Part 6
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.