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.
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.