at Aberdour on the coast, but ultimately journeyed to Deer,
where Columba requested the Mormaer to grant him a site for a church.
At first the Mormaer refused, but his son fell ill and in consideration
of the efficacy of the prayers of the two holy men in bringing the
youth back to health, the Mormaer granted them the lands of Deer and
this was probably the first place in Aberdeenshire where a regular
Christian church was erected. No trace of that church, built in the
sixth century, is left.
The Abbey was an entirely different structure and not begun till early
in the thirteenth century. It was founded by William Comyn, Earl of
Buchan, and was really a Cistercian Abbey, originally occupied by monks
sent from Kinloss. From the ruins now within the grounds of Pitfour
House, it can be made out that the length of the building (nave and
chancel) was 150 feet. A few mouldings and the arches of some windows
indicate that it belonged to the first pointed period. The building
was of red sandstone probably brought from New Byth, some 12 miles
distant. After the Reformation the Abbey fell to decay and its walls
became, as in many other cases, a quarry from which other buildings
were erected. In 1809 the ruins were enclosed with a wall by the then
proprietor, Mr James Ferguson of Pitfour, but since then they have
dwindled.
No mention of Deer is possible without reference to the famous _Book
of Deer_—a manuscript volume of the highest value, emanating not from
the Abbey but from Columba’s monastery in the same region. The book
was brought to light in 1860 by the late Mr Henry Bradshaw, University
Librarian at Cambridge. It had lain unrecognised in the Library since
1715. It contains the Gospel of St John and other portions of scripture
in the writing of the ninth century; but of even greater importance is
the fact that on its margins it contains memoranda of grants to the
monastery, made by Celtic chiefs of Buchan and all written in Gaelic.
These jottings are of the highest historical value.
Some traces of the Early Pointed style are found in St Machar Cathedral
(the greater part of which, however, is much later). The old church of
Auchindoir close to Craig Castle has a good doorway and other features
of this period.
[Illustration: From _The Book of Deer_]
From the middle of the fourteenth to the middle of the fifteenth
century (1350-1450) is in Scotland the _Middle Pointed Period_. The
windows were made larger, the vaulting and buttresses less heavy. The
Cathedral of St Machar belongs in part to this time. The legend goes
that St Machar in obedience to the commands of Columba, of whom he was
a disciple, journeyed to Scotland and at Old Aberdeen founded a church.
This church in the twelfth century became the seat of a bishopric
founded by David I. The original church was superseded probably about
1165, the only relic of this Norman period being part of the abacus
of a square pier. All other traces of earlier work have vanished. In
the fourteenth century Bishop Alexander Kyninmonth II rebuilt the
nave, partly of red sandstone with foliated capitals of great beauty
and decorated with naturalistic imitation of leafage, one capital
representing curly kail (colewort). The same kind of decoration is seen
in Melrose Abbey. Later on the two impressive western towers, which are
to-day conspicuous objects in the eastern landscape to all travellers
northward-bound from Aberdeen, were added. They form a granite mass of
solid and substantial masonry, and, being finished with machicolation,
parapet-paths and capehouses, were really like a castle in Early
English architecture. Still later on, in the sixteenth century, Bishop
Elphinstone, who founded the University of Aberdeen, who built the
first Bridge of Dee, and gave a new choir to St Nicholas Church,
completed the central tower and placed in it fourteen bells “tuneable
and costly.” The sandstone spires over the western towers were added by
Bishop Dunbar early in the sixteenth century, in place of the original
capehouses. The central tower fell in 1688, crushing the transepts.
[Illustration: St Machar Cathedral, Old Aberdeen]
[Illustration: St Machar Cathedral (interior)]
In 1560 the government ordered the destruction of the altars, images
and other monuments of the old faith, and this cathedral suffered
with the rest. It was despoiled of all its costly ornaments and the
choir was demolished. The roof was stripped of its lead and the
bells were carried off. All that remains to-day is the nave (now the
parish church), a south porch, the western towers and fragments of
the transept walls, which contain tombs of Bishop Lichtoun, Bishop
Dunbar, and others. This is the only granite cathedral in the country,
and, though dating from the Middle and late Pointed periods, has
reminiscences of the Norman style in its short, massive cylindrical
pillars and plain unadorned clerestory windows. Another feature is
the great western window divided by six long shafts of stone. The
finely carved pulpit now in the Chapel of King’s College is a relic of
the wood-carvings destroyed in 1649. The whole is extremely plain but
highly impressive and imposing. Its flat panelled oak ceiling decorated
with heraldic shields of various European kings, Pope Leo X, and
Scottish ecclesiastics and nobility (48 in all) is worthy of mention.
This heraldic ceiling was restored in 1868-71.
[Illustration: King’s College, Aberdeen University]
Of later date is King’s College Chapel, at no great distance from
the Old Cathedral. It is a long, narrow but handsome building begun
in 1500, shortly after the foundation of the University by Bishop
Elphinstone. The chapel and its graceful tower are the oldest parts of
the College buildings which had originally three towers.
[Illustration: East and West Churches, Aberdeen]
The surviving one is a massive structure buttressed nearly to the
top and bearing aloft a lantern of crossed rib arches, surmounted by
a beautiful imperial crown with finial cross, somewhat resembling
St Giles’s in Edinburgh. The difference is that King’s College has
four ribs while St Giles’s has eight. The whole is of freestone
from Morayshire. The entire building is a mixture of Scottish and
French Gothic styles, and retains in the large western window the
semi-circular arch, a peculiarity of Scottish Gothic throughout all
periods. The canopied stalls and the screen of richly carved oak,
Gothic in design and most beautifully handled, take a place among the
finest pieces of mediaeval carved work existing in the British Empire.
Their beauty and delicacy, according to Hill Burton, surpass all
remains of a similar kind in Scotland. The chapel contains the tomb
of Bishop Elphinstone. It was once highly ornamented, but meantime is
covered with a plain marble slab. Its restoration is in prospect.
St Nicholas Church, Aberdeen (now the East and West Churches) contains
in its transepts and groined crypt and in its wood-carving, interesting
relics of twelfth, fifteenth and sixteenth century work. The nave was
rebuilt in the Renaissance style of the time (1755).
Greyfriars Church, removed a few years ago to make way for the new
front of Marischal College, was a pre-Reformation church, built by
Alexander Galloway, Rector of Kinkell, early in the sixteenth century.
Its chief features were its range of buttresses and a fine seven-light,
traceried window.
The Protestant churches that succeeded these ancient buildings were
inferior as architecture. It was only in the nineteenth century that
taste began to revive and some attempt at grace and embellishment
was made. Architects began to study old styles, and this combined
with the increasing wealth of the country created a new standard in
ecclesiastical requirements. To-day our churches tend to grow in
architectural beauty.
19. Architecture—(_b_) Castellated.
The earliest fortifications in Scotland were earthen mounds, surrounded
with wooden palisades. They were succeeded by stone and lime “keeps”
built in imitation of Norman structures. The presence of the Normans
in England during the eleventh and twelfth centuries drove the Saxon
nobility northwards, and they were followed in turn by other Normans,
who obtained possession of great tracts of country. The rectangular
keeps of the Normans have in consequence formed the models on which
most of the Scottish castles were constructed. In the thirteenth
century there were castles at Strathbogie, Fyvie, Inverurie and
Kildrummy. These have mostly been rebuilt in recent times and the more
ancient parts have disappeared. The general idea in them all was a
fortified enclosure usually quadrilateral. The walls of the enclosure
were 7 to 9 feet thick and 20 to 30 feet high. The angles had round or
square towers, and the walls had parapets and embrasures for defence
and a continuous path round the top of the ramparts. The entrance was a
wide gate guarded by a portcullis. The comparatively large area within
the walls was intended to harbour the population of a district and to
give temporary protection to their flocks and possessions in times of
danger. Some of the finer examples, such as Kildrummy, closely resemble
the splendid military buildings of France in the thirteenth century.
One of the towers is usually larger than the others and forms the
donjon or place of strength, to which retreat could be made as a last
resort, when, during a siege, the enemy had gained a footing within the
walls.
[Illustration: Kildrummy Castle]
Kildrummy Castle is one of the finest and largest in Scotland, and
even in its present ruinous condition gives an impression of grandeur
and extent such as no other castle in Aberdeenshire can rival. It
was built in the reign of Alexander II by Gilbert de Moravia, Bishop
of Caithness. Situated near the river Don, some ten miles inland from
Alford, and occupying a strong position on the top of a bank which
slopes steeply to a burn on two sides, and protected on the other sides
by an artificial fosse, it was a place of great strength. Its plan is
an irregular quadrangle, the south front bulging out in the centre
towards the gateway. It had six round towers, one at each angle and
two at the gate. One of the corner towers—the Snow Tower—55 feet
in diameter, was the donjon and contained the draw-well. The castle
possessed a large courtyard, a great hall, and a chapel, of which the
window of three tall lancets survives. It was built in the thirteenth
century, and therefore belongs to the First Pointed Period. The stone
used is a sandstone, probably taken from the quarries in the locality,
where instead of the prevailing granite of Aberdeenshire a great band
of sandstone occurs.
