Chapter III: Part 3

During the last quarter of a century the fishing industry has made great strides, the value of fish landed in Scotland having more than doubled in that period. Nowhere has the impetus been more felt than in Aberdeenshire, which now contributes as much as one-third of the whole product of Scotch fisheries. Since 1886 the weight of fish caught round the Scottish coast has increased from five million hundredweights to over nine millions, while the money value has risen in even a greater proportion from £1,403,391, to £3,149,127. To these totals Aberdeen alone has contributed over a hundred thousand tons of white fish (excluding herrings), valued at over a million pounds sterling. Peterhead and Fraserburgh are also contributors especially as regards herrings, the former landing 739,878 hundredweights and Fraserburgh very nearly a similar quantity. These three ports amongst them account for one half of all the fish landed at Scottish ports. When we consider the number of persons collaterally employed in handling this enormous quantity of merchandise, the coopers, cleaners, packers, basket makers, boat-builders, makers of nets, clerks and so on, apart altogether from the army of fishermen employed in catching the fish, we see how far-reaching this industry is, not merely in increasing the food-supply of the country but in providing profitable employment for the population. At Aberdeen, it is estimated, 13,512 persons are so employed and at the other two ports combined, almost a similar number.

There are two great branches of the fishing industry—herrings and white fish. The herrings are caught for the most part, though not exclusively, in the summer, July being the great month. They are captured with nets mostly by steam-drifters as they are called, but also to some extent by the ordinary sailing boats of a smaller size than the drifters. Fraserburgh and Peterhead land in each case double the weight of herrings that come to Aberdeen. In recent years a beginning has been made in May and June with gratifying success, but July and August give the maximum returns. Later on in the year, when the shoals have moved along the coast southwards, the herring fleets follow them thither, to North Shields and Hartlepool, to Yarmouth and Lowestoft; and bands of curers, coopers and workers migrate in hundreds from one port to another, employing themselves in curing the fish. The bulk of the herrings are cured by salting, and are then exported to Germany and Russia, where they are much in demand.

Even more important is the white fishing. Aberdeen is here pre-eminent, being perhaps the most important fishing centre in the world. The total catch for Scotland in 1909 was short of three million hundredweights, of which Aberdeen with its large fleet of trawlers and steam-liners accounted for 67 per cent. The most important of the so-called round fish is the haddock, of which over a million hundredweights are landed in Scotland, Aberdeen contributing the lion’s share, three-fourths of the whole. Next to the haddock comes the cod, of which nearly three hundred and forty thousand hundredweights were handled in the Aberdeen fish market. The next fish is ling, and then come whitings, saithe, torsk, conger-eels. The flat-fish are also important, plaice, witches, megrims, halibut, lemon soles and turbot. This last is the scarcest and most highly prized of all flat fish, and commands a price next to that given for salmon. Ling and halibut are still mostly caught by hook and line; the turbot and the lemon sole on the other hand are distinctively the product of the trawl net and were little known until trawling was begun.

A certain small percentage of this great weight of fish is consumed locally, but the great bulk of it is packed in ice and dispatched by swift passenger trains to the southern markets. The Aberdeen fish market, extending for half a mile along the west and north sides of the Albert Basin (originally the bed of the Dee) is the property of the Town Corporation and is capable of dealing with large catches. As much as 760 tons of fish have been exposed on its concrete floor in a single day. In the early morning the place is one of the sights of the city, with the larger fish laid out in symmetrical rows on the pavement, and the smaller fish—haddocks, whiting and soles—in boxes arranged for the auction sale at 8 a.m.

The majority of the fishing craft are still sailing vessels, but steam-drifters and motor-boats and steam-trawlers

are gradually driving the ordinary sail-boats from the trade, just as the trawl net is superseding the old-fashioned mode of fishing with set lines. Still about 86 per cent. of the number of boats employed is made up of sailing vessels, but the tonnage is relatively small. The quantity of fish caught by hook and line is only one-tenth of the whole.

The amount of capital invested in boats and fishing gear for all Scotland is estimated by the Fishery Board at over £5,000,000. Of this total, Aberdeenshire claims very nearly two millions. It is now the case that the value of fish discharged at the fish market of Aberdeen is as great as the yearly value of the agricultural land of the whole county—truly a marvellous revolution.

The herring fishery was prosecuted off the Scottish coast by the Dutch, long before the Scotch could be induced to take part in it. Many futile attempts were made to exploit the industry but little came of them till the nineteenth century. A beginning was made at Peterhead in 1820 and at Fraserburgh a little earlier. Aberdeen followed in 1836 but no great development took place till 1870. The first trawler came on the scene in 1882; to-day there are over 200 local vessels of this type besides many from other ports.

