Articles

A suitcase owned by E.W. MacPherson, namesake of the new laird of Glen Doll, contains a first hand account of a dispute that started on Jock’s Road, but traversed ultimately to Westminster. Without the Lords’ ruling of 1888 on the Glen Doll case, we would not be free to roam our native land.

Near the Beach Boulevard the sand heaves with people. We find space for our towels and snacks on a less-crowded stretch beside the Beach Ballroom. The soundtrack for that day is The Beatles. Their new Revolver album plays endlessly to the sweltering crowds over the speaker system strung along the Esplanade… Taxman, Eleanor Rigby, Got To Get You Into My Life

In the kirkyard of a sleepy Angus hamlet lay a priceless collection of incised sculptured stones, neglected memorials which had marked the graves of warriors and monks

The name McCombie was well known in Aberdeenshire in the 19th century and three William McCombies, all cousins, were particularly notable.

For nearly 300 years the bell of St Drostan’s kirk tolled the life of the parish in times of peace and danger. Then it disappeared for 30 years

By 1812 the harbour’s future was uncertain. Far from being a shelter in time of storm, it could be the cause of the unexpected end of boats. It would, however, take a further 13 years before the work to improve the harbour would begin – facilitated by the hand of the engineer responsible for the Bell Rock Lighthouse: Robert Stevenson.

The gaunt and forlorn ruin of Slains Castle at Cruden Bay is perhaps one of the most recognisable images of the Aberdeenshire coast, still proudly standing on its precipitous cliff edge and dominating the skyline for miles around. But that this is not the original Slains Castle; in fact, it is not even in Slains.

Even in bare, grim country where the higher slopes have long been abandoned as too poor, too hungry or just too damned difficult to yield a worthwhile return, you can still see the dykes, standing as a lasting memorial to the heroes who made the North-East farmlands out of rock-strewn wilderness.

In the 1960s a real estate company offered to demolish the Music Hall, suggesting a more modern concept. Fortunately, the public outcry that erupted secured the building for an impressive future.

The native wild thistle may be the Scottish emblem, but the tended and productive garden of plants from around the world has been our national obsession

Witches. Fornicators. Vandals. Teenage mothers. Murderers. Do you know of any in your family? Aberdeen City Archives are a window on our past, containing references to those whose misdemeanours have been recorded for posterity.

A remarkable Scottish tradition – linking medicine, botany and gardening – had an huge impact on the landscapes and gardens of Britain and on the ecology of the British Empire.

Crathes Castle, boasts one of the finest painted ceilings in the country, and it is a ceiling of musicians.

The Mither Kirk Project has taken about six years to reach this stage. We anticipate that contractors will be on site shortly to begin Phase 1 – the repair and restoration of the exterior fabric. Phase 2, the interior structures and fit out will follow as soon as funding permits.

The lands of Auchmacoy have almost doubled in size, while Clan Buchan is a flourishing organisation with branches throughout the world.

Since their beginnings in 1973, the Bailies of Bennachie have embraced the story of the squatters who lived on the east corner of the hill. Today these crofting ruins can be explored freely, but little is known about them.

Carefully preserved in the bank at Aboyne is a small, leather-bound book which contains minutes of the birthing of the Aboyne Games.

The Charter Room in Aberdeen Town House was built in 1873 to house the historical records of the council, the earliest surviving document being a charter granted in 1179 by King William the Lion.

Gordons and their name have woven themselves into the fabric of Scotland. Music, song, poetry, dance, a regiment and even a steam locomotive all remember the name.

Life might have treated Forbeses better had they and the House of Gordon and clan Leslie not engaged in centuries-long feuds involving two battles and several massacres.

Ninety-minute shows twice nightly, half-hour intervals, patrons vacating the building by 10 o’clock sharp for fear of air raids. This was 1943 and variety shows at the Tivoli were fun for all the family in the dark days of war.

What does it feel like to be a clan chief, I wonder aloud, and the riposte is immediate. “I suppose I see my role as mother of the clan, the matriarch among Frasers.”

“A Force 9 south-east gale had been blowing for three days. It was snowing. Visibility was virtually zero, and the tidal races were running at 10 knots against the wind. It was into this fearsome mountain of sea that coxswain Dan Kirkpatrick launched the Longhope lifeboat .”