This famous castle passed through various vicissitudes. It was
besieged in 1306 by Edward I of England and was gallantly defended,
but, in consequence of a great conflagration, Nigel Bruce, King
Robert’s brother, who was acting as governor, yielded it to the
English, he himself being made prisoner and ultimately executed.
Some of the buildings date from this period, when it was rebuilt by
the English, but it soon fell into Bruce’s hands again. Twenty years
after Bannockburn it was conferred on the Earl of Mar. The rebellion
of 1715 was hatched within its walls. Thereafter being forfeited by
Mar, it eventually came into the hands of the Gordons of Wardhouse.
Recently it was purchased by Colonel Ogston, who has built a modern
mansion-house close by and crossed the ravine with a bridge, an exact
replica of the historic Bridge of Balgownie near Donmouth.
During the fourteenth century, Scotland, exhausted with the struggle
for national independence, was unable to engage in extensive building.
Beside, Bruce’s policy was opposed to castle building, as such edifices
were liable to be captured by the enemy and a secure footing thereby
obtained. His policy was rather to strip the country, and to destroy
everything in front of an invading army, with a view to starving it
out. The houses of the peasantry were made of wood and could easily be
restored when destroyed. The houses of the nobility took the form of
square towers on the Norman model and all castles of the fourteenth
century were on this simple plan—a square or oblong tower with very
thick walls and defended from a parapeted path round the top of the
tower. The angles were rounded or projected on corbels in the form of
round bartizans. At first these parapets were open and machicolated. As
time went on, the simple keep was extended by adding on a small wing
at one corner, which gave the ground plan of the whole building the
shape of the letter =L=. The entrance was then placed as a rule
at the re-entering angle. Such keeps are usually spoken of as built on
the =L= plan. The ground floor was vaulted and used for stores
or stables and as accommodation for servants. The only communication
between this and the first floor was a hatch. In early castles the
principal entrance was often on the floor above the ground floor and
was reached by a stair easily removed in time of danger. Access from
one storey to another was by a corkscrew or newel stair at one corner
in the thick wall. Thus constructed a tower could resist siege and
fire, and even if taken, could not be easily damaged.
Of this kind of keep Aberdeenshire has many excellent examples, the
most perfect, perhaps, being the Tower of Drum. It stands on a ridge
overlooking the valley of the Dee. To the ancient keep built probably
late in the thirteenth century was added a mansion-house on a different
plan in 1619. The estate was granted to William de Irvine by Bruce
in recognition of faithful service as secretary and armour-bearer.
Previous to that, Drum was a royal forest and a hunting-seat of the
king. The keep, which stands as solid and square to-day as it did six
hundred years ago, is quadrilateral and the angles are rounded off.
The entrance was at the level of the first floor. The main stair is a
newel. In the lowest storey the walls are twelve feet thick, pierced
with two narrow loops for light. In a recess is the well. On the top
of the tower are battlements, the parapet resting on a corbel-table
continued right round the building.
Hallforest near Kintore is an example of a fourteenth century keep.
It was built by Bruce as a hunting-seat and bestowed on Sir Robert de
Keith, the Marischal. It still belongs to the Kintore family but is now
a ruin.
The fifteenth century brought a change in castle-building. The
accommodation of the keeps was circumscribed and the paucity of rooms
made privacy impossible. One way of extending the space was, as we
have said, by adding a wing at one corner. Another mode was to utilise
the surrounding wall, for the keeps were generally guarded by a
wall, which formed a courtyard or barmekin for stabling and offices.
This was often of considerable extent and defended by towers. As the
country progressed and manners improved, buildings were extended
round the inside of the courtyard walls. In the sixteenth century the
change went further and developed into the mansion-house built round
a quadrangle. The building was first in the centre of the surrounding
wall; ultimately the courtyard was absorbed and became the centre of
the castle.
Balquhain Castle in Chapel of Garioch, two miles from Inverurie, was
originally a keep like Drum, but being destroyed in 1526, it was
rebuilt. Very little of it now remains but its massive, weather-stained
walls have a commanding effect. The barmekin is still traceable. Queen
Mary is said to have passed the night prior to the Battle of Corrichie
at Balquhain. It was burned in 1746 by the Duke of Cumberland.
Many other castles on the same general plan are dotted up and down
the county. Some are in ruins, some have been altered and added to on
other lines, but the original keep is still a marked feature in most
of them. Cairnbulg—recently restored—on the north-east coast has a
keep of the fifteenth century with additions of a century later. Gight,
now ruinous, but formerly celebrated for its great strength, occupies
a fine site on the summit of the Braes of Gight, which rise abruptly
from the bed of the Ythan. It also is a fifteenth century edifice
built on the =L= plan. It has a historical interest as having once
belonged to Lord Byron’s mother, from whom it was purchased by the Earl
of Aberdeen. Another of the same kind is Craig Castle in Auchindoir.
It was completed in 1518 and is also on the =L= plan. So too is
Fedderat in New Deer.
[Illustration: The Old House of Gight]
In the sixteenth century the troubled reign of Queen Mary was
unfavourable to architecture, but towards the end of it the rise of
Renaissance art began to exert a decided influence, especially on
details and internal furnishings, and in the next century gradually but
completely dominated the spirit of the art. Another influence at work
was the progress made in artillery. The ordinary castles could not
now resist artillery fire, and all attempts at making them impregnable
fortresses were abandoned, and the only fortifications retained
were such as would make the buildings safe from sudden attack. In
consequence, what had before been grim fortresses were now transformed
into country mansions, whether on the keep or on the quadrangle
plan; and sites were chosen as providing shelter from the elements
rather than defence against human foes. The Reformation, too, which
secularised the church lands and gave the lion’s share to the nobility,
was a notable influence in revolutionising architecture. The nobility
being now more wealthy were enabled either to extend their old mansions
or to build new ones. Hence the great development that took place in
the quiet reign of James VI. The effect of the Union in 1603, which
drew many of the nobility to England, was civilising and educative, and
raised their ideas of house accommodation as well as their standard of
comfort and domestic amenity.
The change was of course gradual. The old keeps and the castles built
round a courtyard were still in evidence, but picturesque turrets
corbelled out at every angle of the building, slated, and terminating
in fanciful finials, became the rule. The lower walls were kept plain,
the ornamentation being lavishly crowded only on the upper parts. The
roofs became high-pitched with picturesque chimneys, dormer windows
and crow-stepped gables. All these features so characteristic of the
mansion-houses of the fourth period (1542-1700) are well marked in
Craigievar, which is one of the best preserved castles of the time. Its
ground plan is of the =L= type, but the turrets
[Illustration: Craigievar Castle, Donside]
and gables are corbelled out with ornamental mouldings and the upper
part of the castle displays that profusion of sky-pointing pinnacles
and multifarious parapets which mark the period. The same is seen at
Crathes and at Castle Fraser. The last is altogether an excellent
specimen. It consists of a central oblong building with two towers
at the diagonally opposite ends, one square and the other round, and
is therefore a development into what has been called the =Z= plan or
stepped plan—induced by the general use of firearms in defence. Here,
as at Craigievar, gargoyles originally used to carry off rain water
from the roof are brought in as a piece of fanciful decoration, apart
from any utilitarian purpose, and project from the walls at places
where rain-spouts are irrelevant.
[Illustration: Crathes Castle, Kincardineshire]
The castle has a secret chamber or “lug,” in which the master of
the house could over-hear the conversation of his guests in the
dining-hall. Nothing could better illustrate the treachery and cunning
which had been bred by the difficulty of the times. Mr Skene, the
friend of Sir Walter Scott, minutely investigated this contrivance as
it exists at Castle Fraser, and no doubt his account of this ingenious
but dishonourable device for gaining illicit information suggested King
James’s “Lug,” so happily described in _The Fortunes of Nigel_.
[Illustration: Castle Fraser]
Castellated buildings of this class are so numerous in Aberdeenshire
that it is possible to name only a few. One of the finest is Fyvie
Castle on the banks of the upper reaches of the Ythan in the very
centre of the county. It is not like many others a ruin, but a
mansion-house modernised in many respects, but still retaining all
the picturesque features of the olden time. It occupies two sides of
a quadrangle, with the principal front towards the south, one side
being 147, the other 137 feet in frontage. At the three corners are
massive square towers, with angle turrets and crow-stepped gables.
Besides these towers, there are in the centre of the south front two
other projecting towers, which at 42 feet from the ground are bridged
by a connecting arch, eleven feet wide, the whole forming a grand and
most impressive mass of masonry called the “Seton” tower, a magnificent
centre to what is perhaps the most imposing front of any domestic
edifice in Scotland. At the south-east corner is the “Preston” tower,
built by Sir Henry Preston, and the earliest part of the building,
dating from the fourteenth century. In the south-west stands the
“Meldrum” tower, so-called from the succeeding proprietors (1440-1596).