The salmon fishery has long been famous and at one time was relatively a source of much greater revenue than at present. It still yields a considerable annual surplus to the Corporation funds, but has been eclipsed by the growth of other fisheries. The rateable value of the salmon fishings on the Dee is nearly £19,000; those of the other salmon rivers—the Don, Ythan and Ugie—being much less. The fish are caught by fixed engines in the sea—stake-nets and bag-nets—set within a statutory radius of the river mouth, and by sweep- or drag-nets in the tidal reaches of the rivers. A good many fish are caught by rod and line throughout the whole course of the rivers but angling is not the commercial side of salmon-fishing.

15. Shipping and Trade.

Aberdeenshire has practically but three ports—Fraserburgh, Peterhead and Aberdeen. The herring fishing with its concomitant activities absorbs the energies of the two former so far as shipping is concerned, but Aberdeen having to serve a larger and wider area than these two northern burghs has developed a range of docks of considerable extent and importance. During the last forty years the Harbour Commissioners have spent £3,000,000 in improving the harbour, increasing the wharfage, adding break-waters, diverting the course of the Dee, deepening the entrance channel, forming a graving dock and so forth. Still, in spite of these outlays, Aberdeen, which has been a port for centuries, has hardly grown in shipping proportionately to its growth in other respects. The reason is that, except fish, granite and agricultural products, the city has nothing of much moment to export.

Exclusive of fishing vessels the tonnage of home and foreign going vessels was in 1882, 587,173; in 1909 it had advanced to over a million, hardly doubling itself in 27 years. While its imports have gone up from 522,544 tons in 1882 to 1,165,060 in 1909, the exports have made only a very slight advance. The chief export is herrings, and last year nearly 100,000 tons of these, salted and packed in barrels, were sent by sea. The fresh fish are dispatched by rail. Stones in the form of granite, either polished for monumental purposes or in setts and kerbs for paving, account for 50,000 tons. The remainder (of 210,554 tons) is made up by oats, barley, oatmeal, paper, preserved provisions, whisky, manures, flax and cotton fabrics, woollen cloth, cattle and horses, butter and eggs, salmon and pine-wood.

The trade is mostly a coasting trade and more an import than an export one. Coal is the chief article of import, 600,000 tons being discharged in a year. Besides coal, esparto grass, wood-pulp and rags for paper-making, foreign granite in the rough state sent to be polished, flour, maize, linseed, the horns of cattle used for comb-making, and the salt used in fish-curing, are the chief materials landed on the Aberdeen quays. Aberdeen being the distributing centre for the county, and all the railway routes focussing in it, the coal and the building materials not produced in the district, such as lime, slate and cement, all pass this way, while the tea and sugar, the tobacco and other articles of daily use, also arrive mostly by the harbour.

There are regular lines of steamers between Aberdeen and the following ports: London, Newcastle, Hull, Liverpool, Glasgow and Leith, as also with continental towns such as Hamburg, Rotterdam and Christiania.

16. History of the County.

Standing remote from the centre of the country, Aberdeenshire has not been fated to figure largely in general history. The story of its own evolution from poverty to prosperity is an interesting one, but it is only now and again that the county is involved in the main current of the history of Scotland.

If the Romans ever visited it, which is highly doubtful, they left no convincing evidence of their stay. Of positive Roman influence no indication has survived, and no conquest of the district can have taken place. The only records of the early inhabitants of the district—usually called Picts—are the Eirde houses, the lake dwellings or crannogs, the hill forts or duns, the “Druidical” circles and standing stones and the flint arrow-heads, all of which will be dealt with in a later chapter.

Christianity had reached the south of Scotland before the Romans left early in the fifth century. The first missionary who crossed the Mounth was St Ternan, whose name survives at Banchory-Ternan on the Dee, the place of his death. St Kentigern or St Mungo, the patron saint of Glasgow, had a church dedicated to him at Glengairn. St Kentigern belonged to the sixth century, and was therefore a contemporary of St Columba, who christianised Aberdeenshire from Iona. In this way two great currents met in the north-east. Columba accompanied by his disciple Drostan first appeared at Aberdour on the northern coast. From Aberdour he passed on through Buchan, and having established the Monastery of Deer and left Drostan in charge, moved on to other fields of labour. His name survives in the fishing village of St Combs. He is the tutelar saint of Belhelvie, and the churches of New Machar and Daviot were dedicated to him. These facts indicate the mode in which Pictland was brought under the influence of Christianity.

The next historical item worthy of mention is the ravages of the Scandinavian Vikings. The descents on the coast of these sea-rovers were directed against the monastic communities, which had gathered some wealth. The Aberdeenshire coast, having few inlets convenient for the entry of their long boats, was to a large extent exempt from their raids, but in 1012 an expedition under Cnut, son of Swegen, the king of Denmark, landed at Cruden Bay.

Another fact of interest is the death of Macbeth, who for seventeen years had by the help of Thorfinn, the Scandinavian (whose name may be seen in the Deeside town of Torphins), usurped the kingship of Scotland. Malcolm Canmore led an army against him in 1057, and gradually driving him north, beyond the Mounth, overtook him at Lumphanan. There Macbeth was slain. A Macbeth’s stone is said to mark the place where he received his death-wound, and Macbeth’s Cairn is marked by a clump of trees in the midst of cultivated land. The farm called Cairnbethie retains the echo of his name. Kincardine O’Neil, where Malcolm awaited the result of the conflict, commands the ford of the Dee on the ancient route of travel from south to north across the Cairn-o-Mounth.

