Part 1
Transcriber’s Note
The use of =L= around a letter indicates bold. Hyphenations have been standardised. Changes made are noted at the end of the book. Because there are so many illustrations, it wasn't always possible to place them between paragraphs.
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.