They erected this part and the whole range of the south front except
the “Seton” tower already referred to, which is a later addition. The
Setons succeeded the Meldrums and it is to Alexander Seton, Lord Fyvie
and Earl of Dunfermline, that the castle owes its greatest splendours.
Besides planning this tower, he ornamented the others with their
turreted and ornate details. He also built the great staircase, which
is a triumph of architectural skill. It is a wheel or newel staircase
of grand proportions, skilfully planned and as skilfully executed.
[Illustration: Fyvie Castle, South Front]
The Gordon tower on the west was not added till the eighteenth century,
by William, second son of the second Earl of Aberdeen. Its erection
necessitated the destruction of the chapel. Here one may see how the
Renaissance ideas were creeping in, especially the desire for balance
and symmetry. Two of everything was beginning to be the rule. One wing
must have another to balance with it; one tower another to make a pair.
20. Architecture—(_c_) Municipal.
After a period of declining taste in architecture, a revival began
early in the nineteenth century under the guidance of architects of
genius such as Archibald Simpson and John and William Smith. A great
improvement was thereby effected in the general aspect of the city
of Aberdeen, and their good work has been enhanced by that of their
successors. It is necessary to repeat that it was long before the local
granite came to its own. The earlier buildings of importance were
all of sandstone; to-day he would be a bold architect who suggested
a sandstone building in Aberdeen. The use of granite exercises an
indirect effect on architectural design. It lends itself to broad,
classic, monumental and dignified effects, while its stubborn quality
is a check against over-exuberance of detail, and fanciful, gimcrack
trivialities. The plainness of the buildings was often remarked upon
by strangers twenty years ago. The newer buildings are not without
adornment.
The County and Municipal Buildings (or the Town-House as it is
familiarly called) on the south side of Castle Street were opened in
1870. They form a magnificent pile which takes a high place amongst
provincial town-halls, as regards both vigour and originality of
treatment. The line of elliptical arches on the ground floor and of
small arcaded windows in the floor above make an imposing front. The
great tower, which rises to a height of 200 feet and dominates the
whole city, has the castellated turrets which we have seen to be
characteristic of Scottish architecture. It is curious to see how
latter-day architects have not been able to get away from this feature.
It is conspicuous even in such buildings as the Grammar School and the
new Post Office. The Municipal tower, if somewhat heavy-looking, is
on the whole effective. The small tower and spire on the east is the
old Tolbooth tower, of the seventeenth century, preserved by being
incorporated in the modern building.
[Illustration: Municipal Buildings, Aberdeen, and Town Cross]
The next public building that should be mentioned is Marischal College,
recently enlarged at a cost of nearly
[Illustration: Marischal College, Aberdeen]
£250,000. This is undoubtedly the finest piece of modern architecture
in the north of Scotland, and one of the most handsome and graceful
in the kingdom. The College at the end of the nineteenth century was
a work of the Gothic revival occupying three sides of a quadrangle,
with a tower in the centre of one side. This tower has been remodelled
and greatly heightened so that it is now a rival to the Municipal
tower in the same street. It is known as the Mitchell tower, in
compliment to the donor, the late Mr Charles Mitchell of Newcastle,
whose name is also associated with the public or graduation Hall of the
University. The old frontage of Marischal College was a desultory line
of commonplace houses, through which by a narrow gateway entrance was
gained to the quadrangle. These have all been cleared away and now a
stately pile bristling with ornate pinnacles that sparkle in the sun
fills the whole length of 400 feet.
No less impressive than the delicately chiselled front is the back
view of the College from West North Street, where a dip in the ground
displays to advantage the great mass of building, the Mitchell Hall
with its great Gothic window, its angle-turrets and lofty buttresses.
The Northern Assurance Office stands at the angle between Union Street
and Union Terrace. The clean surface and clear-cut lines of the granite
masonry are very pleasant to the eye. Union Terrace contains some of
the best modern buildings in the city—the Grand Hotel, the Aberdeen
Savings Bank, which though very simple is an admirable specimen of a
front specially designed for granite; the Offices of the Parish Council
and the School Board, original and striking, the Public Library, the
United Free South Church with its graceful dome, and His Majesty’s
Theatre—all serve to illustrate the changes that are being rung on
granite fronts in recent years.
The contrast between these more ornate buildings and the severely
classic simplicity of the Music Hall, a square block with a portico
of Ionic pillars, belonging to the early nineteenth century, shows
what a change in sentiment has taken place. The feature of all the
Aberdeen architecture is the careful, conscientious workmanship, which
always gives the impression of lasting solidity. The material is so
irresponsive that without hard labour, no effect is produced.
[Illustration: Union Terrace and Gardens, before widening of Bridge]
[Illustration: Grammar School, Aberdeen]
We can do no more than mention some of the other notable edifices
in the city. The Grammar School, erected in 1863, is a successful
application of castellated Gothic to a modern building—all the more
effective that it is well set back from the street. The contiguous Art
School and Art Gallery are modern buildings, each with an order of
columns and a pediment which break the long low line of the façade. The
elliptical arch that unites
[Illustration: Gordon’s College, Aberdeen]
them gives access to Gordon’s College, the centre portion of which is
a piece of sober eighteenth century work. The wings and colonnades
were added subsequently. The Head Office of the North of Scotland and
Town and County Bank at the top of King Street has its entrance porch
at the angle with a colonnade of pillars. Near it is the Town Cross,
a hexagonal erection with Ionic columns and a tapering shaft rising
from the centre of the roof, with a heraldic unicorn as terminal. It
dates from the end of the seventeenth century. In the panels of the
balustrade are half-length portraits of Scottish and British Kings
(including the seven Jameses). It is a fine example
[Illustration: Bridge of Don, from Balgownie]
of its class and was the work of a local mason. The royal portraits are
real and authentic. The Ionic screen or façade between Union Street and
the city churches gives some idea of the severely classic architecture
that was the vogue in Aberdeen nearly a century ago.
[Illustration: Old Bridge of Dee, Aberdeen]
A word must be said about the chief bridges. Union Bridge has a span
of 130 feet, and was built in 1802 to facilitate the making of Union
Street. It was originally narrower than the street and has recently
been widened to meet the requirements of increased traffic. The Bridge
of Don (Balgownie), probably built early in the fourteenth century if
not earlier, throws its one Gothic arch over the deep contracted stream
of the river. A small bequest in the seventeenth century for its
maintenance has been so well husbanded that out of its accumulations
the cost of the new Bridge (£17,000), and other buildings has been
defrayed, and the capital value of the fund—called the Bridge of Don
fund—is to-day £26,500. The new bridge, much nearer the sea and with
five arches, was designed by Telford and completed in 1830. The Old
Bridge of Dee (with seven arches) was founded by Bishop Elphinstone and
completed in 1527 by Bishop Gavin Dunbar. In 1842 it was widened 11-1/2
feet. The New (Victoria) Bridge, a continuation of Market Street, was
opened in 1882, since when quite a new and populous city has sprung
up on the south side of the river, entirely eclipsing the old fishing
village of Torry which formerly monopolised this side of the water.
21. Architecture—(_d_) Domestic.
The mansion-houses of the county, whether they are ancient fortalices
modernised by later additions or entirely modern buildings erected
within a century of the present time, deserve more space than can
be allotted to them here. They are of all types of architecture,
classical, renaissance, and composite, but there is no doubt that the
castellated, Scotch baronial, the traditional type so common in the
seventeenth century, still predominates.
[Illustration: Balmoral Castle]
Foremost among them must be mentioned Balmoral Castle far up the
valley of the Dee. Built in 1853 of a light grey granite found in
the neighbourhood, it is composed of two semi-detached squares
with connecting wings, and displays the usual castellated towers,
high-pitched gables and conical roofed turrets. The massive clock-tower
rising to a height of 100 feet from amongst the surrounding leafage and
gleaming white in summer sunshine forms a pleasing picture. The late
Queen Victoria purchased the estate in 1848, and the Prince Consort
took a great personal interest in the design the details of which
are said to be modelled on a close study of Castle Fraser, already
referred to. For more than half a century it has been a royal residence
and though many additions and alterations have been made in that time,
the general picture of the edifice remains the same to the traveller on
the Deeside road. Two miles below is Abergeldie Castle, which has been
leased by the Royal Family for many years. Its turreted square tower,
old and plain and somewhat cramped in space, serves as a contrast to
the more spacious modern mansion.
This region of the Dee has many mansions. Invercauld House,
reconstructed in 1875, is in the same manner, its chief feature being
a battlemented tower seventy feet high. The situation of Invercauld
at the foot of a high hill and backed by plantations of pine and with
a beautiful green terrace stretching to the river Dee is probably
unsurpassed in the district. As seen from the Lion’s Face Rock, a
perpendicular cliff on the south side of the river, this house of the
Farquharsons makes a striking picture not likely ever to be forgotten.