Who were the “brave Ramsay and Fergusson” whom Burns toppled from the throne of poetry? Here, we will discover a truth which we in Scotland are prone to overlook: Burns is the greatest, but far from the only, Scottish poet.

The earl headed celebrations marking the 700th anniversary of King Robert’s coronation and has the very sword once wielded by our hero king.

The spirit of clan Hay is kept alive today in Delgatie Castle, where an enormous collection of Hay memorabilia is lovingly maintained

The rich lands of the Laich of Moray guard an ancient past – for under the waving ears of barley are traces stretching back thousands of years

Burnett chiefs of old fought to establish rights for themselves and their folk, befriending king and commoner alike in the quest for prosperity. Today’s chief might be first to suggest that fighting to maintain prosperity in the current economic climate is probably more difficult than raising armies in ancient days.

Few families have survived for over 800 years in the same place. The lairds of Arbuthnott prove an exception to the rule.

In the 16th century an array of richly-carved medallions adorned the ceiling of the King’s Hall at Stirling Castle, extraordinary examples of Renaissance craftsmanship. Now woodcarver John Donaldson is nearing the end of a huge commission to create a complete replica set of the world-famous Stirling Heads.

Keith is one of the greatest names in Scotland’s history, the legend being that the chief of the house could ride from Berwick to Caithness, stopping every night at one of his own properties.

A centuries-old feud with neighbouring Clan Keith was ended only on 4 August 2002 when David of Drum and the Earl of Kintore finally met on neutral ground – in the middle of Park Bridge they signed a peace accord

The advent of DNA show in tests that the historic branches of the wider Lumsden family are descended from the original people who inhabited Scotland after the Ice Age

Insch artist Roy Benzies followes in the footsteps of Joseph Farquharson to capture the seasonal colours, and light (sometimes warmth!) of the Finzean Estate.

Nestled in a thicket of trees just beyond New Deer, Brucklay Castle has stood for over 400 years. Originally called Brock’s Hillock, the castle site was no more than a badger set.

Jessie Kesson went from the slums of Elgin, where her mother was a prostitute, to an orphanage, then on to a hard life in service and on the land. Eventually her talent for writing brought her recognition.

One of Aberdeenshire’s most attractive castles reached the end of an era last year with the death of Mrs Mhairi Bogdan, the last of the Ramsay and Irvine families for whom the castle had been home for more than 250 years.

Elizabeth Craigmyle – a pupil of the Aberdeen High School for Girls – and Charles Murray were almost exact contemporaries. Their lives and poetry, however, could not have been more different. While Murray’s poems gave an insight into prevailing opinion, Bessie wrote of her love for Maggie Dale, with whom she had what the Victorians called a ‘romantic friendship’.

When did Scots first emerge as a distinct language? There is a clear answer, and one with particular interest for the North-East. The Bruce, the first literary work to survive in the Scots tongue, dates from 1375, pre-dating Chaucer; its author was John Barbour, Archdeacon of Aberdeen.

The shameful footsteps of his North-East past brought Peter Gordon to one of the most fulfilling projects of his life – finding Scotland’s rural past in the footprints of smugglers.

The Freedom Lands and their march stones never cease to intrigue, relating as they do to Robert the Bruce and the development of Aberdeen into an independent and self governing community in the 14th century.

In this year the first women were allowed to serve on Local Government Councils; the Territorial Army was introduced, and across the Atlantic, the electric washing machine was invented. In Aberdeen, the Town Council Watch & Lighting Committee agreed to form a pipe band for the City Police Force. Here we look at the Pipe-Majors who led it.

Her popularity as a teacher can be gauged by that fact that in 1876, the school board had to prohibit parents from trying to enrol their sons in the girls’, rather than the boys’ department of St Paul Street School!

The discovery of medieval human remains at St Nicholas Kirk reminds us of its 800 years in which it has witnessed every major event in the life of the city. It is custodian of its secrets and treasures. Not least of these are the unique tapestries made by a 16th century Aberdeen embroideress which hang in a transept.