Farther up is Mar Lodge, the residence of the Duke of Fife, in the
horizontal and English domestic style. It was built so recently as
1898, and replaced a somewhat similar building destroyed by fire.
Glenmuick House, built in 1873, is in the Tudor style, strongly treated
and modified to harmonise with the rugged surroundings. The only other
Deeside mansion we can refer to is Kincardine Lodge, recently built,
a very fine building, based to a large extent on the plan of Fyvie
Castle, which we have already referred to as the grandest castellated
mansion-house in the north.
[Illustration: Cluny Castle]
Donside is not so well furnished with stately and luxurious
manor-houses, but it has Castle Newe and Cluny Castle, the
antique-modern Place of Tilliefoure, Fintray House in the Tudor style,
Pitmathen in French Renaissance, each in its own way a work of art.
Midway between the two valleys is Dunecht House, which was built for
Lord Lindsay, a great authority on Christian art, and of which the
most striking feature is the great campanile in the Italian manner.
[Illustration: Haddo House]
In the Ythan valley, Haddo House, the residence of the Earl of
Aberdeen, Lord Lieutenant of the County, belongs to the period of the
late English Renaissance, but additions have been made from time to
time. Crimonmogate, Strichen, and Philorth are classic.
It is a curious fact, worthy of mention, that the local masons
have almost developed a school of craftsmanship, by the thorough
conscientiousness and downright honesty
[Illustration: Midmar Castle]
of their work. We have already remarked that Kintore and Inverurie
seemed to be the centre from which the sculptured stones radiated. In
the same region are the group of castles, Castle Fraser, Craigievar,
Midmar and Cluny (now destroyed), all within an easy radius of the
centre. Castle Fraser and Midmar were built by a mason called John
Bell, whose work was characterised by sterling qualities. The art
would almost seem to have been handed down through several generations
of craftsmen, for the modern Cluny Castle and Dunecht House, as well as
their chapels, besides other palatial and extensive fabrics, were built
entirely by local masons, without any extraneous help. It seems as if
the building art were indigenous to this particular locality.
22. Communications—Roads, Railways.
In ancient times the chief means of communication between Aberdeenshire
and the south was the old South and North Drove Road, which crosses the
Cairn-o-Mounth from Fettercairn in Kincardine, and, passing the Dye and
Whitestones on the Feugh, reaches the Dee at Potarch. It then ran along
the hill to Lumphanan and on through Leochel to the Bridge of Alford,
thence to Clatt and Kennethmont and along the valley of the Bogie to
Huntly.
There was another—a supposed Roman road—which, coming up from
the direction of Stonehaven, crossed the Dee at Peterculter, and,
proceeding northward through Skene, Kinnellar, Kintore and Inverurie,
went on to Pitcaple. Thence it passed through Rayne and across the east
shoulder of Tillymorgan to what has been regarded as a Roman camp at
Glenmailen, and by the Corse of Monellie, Lessendrum and Cobairdy, to
the fords of the Deveron below Avochie.
Another ancient road crossed the mountains from Blairgowrie by the
Spittal of Glenshee, over the Cairnwell, Castleton of Braemar, and the
upper waters of the Gairn to the valley of the Avon at Inchrory and
thence by Tomintoul to Speyside.
[Illustration: Spittal of Glenshee]
After the ’45 General Wade adopted the southern part of this road as
the line of his great military route from Blairgowrie to Fort George,
but from Castleton he turned to the east, went down the Dee valley to
Crathie, and thence across the hills to Corgarff in Upper Strathdon
from which he reached Tomintoul by the “Lecht.” This route he completed
in 1750.
These roads had naturally to lead to fords in the rivers, and, when
bridges came to be built, it was just as natural that they should be
placed in the line of established routes. When the Bridge of Alford was
built over the Don in 1810-11 and the Bridge of Potarch over the Dee in
1812-13, a new line of road was made across country to connect them. It
went from Dess through Lumphanan and Leochel to the Don valley.
The first turnpike made in Aberdeenshire was the road from the Bridge
of Dee to the city of Aberdeen _viâ_ Holborn Street, which completed
the northern section of the great post-road between Edinburgh and
Aberdeen. This was in 1796.
About the same time was made the North Deeside Road reaching from
Aberdeen to Aboyne and thence to Ballater, Crathie, and Braemar, where
it met the Cairnwell Road. Another was the Aberdeen and Tarland route,
which went by Skene and Echt with branches joining on to those already
in existence. One of these struck off at Skene, and, crossing the hill
of Tilliefourie, proceeded to Alford. It was afterwards extended up
the Strath by Mossat, and Glenkindie to Corgarff, where it met General
Wade’s road.
The great post-road from Aberdeen to Inverness went by Woodside,
Bucksburn, Kintore, Inverurie, the Glens of Foudland to Huntly and
Cairnie on the boundary of Banffshire. It had branches from Huntly to
Portsoy through Rothiemay and to Banff through Forgue by the Bridge of
Marnoch.
The Strathbogie Road from Huntly to Donside by way of Gartly, Rhynie,
and Lumsden joined the Strathdon Road at Mossat. Though by no means the
most convenient, it is still used as the route along which the mails
are conveyed to Strathdon.
The Aberdeen and Banff Road left the post-road at Bucksburn and passing
through Dyce, New Machar, Old Meldrum, Fyvie, Turriff, and King Edward
made for the Bridge of Banff.
In the eastern district the most important route was that to Peterhead.
It crossed the new Bridge of Don, and, passing through Belhelvie,
Ellon, and Cruden, came to Peterhead by the coast. From there it went
straight across country to Banff by Longside, Mintlaw, New Pitsligo,
and Byth, thence over the Longmanhill to Macduff. Later a coast route
was made connecting Peterhead and Fraserburgh, by way of St Fergus,
Crimond and Lonmay. Another continuation of it was along the coast past
Rosehearty, Pennan, Gardenstown and Troup Head into Banffshire.
It was only during the nineteenth century that proper and serviceable
highways were constructed. Prior to that time a few main roads had been
made but side connections were few and badly kept, so that wheeled
vehicles, if they had existed, would have been a useless luxury. Early
in the eighteenth century wheeled vehicles were absolutely unknown. In
1765 the judges of the Circuit Court of Justiciary first travelled to
Aberdeen in chaises instead of on horseback. The first mail coach did
not arrive till 1798. It took 21 hours between Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
Not till 1811 did passenger coaches begin to ply between Aberdeen and
Huntly. Then only was it possible for the farmer to convey his products
by cart, which superseded the pack-horse as a means of transport.
The upkeep of the roads was secured by a system of tolls. Traces of the
system still survive in the renovated toll-bar houses, which in some
cases retain a window facing right and a window facing left to mark the
approach of vehicles from either side. Aberdeenshire abolished tolls in
1865.
The Railway system reached Aberdeen in 1848. Prior to that time for
fifty years the stage coach plying between Edinburgh and Aberdeen
had been, apart from the sea-routes, the only bond between this part
of the country and the south. A few years later, in 1854, what is
now the Great North of Scotland Railway was opened from Aberdeen to
Huntly, and two years thereafter was extended as far as Keith. This
is still the main line of railway in the county. It touches in its
course Dyce, Kintore, Inverurie, Insch, and Huntly. By and by branch
lines were constructed forking off from it at various points; _first_
from Inveramsay, through Wartle, Fyvie, to Turriff and ultimately
to Macduff; _second_ from Inverurie across country to Old Meldrum;
_third_ from Kintore up Donside by Kemnay and Monymusk to Alford; and
lastly from Dyce through New Machar, Udny, Ellon to New Maud, where it
bifurcates, one fork going on to Peterhead the other to Fraserburgh.
This is the Buchan and Formartine branch. Recently a sub-branch was
made from Ellon running to the coast and touching Cruden Bay, its
terminus being at Boddam within half an hour’s distance of Peterhead.
From Fraserburgh, a light railway runs to Cairnbulg, Inverallochy and
St Combs. The only other line of railway in the county is the Deeside
line, which runs up the Dee valley as far as Ballater. It was begun in
1853, and Banchory was the terminus till 1859, when an extension was
made to Aboyne; then in 1866 it was extended to Ballater.
The lack of population and the paucity of goods apart from agricultural
products have handicapped the local railways, which are far from
prosperous. The chances of extension in other directions are very
remote. Meantime outlying districts, such as Strathdon and Braemar,
are served by motors. The holiday and tourist traffic during the
summer months and the influx of sportsmen at the shooting season are
contributory sources of revenue, but even these show no tendency to
grow—a state of affairs due to the prevalent use of private motor-cars.
Aberdeenshire has no canals and is never likely to have. Prior to the
advent of railways a canal, designed by Telford, the great engineer,
was constructed between Aberdeen and Port Elphinstone on the south side
of Inverurie. It was opened for passenger and goods traffic in 1806,
and continued to serve the district until the steam-engine sounded its
knell. For nearly half a century it was a bond between the chief city
and the centre of the county and, although it never was remunerative
to the promoters, and provided a very slow mode of conveyance, it was
of great public service. The railway line to the north runs parallel
at certain places to the track of this canal, whose superannuated
embankments may still be recognised, after half a century, at various
points between Aberdeen and Inverurie.
23. Administration and Divisions.
In the twelfth century Scotland was divided into Sheriffdoms, where the
Sheriff was the minister of the Crown for trying civil and criminal
cases. The office was hereditary until the rebellion of ’45, when its
hereditary character was abolished. Aberdeenshire has a non-resident
Sheriff-Principal (who is also Sheriff of Banff and Kincardine) besides
two resident Sheriff-substitutes. These deal with ordinary civil
cases such as debts, as well as with criminal cases involving fine
or imprisonment, but not as a rule involving penal servitude, except
forgery, robbery and fire-raising.
The head of the county is the Lord-Lieutenant. Next to him is the
Vice-Lieutenant and a large number of Deputy-Lieutenants and Justices
of the Peace, but the chief administrative body is the County
Council, which consists of 65 members. These elect the chairman
and vice-chairman, who are designated respectively convener and
vice-convener. County Councils were first established in 1889. The
county is divided into districts, and each district has so many
divisions, or parishes, which elect one councillor. Aberdeenshire
has 85 parishes, which are grouped in eight districts: (1) Deer with
fifteen electoral divisions, (2) Ellon with seven, (3) Garioch with
six, (4) Deeside with six, (5) Turriff with seven, (6) Aberdeen
with nine, (7) Alford with four, and (8) Huntly with four, making
fifty-eight electoral divisions in all. The powers of the Council are
to maintain roads and bridges, to administer the Contagious Diseases
(Animals) Acts, to appoint a medical officer of health and a sanitary
inspector, to deal with the pollution of rivers and to see to the
protection of wild birds. Previous to the passing of the Act of 1889
the Commissioners of Supply were the chief governing body. They are
still retained but have no jurisdiction, except in so far as they
elect members to the Standing Joint Committee. This committee includes
representatives from the County Council appointed annually and from the
Commissioners of Supply, together with the Sheriff _ex officio_. The
Standing Joint Committee has charge of the Police and controls all the
capital expenditure in the county.
Each district has a district committee consisting of the county
councillors for the divisions of the district and of parish councillors
selected by each parish council of the district. Each parish has in
this way two representatives on the district committee, one elected
by the electors and the other appointed by the parish council. This
district committee is the local authority for administering the Public
Health Acts, but has no power to raise money—that being the function
of the County Council as a whole.
By a later Act of 1894, a parish council was established in every
parish. The number of councillors in landward parishes is fixed by the
County Council and in burghal parishes by the Town Council. The parish
council looks after the Poor Law and must provide for pauper lunatics,
sees to the levying of the school rate, to the administration of the
Vaccination Acts, and to the appointment of Registrars.
The affairs of the county are therefore divided amongst three bodies,
the County Council, the District Committees and the Parish Councils.
Prior to 1890 the powers of local administration lay with the
Commissioners of Supply, the Road Trustees and the Parochial Boards,
whose functions are now vested in these other bodies.
Each parish, besides having a Parish Council, has a School Board,
which, since 1872, has administered the education of the parish.
Education is free and compulsory for all children between the ages
of 5 and 14. The schools are of three types—primary, intermediate,
and secondary. The intermediate schools provide a three years’ course
beyond the elementary stage, and the secondary schools a further course
lasting for two years.
The County Council now takes a certain share in educational
administration, having powers to allocate grants of money to schools
and bursaries to pupils. The training of teachers, which until recently
was in the hands of the Churches (Established and United Free), has
now passed to a Provincial Committee elected by various representative
bodies.
Every burgh has a Town Council consisting of Provost, Magistrates
and Councillors, who hold their seats for three years. The number
of councillors varies with the size of the town. In Aberdeen, the
councillors are elected by wards, of which there are eleven, each ward
electing three representatives, one of whom retires annually. The Town
Council of Aberdeen consists of 34 members, the Dean of Guild being
an _ex officio_ member. The Town Council is the local authority for
Public Health, and looks after the streets, buildings and sewers. It
owns the gas works, water works, tramways, electric power station, and
public parks. It regulates the lighting, cleansing, and sanitation. The
Magistrates, who are elected annually by the Council, are the licensing
authority, and form the police court for the trial of minor offences.
The city of Aberdeen is not like Peterhead and Fraserburgh included in
the administration of the county, being itself constituted the county
of a city, with a Lord-Lieutenant of its own, who is the Lord-Provost
_ex officio_. It has its own Parish Council as well as its own School
Board.
Aberdeenshire is represented in Parliament by four members—two for
the county, east and west, and two for the city, north and south. Some
of the smaller burghs, Kintore, Inverurie and Peterhead, are grouped
with similar burghs in Banff and Moray (Banff, Elgin, Cullen) to form
a constituency called the Elgin Burghs, which returns one member.
In addition, the University of Aberdeen shares a member with the
University of Glasgow.
There is still a certain amount of overlapping and confusion in
the administrative divisions. For example, Torry, which is on the
Kincardineshire side of the Dee, is really a suburb of Aberdeen, and as
such elects members to the Town Council, the Parish Council, and the
School Board, but it has no share in electing a member of Parliament
for Aberdeen, being in that regard part of Kincardineshire, and voting
for a representative of that county. There are other similar anomalies.
24. The Roll of Honour.
It is an accepted fact that Aberdonians have intellectual characteristics
somewhat different from those of their fellow-countrymen, the result
partly of race, partly and chiefly, we believe, of environment. We have
already alluded to the amalgamation of nationalities that went to form
the people of this north-eastern corner of the kingdom. Doubtless the
Spartan upbringing that was the rule in the county served to develop
sturdy character and good physique. The result is that the Aberdonian
has distinguished himself in all parts of the Empire and even beyond
it. Not that he has often risen to the front rank of greatness, but he
is frequently found well forward among the best of the second-class.
Their own county presenting no tempting openings for ability,
Aberdonians have migrated from the narrow home-sphere in great numbers
and have made their mark as administrators, medical officers, and even
as soldiers of fortune. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
the cadets of the great houses, exiled by the pressure of the times,
joined the service of continental kings and rose to high rank in
the armies of Sweden, France, and Russia. Chief amongst these was
James Keith, younger brother of the last Earl Marischal, and born
at Inverugie Castle. After serving for nineteen years in Russia, he
joined the service of Frederick the Great, under whom he attained to
the highest military rank as Field-Marshal, contributing to victories
gained during the Seven Years’ War and conducting the retreat from
Olmütz. At the battle of Hochkirchen, when charging the enemy, he fell
mortally wounded in 1758. Peterhead keeps his memory green by a statue
presented to it by the Emperor William I. It is a replica in bronze
of a similar effigy in Berlin. Field-Marshal Keith is probably the
native of Aberdeenshire who has figured most largely in history. He
was Frederick’s right hand, and his military genius has been fittingly
acknowledged by Carlyle in his great work.
Another of the same type, though less eminent, was Patrick Gordon of
Auchleuchries, who fought both on the Swedish and on the Polish side,
but ultimately transferred his sword to Russia, where he rose to the
highest rank, and on his death-bed was watched over and wept over by
Peter the Great. He was born in 1635 at Auchleuchries near Ellon and
died in 1699. He was a perfect example of the successful military
adventurer, one of the type so skilfully depicted by Walter Scott in
Dugald Dalgetty.
The county has been a prolific recruiting ground for the Army. After
the ’45 Chatham’s device for breaking down the clan system and
diverting the energies of the Highlanders into healthier channels by
enlisting them in British regiments was an inspiration of genius. In
1794 the Duke of Gordon raised during a few weeks a regiment of Gordon
Highlanders, which first distinguished itself with Sir Ralph Abercromby
in Egypt, and did noble service also in the Peninsula and at Waterloo.
In the work of empire-making in India and elsewhere, the Aberdonian
has borne a notable part. He has shown ability to exercise a singular
mastery over inferior races. Conspicuous in this respect was Sir Harry
B. Lumsden, who formed the Corps of Guides out of the most daring
free-booters of the North-West frontier of India.
In statesmanship the county has been surpassed by other districts, and
yet it has the distinction of having produced one Prime Minister—the
fourth Earl of Aberdeen (1784-1860), who was responsible for the
Crimean War, and whom Byron styled “the travelled Thane, Athenian
Aberdeen.”
The ecclesiasts of distinction are too numerous to mention. Foremost
amongst them was Bishop Elphinstone, who, though not a native of the
county, identified himself with its interests when he became Bishop
(1483), founded the University, King’s College, the light of the North
(1494), and the church of St Machar (the Cathedral in Old Aberdeen)
and was a pioneer in all that makes for educational enlightenment. He
was instrumental in introducing the art of printing into Scotland.