In the autumn of 1926 Mrs Fenella Paton of Grandhome made a brave decision to set up a birth control clinic in Aberdeen for working class mothers. This was highly significant, as it was one of the first birth control clinics in Britain and only the second in Scotland.

Union Bridge is a living structure, an inhabited bridge, with an arcade of shops and offices suspended above the tracks of the Invernes railway line.

In 1696, at the time when Glenbucket Castle was held by the Gordons, Upperton was a thriving clachan, supporting seven families. Today only one ruin remains.

Oh! the youthful pleasure of dookin in the open air pools around our rocky coasts. When mixed bathing become common in the 1920s, swimming pools provided shelter from snell winds; places where manly youths could display their physique and nubile females their charms.

When the writer learned of his Aberdeen forebear, the ‘Harbour Master at Fittie’, coincidence revealed links to the present day. It was as if the story of Captain Alexander Morrison beckoned to be told.

Over the centuries, the settlement grew and prospered and was known as Kilwhang. With ‘Kil’ meaning hill and ‘whang’ the name, or sound of a whip, possibly, the name is derived from the cliffs above the original settlement and the sound of wind whistling around their meagre shelters.

Mention of the Aberdeen to Inverurie canal these days often surprises people, unaware of its existence. Most of it has disappeared under the railway, roads and housing, but some short stretches, now dry and ditch-like, can still be found.

Robert MacKenzie was appointed to the headship at Summerhill in 1968 by the Labour-controlled Aberdeen Council. It caused a stir in Scottish educational circles, given MacKenzie’s record as a non-conformist

Ever since the Great Awakening of 1859 and the evangelical revivals which followed, the coastal communities of the North-East have celebrated a vibrant gospel singing tradition.

The original Scots were Gaelic speakers, so why do we now apply the word to the language of the Lowlands?

Mrs Frances Dunlop of Dunlop was nearly 30 years older than Burns, physically unattractive and the mother of 13 children. Yet, with her, he had a unique friendship.

The Girnock land was poor; when cattle droving declined, the folk were driven to whisky smuggling and the Glen became notorious for its black bothies. Now its abandoned farm-touns carry us back to the time when it bustled with Gordons.

Aberdeen is a better-run city than most, but there is concern for its main artery. Union Street used to be jam-packed with shoppers on Saturdays, and you met everyone you knew there.

A personal recollection of Aberdeen’s mini ‘golden age’ of ballroom dancing – inspired by welcome signs of another just beginning…

With news of Glencraft, The Royal Aberdeen Workshops for the Blind and Disabled, having financial difficulties, my mind took me back to 1964.

In September 2006, a dedicated band of engineers and historians from Japan went to Scotland to pay tribute to a man who is virtually unknown in his native land. Who is William Kinninmond Burton? Why do his achievements arouse such devotion?

Two 18th century instruments from the same small workshop in Upperkirkgate, Aberdeen, survive today as unique examples of their type – and the oldest known. Now, through Leopard, a third has entered the ring.

How an Aberdeen town councillor stole 1,044 coffin lids, seven coffins and two shrouds… and an undertaker was found guilty of the reset of 100 coffin lids and two coffins.

Originally built to defend the port, trade and city of Aberdeen, Torry Point Battery is an enduring landmark on this northern coast. The time has come to tell the tale of two unusual groups which occupied this defensive bulwark, groups with no connection to the Battery’s military past.

I start with an apology. In 1980 while resident in Hong Kong, I received a letter from Diane Morgan, then editor of Leopard, inviting me to write a few words about our local Grammar and Gordonian Former Pupils’ Club. I never did get around to putting pen to paper, but the seed was sown. Here I am, 26 years later, scribbling away, hopefully before loss of memory and/or dementia set in.

The traditional music of an area reflects the dialect of the people. After an intensive two weeks listening to the Tarland locals talking, an American fiddler commented: ‘North-East people talk in Strathspeys’.

Flamboyant John Anderson was a showman in the grand manner. In 1851 he toured America, where a quarter of a million people saw him during his run at the Broadway Theatre in New York.

St Carol’s bell in the kirkyard at Ruthven, Aberdeenshire was named The Wow o’ Riven by Feel Jock – and it was a bell worth fighting over.