His tomb is very appropriately in King’s College, the centre from
which radiated the beneficent influence of his life. Henry Scougal
(1650-1678), scholar and saint, son of Bishop Scougal and the inspirer
of John Wesley, was a student of King’s College. He had not been long
ordained in his charge at Auchterless before he was appointed to the
Chair of Divinity in King’s College. He died at 28; but his _Life of
God in the Soul of Man_ is still greatly prized by lovers of devotional
literature. Dean Ramsay, whose _Reminiscences of Scottish Life and
Character_ (1858) is a classic in humorous literature and one not
likely soon to be forgotten, was born in Aberdeen.
In medical science the roll of eminent names is long and impressive,
from Bannerman, who was physician to David II, down to Arthur
Johnston, who after an academic career abroad, cultivated the muses
at Aberdeen, gaining fame as a writer of Latin verse. He was for some
time physician to Charles I. Born at Caskieben in 1587, he was rector
of King’s College in 1637, and died in 1641. Dr John Arbuthnot, though
a native of Kincardineshire, was a student at Marischal College; as
the friend of Pope and Swift, and the wit and physician at the Court
of Queen Anne, he is likely to be remembered. Another celebrated
physician was Dr John Abercrombie, who, born in Aberdeen, went to
Edinburgh, and became head of the profession and first physician to the
king in 1824. Others no less noted were Sir James Clark; Sir Andrew
Clark; Neil Arnott, a contemporary with Byron at the Grammar School,
and more famous as natural philosopher than as physician, devising
skilful inventions in healing and ventilation; Sir James Macgrigor, to
whose memory a lofty obelisk in polished red granite was erected in
Marischal College quadrangle. After standing there for years it was
recently removed to the Duthie Park. Macgrigor was a pioneer in the
humanitarian treatment of the sick and wounded in war, and was chief
of the Medical Staff in the Peninsular campaigns.
In natural science William Macgillivray is known by his careful and
authoritative work on the _History of British Birds_. James Clerk
Maxwell, who did so much for the advancement of modern Physics, was for
a few years professor of Natural Philosophy in Marischal College. Dr
Alexander Forsyth, minister of Belhelvie, invented the percussion lock,
and Patrick Ferguson, a native of Pitfour, invented the breech-loading
rifle.
The county is remarkable for families with pronounced hereditary
intellectual gifts. The most noted case is that of the Gregories, who
sprang from John Gregory, minister of Drumoak. It has produced fourteen
Professors in British universities, skilled in Mathematics, Astronomy,
Chemistry and Medicine. One of them was the inventor of the reflecting
telescope. The Reids, the Fordyces, the Johnstons are other cases less
remarkable, but still exceptional.
Philosophy is a sphere in which the Aberdonian has left his mark.
The greatest local name in this regard is that of Thomas Reid, who
created the Scottish school in opposition to David Hume, and whose
_Inquiry into the Human Mind on the principles of Common Sense_ was
written while he was a Professor at King’s College. Born at Strachan
on the south side of the Dee, he was for a time parish minister of
New Machar. Later he migrated in 1763 to Glasgow, as successor to
Adam Smith. His _Intellectual and Active Powers_ was written after
his retirement in 1780. Other philosophical writers worthy of mention
are, Dr George Campbell, who, besides his dissertation on _Miracles_,
wrote a _Philosophy of Rhetoric_; Dr James Beattie, whose _Minstrel_
is still read and whose _Essay on Truth_ had a great contemporary
reputation; Dr Alexander Bain, an analytical psychologist, whose books
_The Senses and the Intellect_ and _The Emotions and the Will_ contain
the most complete analytical exposition of the mind. Bain was the first
Professor of Logic at Aberdeen, and in conjunction with his pupil Croom
Robertson started the philosophical Review called _Mind_.
[Illustration: Professor Thomas Reid, D.D.]
The sphere of imaginative literature is not the Aberdonian’s sphere.
Criticism, Philosophy, History, Science are more in his way, and yet
a few names can be given as of some note in pure literature. Foremost
in time and unrivalled in his own department is Barbour, Archdeacon
of Aberdeen (1357). He studied at Oxford, and was contemporary with
Wycliffe and Chaucer. His great work is _The Brus_, the most national
of all Scottish poems. It is instinct with the spirit of freedom, of
chivalry and romance, and details the struggles, the perils, and the
marvellous escapes of his hero Robert the Bruce, with great simplicity,
vividness, and directness. Alongside of him we may place John Skinner,
author of _Tullochgorum_, _The Ewie wi’ the Crookit Horn_, and other
well-known songs. A native of Birse and for long episcopal minister
at Longside, he was the father of Bishop Skinner. His fame rests on
_Tullochgorum_, which Burns pronounced to be the best of Scotch songs.
Dr W. C. Smith, the author of _Olrig Grange_ and _Borland Hall_, was
born and educated in Aberdeen. Dr George Macdonald, poet, novelist, and
critic, author of _Alec Forbes_ and other novels embodying local colour
and illustrating Aberdeenshire life and dialect in the early part of
last century, was a native of Huntly. The best known poet connected
with Aberdeen is Byron, who spent some years of his boyhood in the city
and short periods of the summer on Deeside. These visits to Ballater
are reflected in his poem on Loch-na-gar and elsewhere in his work. He
left Aberdeen at the age of 10 in 1798 and never saw it again.
History is a subject that has appealed to Aberdonians. Dr David
Masson’s monumental work on Milton must be mentioned. Other historians
are Joseph Robertson, John Stuart, John Hill Burton, Bishop Burnet,
who wrote the _History of his Own Time_, Sir John Skene, and Robert
Gordon of Straloch, antiquarian and map-maker, as well as his son
James, minister of Rothiemay and historian of the early years of the
Troubles. The first Principal of the University, Hector Boece, wrote
histories somewhat credulous and imaginative but quite authoritative
where his own times are concerned.
Of painters connected with the district may be mentioned Jamesone,
Dyce, and Phillip called “of Spain” from his success with Spanish
subjects. Architecture claims Gibbs, whose Radcliffe Library at Oxford,
and London churches such as St Martin’s-in-the-Fields, still stand a
testimony to his art; the Smiths and Archibald Simpson have already
been mentioned. Sculpture owns the two Brodies and Sir John Steell.
Scholars like Wedderburn and Ruddiman, Cruden of _Concordance_
reputation, Dr James Legge, the Orientalist, and Professor Robertson
Smith, born in the Donside parish of Keig, editor of the _Encyclopaedia
Britannica_, Professor of Arabic at Cambridge, and one of the most
learned pundits of his time—are but a few representatives of a long
list.
The thirst for education and the well-taught parish schools of the
county contributed to bring about such results. The doors of the
University have for centuries been opened by bursaries to the poorest
boys, and in this way many who were endowed with capacity above
ordinary entered the learned professions and rose to eminence.
25. THE CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES OF ABERDEENSHIRE.
(The figures in brackets after each name give the population in 1911,
and those at the end of each section are references to pages in the
text.)
=Aberdeen= (161,952). From being entirely built of granite, Aberdeen is
best known as “The Granite City.” The light grey stone gives the town
a clean look which strikes visitors from cities built of brick or of
sandstone. Its many handsome public buildings, banks, offices, churches
and schools, all solid and substantial, and of great architectural
interest, are undoubtedly finer than those of any other town of the
same size in the kingdom.
The first historical reference to it is in the twelfth century; later
a charter was obtained from King William the Lion, granting the city
certain trading privileges. Long before Edinburgh and Glasgow had begun
to show signs of rising to greatness, Aberdeen was a port of extensive
trade, but its growth was slow until the dawn of the nineteenth
century. In 1801, its population was only 27,608; in 1831 this figure
had doubled, and in recent years, owing chiefly to the phenomenal
growth of the fishing industry, its progress has been rapid.
Aberdeen has long been a great educational centre. Its Grammar
School claims to have existed in the thirteenth century. Its first
University, King’s College in Old Aberdeen, was founded in 1494 by
Bishop Elphinstone, and its second, Marischal College in New Aberdeen,
by Earl Marischal in 1593. These were united in 1860 as the University
of Aberdeen. Since that time the buildings of both Colleges have been
largely added to, and the number of professorships greatly increased.
Its students in the different faculties, Arts, Medicine, Science, Law
and Divinity are little short of 1000.
[Illustration: The Old Grammar School, Schoolhill]
Being the only really large town in the county, and for that matter
in the whole north of Scotland, it tends to grow in importance, and
its business connections are ever extending. It is the focus of the
trawling industry, and of the granite trade; while the agricultural
interests of the county look to Aberdeen as their chief mart and
distributing medium. Its secondary schools, its technical college, its
agricultural college, its University, all help to swell its population
by bringing strangers to reside within its boundaries. In itself it
is clean, healthy and attractively built, while its fairly equable
climate, its relatively low rain-fall (29 inches) and its equally low
death-rate (14·2 per 1000) conduce to its popularity as a residential
town. Being the northern terminus of the Caledonian Railway, and having
excellent service to London by the West Coast, the Midland, and the
East Coast routes, it obtains a large share of the tourist traffic; and
the sportsmen who fish in the Aberdeenshire rivers or shoot grouse in
the Aberdeenshire moors must all do more or less homage to the county
town.