What turned out to be Scotland’s heraldic event of 2005 took place in Glencoe in June when a Macdonald clan herald was installed into office for the first time for 510 years.

It is 700 years since the Martyrdom of William Wallace, Scotland’s greatest patriot – a charismatic leader, a brilliant military commander, and a man of ardent patriotic spirit and dauntless personal courage. As Scotland strives to regain its true place in Europe and the world, the City of Aberdeen is celebrating Wallace’s life on 20 August, remembering him with pride.

Aberdeen has had gates to the medieval city since the 15th century. But what happened to them?

A little-known tradition of North-East violin making has existed alongside the playing tradition since the middle of the 18th century

The Foudland quarries which once supplied the North-East with distinctive roofing slate are being eyed with renewed interest.

Many Aberdonians will have memories of sixpences spent at Greig’s shoppie in the Gallowgate.

A massive bronze key bearing the dents and twists on a long, hard working life could be a long-lost link with the medieval city.

When John Duff worked in Banchory, he often visited Bill and Molly Ogston at Campfield Smiddy. When Molly died, John fell heir to several smiddy ledgers, a priceless record of the lives of successive country blacksmiths.
For years, the Campfield ledgers have languished in John’s loft; now he shares their contents, and his musings on their owners.

Doos have been reared in Scotland since the 12th century. Their doocots – some 500 of them – add charm to our landscapes to this day, but many are reaching the point of no return. Should we intervene, or let them go?

Recognition for King of the Cornkisters Willie Kemp and – a bothy balled king in his own right – George Morris.

The first of a two-part series on the history of broadcasting in the North-East

One hundred and twenty-five years ago this month, the Tay bridge blew down in a storm. How could this structure, such a source of profit and pride to its owners, vital key in a masterplan to connect Aberdeen to London, become to land communications what the Titanic became to the high seas?”

It seems possible that the Horn of Leys, displayed in the great hall at Crathes Castle, is not what it purports to be. Could there be other instances of equally dubious historical claims being accorded authenticity?

Patrick Geddes was an international intellectual giant – scientist, educator, town planner,and cultural champion – but today in Ballater, he is almost forgotten.

The famous Rhynie war memorial is considered to be one of the finest granite carvings in the world. Here, Douglas Kynoch gives a personal account of the life of his grandfather.

“One of the clarions of every community in Scotland is that there are no characters left. Passing years have made us more bland and less colourful… I can understand that, but beg to differ” argues Norman Harper

Those people celebrating a century of flying should recognise that this patch of Scotland played its part in ensuring that mankind triumphed in heavier-than-air machines. By Gordon Casely

The battle of Flodden has appalled Scotland for generations. On the afternoon of Friday, 9 September 1513, King James IV of Scots and a majority of the leaders of our nation had been utterly annihilated. By Gordon Casely.

Mel Edwards on the history of Aberdeenshire Cricket Club

Professor Alex Kemp of the University of Aberdeen takes a considered look – in both directions – at the industry which has had an immeasurable impact on the North-East.

Tom McKean on Alan Lomax, a vital American link in our folk song chain.

If Robert Burns had been like most of us, falling in love, getting married and staying faithful, he would not have written the most tender and beautiful love poems of all time. Elizabeth Strachan on the Bard’s muses.

In 1601 a company of travelling actors visited Aberdeen. The principal director and playwright of that group was William Shakespeare. Can it be mere coincidence that the dialogue of the Scottish play, Macbeth, describes uncannily much of the content of the Aberdeen witch trials of 1595-96?

Sandy Cheyne has a fresh dig in the roots of the traditional Aberdeenshire ballad.

Jock Coutts’ memories of steam powered agriculture.

John Doran on the history of one of Aberdeenshire’s finest architectural treasures.

Is Prince Charlie’s famous portrait by Quentin de la Tour really a likeness of the Pretender? Sandy Cheyne does some artistic detective work.

Marion Youngblood on the last in the Heroic Age of Pictish warriors.

When the valley of the River Don was selected as the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland’s next large-scale survey area, I felt as though I was returning to home territory.

By marrying the first Earl of Moray’s daughter, he gained the earldom – but with it a lethal dowry – a longstanding feud with the Earls of Huntly.