The chief street of the city is Union Street created a century ago at
a cost which was considered reckless at the time but which has been
more than justified by the results. This first improvement scheme,
which has been followed up by others in recent times, was the work of
men with a wide outlook. Prominent among the Provosts of enlightenment
was Sir Alexander Anderson, whose name is now at the eleventh hour
stamped in memory by the Anderson Drive—a fashionable west-end
thoroughfare. Union Street is the backbone from which all the other
thoroughfares radiate. It is broad and handsome and the buildings
that face each other across it are as a rule worthy of the street.
Union Bridge, one of Fletcher’s graceful structures, with a span of
130 feet, makes a pleasing break in the line of buildings and permits
a view north and south along the Denburn valley. The northern view,
which shows Union Terrace and Union Terrace Gardens with handsome
public buildings, both in the foreground and in the background, is
undoubtedly one of the finest in the city. The Duthie Park on the
north bank of the Dee, the links that fringe the northern coast, the
picturesquely wooded amenities of Donside, above and below Balgownie
Bridge, the quaint other world air of Old Aberdeen with its lofty
trees, its grand cathedral and the ancient crown of King’s College,
these are all elevating and meliorating influences that help to keep in
check the commercial spirit that rules about the harbour-quays and the
fish-market.
Aberdeen can boast of four daily newspapers besides several weeklies.
It claims the honour of having the oldest newspaper in Scotland—_The
Aberdeen Journal_—established in 1748. (pp. 3, 8, 11, 13, 20, 24, 37,
38, 39, 66, 68, 75, 80, 83, 85, 89, 91, 92, 94, 95, 101, 102, 107, 108,
109, 111, 126, 145, 162, 164, 165, 169, 172, 173.)
=Aberdour= (549) is a small village on the coast half-way between Troup
Head and Rosehearty. Sometimes called New Aberdour to distinguish it
from the parish, the village came into existence in 1796. The parish is
very ancient. Its church, now in ruins, was dedicated to St Drostan,
the disciple and companion of St Columba. Aberdour is the birth-place
of Dr Andrew Findlater, once Head-master of Gordon’s Hospital (now
College), Aberdeen, and first editor of Chambers’s _Encyclopaedia_.
(pp. 39, 62, 105, 119, 164.)
=Aboyne= (1525), properly called Charlestown of Aboyne in compliment
to the first Earl of Aboyne, is a picturesquely situated village on
Deeside with a high reputation for its bracing climate. Near it is
Aboyne Castle—for centuries the family seat of the Marquis of Huntly.
In the vicinity are Lochs Kinnord and Davan. At Dinnet are beds of
kieselguhr. (pp. 2, 8, 24, 31, 88, 117, 119, 162.)
=Alford= (pa. 1464), on Donside, is the terminus of the branch railway
from Kintore and the centre of a rich agricultural district called
the Vale of Alford. In the neighbourhood are several interesting
castles—Terpersie, Kildrummy and Craigievar. From Alford the main
Donside road leads up the valley to Strathdon and Corgarff, from which
there are passes both to Deeside and to Speyside. (pp. 27, 71, 113,
115, 134, 160, 162.)
=Ballater= (1240), a small town beautifully situated on the north side
of the river Dee, in a level space enclosed by high mountains, is 660
feet above sea-level. From Ballater coaches drive daily to Braemar,
passing Balmoral Castle half-way. (pp. 2, 8, 18, 24, 27, 33, 154, 162,
164, 176.)
[Illustration: Birsemore Loch and Craigendinnie, Aboyne]
[Illustration: Mar Castle]
=Braemar= (502), properly Castleton of Braemar, is the highest village
in the county, being 1100 feet above sea-level. It stands at the
junction of the Clunie and the Dee, and is finely sheltered in a hollow
amongst the surrounding mountains. Braemar is a fashionable health
resort. Some 10,000 strangers visit it annually. At the beginning of
the nineteenth century it was not much more than a Highland clachan.
Now it has
[Illustration: Ballater, view from Pannanich]
spacious hotels with electric light and all modern conveniences on
a luxurious scale. Six miles distant is the famous Linn of Dee. The
Duke of Fife’s Highland residence, Mar Lodge, as well as Mar Castle
and Invercauld House, the home of the Farquharsons, are all in the
vicinity. From Braemar the ascent of Ben-Macdhui is usually made, and
sometimes also Loch-na-gar. A road leads from Braemar up the valley of
the Clunie and over the Cairnwell to Blairgowrie. (pp. 8, 21, 22, 33,
66, 68, 75, 112, 161, 162.)
=Byth= (360), usually New Byth, is a village three miles from
Cuminestown, and founded in 1764. It is a bare and treeless district.
Near it are the hills of Fishrie with a large number of crofts given
off by the Earl of Fife in 1830 to poor people evicted from other
estates at a time when the fashion began of amalgamating small holdings
in larger farms. (pp. 91, 124, 163.)
=Collieston= is a fishing village circling round a romantic bay near
the parish church of Slains. Here in 1588 one of the ships of the
Spanish Armada (_Santa Catherina_) was wrecked. The fishermen still
call the creek St Catherine’s Dub. Several small cannon have been
recovered from the pool. Eighty years ago, Collieston enjoyed a certain
notoriety for smuggling, and the graveyard of Slains close by contains
evidence of the deeds of violence that the contraband trade brought
about. (pp. 38, 48, 54.)
=Culter=, eight miles west of Aberdeen, celebrated for its paper-mills,
which date back to 1750. This paper-mill, the first of its kind in the
north, manufactured superfine paper and in particular the bank-notes of
the Aberdeen Bank. (p. 89.)
=Cuminestown= (466), a village on the north side of the Waggle Hill in
Monquhitter, was established by Joseph Cumine of Auchry in 1763. Joseph
Cumine was a pioneer in agricultural improvement. He planted trees and
started the manufacture of linen. About a mile distant is the smaller
village of Garmond. The villages were once much more populous
in the days when the spinning of flax and the knitting of stockings
were rural industries. (p. 40.)
[Illustration: Braemar from Craig Coynach]
=Ellon= (1307), a thriving town on the Ythan, is the junction for the
Cruden and Boddam Railway. It has a shoe factory and large auction
marts for the sale of cattle. The Episcopal Church—St Mary’s on the
Rock—was designed by George Edmund Street and is a handsome building
in Early English style. A prominent divine in the pre-Disruption
controversies, Dr James Robertson, was parish minister of Ellon from
1832 to 1843. Later he became a professor in Edinburgh University.
Ellon is a place of great antiquity. It was the seat of jurisdiction of
the Earldom of Buchan, and there the earls held their Head Court. (pp.
29, 41, 163, 164, 171.)
=Fraserburgh= (10,570) is the third largest town in the county. It is
a busy, thriving place, being the great centre of the herring fishing
industry in Scotland. It was founded by Sir Alexander Fraser, one of
the Frasers of Philorth (now represented by Lord Saltoun). The Frasers
are said to have come into England with the Normans. A royal charter
was granted in 1546 erecting “Faithlie” as it was then called into a
free burgh of barony with all the privileges. Sir Alexander Fraser was
a great favourite with James VI and was knighted at the baptism of
Prince Henry, 1594: he was a man of enterprise; he built the town and
the harbour and erected public buildings. He received from King James
the privilege of founding a University in Fraserburgh, and a building
was set apart for this institution. Not only so but a Principal was
appointed in 1600. The College may have been active for a few years,
but very little is known of its history. During the plague which
raged for two years at Aberdeen, the students of King’s College went
for safety to Fraserburgh in 1647 and, it is supposed, occupied the
old College buildings. A street in the town is still called “College
Bounds.” (pp. 8, 38, 59, 61, 76, 94, 95, 101, 102, 163, 164, 169.)
[Illustration: The Doorway, Huntly Castle]
[Illustration: The Bass, Inverurie]
=Huntly= (4229), the largest inland town of the county, is situated
at the confluence of the Deveron and the Bogie. It is the centre of
an extensive agricultural district—Strathbogie—and has woollen
and other manufactures. In the vicinity are the ruins of Huntly
Castle, the property of the Duke of Richmond and Gordon. The first
Lords of Strathbogie, being opposed to Bruce’s claims of kingship,
were disinherited and their lands bestowed on Sir Adam Gordon, whose
descendants became Earls of Huntly, Marquises of Huntly and Dukes of
Gordon. The old castle of Strathbogie was destroyed after the battle of
Glenlivet in 1594, but rebuilt as Huntly Castle in 1602. Huntly is the
birth-place of Dr George Macdonald, poet and novelist. (pp. 29, 31, 91,
160, 162, 164, 176.)
=Insch= (616), a village on the Great North Railway, with Benachie
on one side, and the Culsalmond and Foudland Hills on the other. The
vitrified fort of Dunnideer is in the vicinity. (pp. 119, 164.)
=Inverurie= (4069), a royal burgh at the confluence of the Ury and the
Don. The workshops of the Great North of Scotland Railway were removed
from Kittybrewster to Inverurie some years ago, thereby increasing the
population of the burgh. It is one of the Elgin parliamentary burghs.
The Bass of Inverurie is a conical mound, long considered artificial,
but now ascertained to be a natural formation due to the action of the
two rivers. Inverurie has paper manufactures. In the neighbourhood is
Keith Hall, the seat of the Earl of Kintore. (pp. 27, 71, 80, 108, 109,
113, 132, 137, 160, 162, 164, 165, 169.)
=Kemnay= (948), about five miles up Donside from Kintore, is well known
for its extensive granite quarries, which sent stones to build the
Forth Bridge and the Thames Embankment. Near it is Castle Fraser, one
of the finest inhabited castles of the county. Fetternear, once the
county seat of the bishops of Aberdeen, is on the opposite side of the
river. (p. 83.)
=Kintore= (818) is a royal burgh of great antiquity. A mile to the west
are the ruins of Hallforest, destroyed in 1639. Kintore has, in its
vicinity, several “Druidical” circles and sculptured stones. (pp. 27,
49, 108, 136, 160, 162, 164, 169.)
=Longside= (392) dates from 1801. A woollen factory brought for a
time prosperity to the village, but this has been given up and the
population dwindles. Rev. John Skinner, the author of _Tullochgorum_,
was for over sixty years minister of the Episcopal Church at Linshart,
close to the village of Longside. Here also was born Jamie Fleeman,
“the laird of Udny’s fool,” a half-witted person whose blunt outspoken
manner and shrewd remarks are still widely remembered. (pp. 163, 176.)
=Maud= is the point where the Buchan railway bifurcates for Peterhead
and Fraserburgh. Maud is a centre for auction sales of cattle. (p. 164.)
=Mintlaw= (377) was founded about the same period as Longside and the
fortunes of both villages, which are three miles apart, have been
similar. (p. 163.)
=Newburgh= (537), on the estuary of the Ythan, was at one time
notorious like Collieston for smuggling. Ships of small burden still
come up to its wharf at full tide and sometimes proceed as far as
Waterton. The bed of the estuary of the Ythan is covered with mussels,
much used in the past as bait by the local fishermen, as well as for
export to other fishing stations. The revenue from this source has
greatly fallen off in recent years—line-fishing having suffered from
the rise of trawling. (p. 48.)
=New Deer= (675) is a village established about 1805. Brucklay Castle,
the seat of the Dingwall-Fordyce family, recently converted into a
mansion of the old Scottish castellated style, and surrounded with
tasteful grounds, is now one of the most charming edifices in the
district. A mile to the west is the ruined castle of Fedderat. (p. 138.)
=New Pitsligo= (pa. 2226) is a village in the neighbourhood of the
sources of the Ugie, and extending for a mile in two parallel streets
along the eastern slope of the hill of Turlundie. It stands 500 feet
above sea-level. The village takes its name from Sir William Forbes of
Pitsligo, who founded it in 1787. Here a linen trade was at one time
carried on; this gave place to hand-loom weaving and ultimately to
lace-making. The Episcopal Church was designed by G. Edmund Street,
and it is said to be one of the best examples of his work in Scotland.
The manufacture of moss-litter from the peat in the neighbourhood was
recently started. (pp. 91, 163.)
=Old Deer= (179) is prettily situated on the South Ugie. The district
has memories of St Columba and St Drostan. In the neighbourhood are the
ruins of a Cistercian Abbey, and “Druidical” circles. (pp. 2, 105, 113,
115, 117, 123.)
=Old Meldrum= (1110) was erected by charter into a burgh of barony in
1672. It is well known for its turnip-seed. It used to employ many
persons in handloom weaving and in the knitting of stockings. Both
industries have fallen to decay, and the population tends to dwindle.
There is a long-established distillery in the town. (pp. 108, 112, 163,
164.)
=Peterhead= (13,560), the most easterly town in Scotland, is built of
red granite. A century ago it was a fashionable watering-place, and
used to be a whaling station. Now its chief industry is the herring
fishing. South of the town a harbour of refuge is being constructed by
convict labour, from the convict prison close by. The harbour of refuge
will cost, it is said, a million of money and its construction will
occupy 25 to 30 years. A linen factory once existed here, as also a
woollen factory, which exported cloth to the value of £12,000 a year.
Both became extinct, but the woollen industry was revived and still
prospers. Another prominent industry is granite polishing. At Inverugie
Castle was born Field-Marshal James Keith, whose statue stands in front
of the Town-House. The “Pretender” landed at Peterhead on Christmas
Day, 1715. Peterhead was erected into a burgh of barony in 1593 by Earl
Marischal, the founder of Marischal College, Aberdeen. It continued
to be part of the Earl’s estates till the rebellion of 1715, when the
lands were confiscated. The Peterhead portion is now the property of
the Merchant Maiden Hospital of Edinburgh. (pp. 8, 29, 38, 39, 41, 57,
66, 68, 76, 83, 94, 95, 101, 102, 111, 163, 164, 169, 171.)
=Rosehearty= (1308) is a misspelt Gaelic name of which _Ros_, a
promontory, and _ard_, a height, are undoubted elements. The little
town stands on the shore a mile north of Pitsligo[1]. There is a
tradition that in the fourteenth century a party of Danes landed and
took up residence here, instructing the inhabitants, who were mostly
crofters, in the art of fishing. (pp. 62, 162.)
[Illustration: The White Horse on Mormond Hill]
[Footnote 1: Alexander Forbes, fourth and last Lord Pitsligo
(1678-1762) was a warm supporter of the exiled Stuarts and took part in
both rebellions. After Culloden, he remained in hiding, his chief place
of concealment being a cave in the rocks west of Rosehearty.]
M. A.
=Strichen= (1094) was formerly called Mormond, from the hill at the
base of which the village stands. This hill owing to the comparatively
level character of the surrounding country is a conspicuous feature
in the landscape for miles. On the south-western side, the figure of
a horse is cut out in the turf, the space being filled up with white
stones. This “White Horse” occupies half an acre of ground and is
visible at a great distance. On the south side of the hill an antlered
stag on a larger scale is figured in the same manner. This was done so
late as 1870. (pp. 11, 16, 38, 91, 158.)
=Torphins= (455), a rising village on Deeside, much resorted to by
Aberdonians in the summer months. (p. 106.)
=Turriff= (2346) is situated on a table-land on the north of the burn
of Turriff near its junction with the Deveron. Turriff is midway
between Aberdeen and Elgin; hence the couplet—
Choose ye, choise ye, at the Cross o’ Turra
Either gang to Aberdeen or Elgin o’ Moray.
Turriff is very ancient, being mentioned in the _Book of Deer_, under
the name of Turbruad, as the seat of a Celtic monastery dedicated to St
Congan, a follower of St Columba. The double belfry of the old church
(date 1635) is really a piece of castellated architecture applied to an
ecclesiastical edifice. The churchyard gateway is also Early Scottish
Renaissance. (pp. 11, 31, 40, 110, 112, 119, 163, 164.)
[Illustration:
Scotland
19639,377 acres
Aberdeenshire
1,261,971 acres
Fig. 1. Area of Aberdeenshire compared with that of Scotland
]
[Illustration:
Scotland
4,472,043
Aberdeenshire
304,439
Fig. 2. Population of Aberdeenshire compared with that of Scotland
]
[Illustration: Scotland, 150
Aberdeenshire, 154
Lanarkshire, 1524
Fig. 3. Comparative density of Population to square mile]
[Illustration: Fig. 4. Proportion of cultivated and uncultivated areas
in Aberdeenshire—practically 50%]
[Illustration: Fig. 5. Proportionate area of Crops in Aberdeenshire
(1909)]
[Illustration: Fig. 6. Proportionate area of Crops, Pasture and
Woodlands in Aberdeenshire (1909)]
[Illustration: Fig. 7. Proportionate numbers of live-stock in
Aberdeenshire (1909)]
[Illustration:
Scotland
7,423,185 cwts
Aberdeeshire
3,563,254 cwts
Fig. 8. Quantity of Fish (all kinds) landed in Aberdeenshire as
compared with that of Scotland (1909), almost 50%
]
[Illustration:
Scotland
4,500,000 cwts
Aberdeenshire
1,661,768 cwts
Fig. 9. Quantity of Herrings landed in Aberdeenshire as compared with
that of Scotland (1909)
]
Cambridge:
PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
[Illustration:
_The Cambridge University Press_ ]
[Illustration:
GEOLOGICAL MAP OF
COUNTY OF
ABERDEEN
_Copyright. George Philip & Son L^{td}._
]
Transcriber’s Notes
Page 62—changed Pitullie to Pittullie
Page 119—changed possesssed to possessed
Page 148—changed Sreet to Street
Page 164—changed Kenmay to Kemnay
Page 164—changed Formartin to Formartine
Page 189—changed Glenlivat to Glenlivet
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Aberdeenshire" ***
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