Malcolm shortly after passed through Aberdeenshire at the head of an expedition against the Celtic population which had supported Macbeth. The Norman Conquest, nine years thereafter, was the occasion of Anglo-Saxon settlements in the county. The court of Malcolm and Queen Margaret became a centre of Anglo-Saxon influence. The old Gaelic language gave way before the new Teutonic speech. The Celtic population made various attempts to recover the power that was fast slipping from their hands. Malcolm headed a second expedition to Aberdeenshire in 1078, and on that occasion granted the lands of Monymusk and Keig to the church of St Andrews. He is said to have had a hunting-seat in the forest of Mar, and the ruined castle of Kindrochit in the village of Braemar is associated with this fact.

The earliest mention of Aberdeen is in a charter of Alexander I, granting to the monks of Scone a dwelling in each of the principal towns—one of which is Aberdeen. A stream of Anglo-Saxons, Flemings and Scandinavians had been gradually flowing towards the settlement at the mouth of the Dee, where they pursued their handicrafts and established trade with other ports. William the Lion frequently visited the town and ultimately built a royal residence, which after a time was gifted to the Trinity or Red Friars for a monastery. The bishopric of Aberdeen dates from 1150.

Edward I of England in 1296 at the head of a large army paid these northern parts a visit. He entered the county by the road leading from Glenbervie to Durris, whence he proceeded to Aberdeen, exacting homage from the burghers during his five days’ stay. From Aberdeen he went to Kintore and Fyvie and on to Speyside, returning by the Cabrach, Kildrummy, Kincardine O’Neil and the Cairn-o-Mounth.

The next year Wallace, in his patriotic efforts to clear the country from English domination, surprised Edward’s garrison at Aberdeen, but unable to effect anything, hastily withdrew from the neighbourhood. Edward was back in Aberdeen in 1303 and paid another visit to Kildrummy Castle, then in the possession of Bruce. Then Bruce, having fled from the English court and assassinated the Red Comyn at Dumfries, was crowned at Scone and the long struggle for national independence began in earnest. In 1307 he came to Aberdeen, which was favourable to his cause. At Barra, not far from Inverurie and Old Meldrum, his forces met those of the Earl of Buchan (John Comyn) and defeated them (1308). It was not a great battle in itself, but its consequences were important. It marked the turn of the tide in the national cause. The Buchan district, in which the battle took place, had long been identified with the powerful family of the Comyns; and after his victory at Barra, Bruce devastated the district with relentless fury. This “harrying of Buchan,” as it has been called, is referred to by Barbour as an event bemoaned for more than fifty years. The family of the Comyns was crushed, and their influence, which had been liberal and considerate to the native race of Celts, came to an end. The whole of the north-east turned to Bruce’s support, and in a short time all Edward’s garrisons disappeared. This upheaval created a fresh partition of the lands of Aberdeenshire. New families such as the Hays, the Frasers, the Gordons and the Irvines, were rewarded for faithful service by grants of land. The re-settlement of the county from non-Celtic sources accentuated the Teutonic element in the county. After Bannockburn, Bruce rewarded Aberdeen itself for its support by granting to the burgesses the burgh as well as the forest of Stocket.

The great event of the fifteenth century was the Battle of Harlaw, which took place in 1411 at no great distance from the site of the Battle of Barra. It was really a conflict between Celt and Saxon, and was a despairing effort on the part of the dispossessed native population to re-establish themselves in the Lowlands. The Highlanders were led by Donald of the Isles, who gathering the clansmen of the northern Hebrides, Ross and Lochaber, and sweeping through Moray and Strathbogie, arrived at the Garioch on his way to Aberdeen. The burghers placed themselves under the leadership of the Earl of Mar (Alexander Stewart, son of the Wolf of Badenoch), a soldier who had seen much service in various parts of the world. The provost of the city, Robert Davidson, led forth a body of his fellow-citizens and joined Mar’s forces at Inverurie, within three miles of the Highlanders’ camp. The two forces were unequally matched—Donald having 10,000 men and Mar only a tenth of that number, but of these many were mail-clad knights on horseback and armed with spears. It was a fiercely contested battle and lasted till the darkness of a July night. The slaughter on both sides was great, but the tide of barbarism was driven back. The Highlanders retreated whence they came and the county of Aberdeen was saved from the imminent peril of a Celtic recrudescence. This is the only really memorable battle associated with Aberdeenshire soil. Its “red” field, on which so many prominent citizens shed their life-blood (Provost Davidson and Sir Alexander Irvine of Drum being of the number), was long remembered as a dreary and costly victory.

Another battle of much less significance was that of Corrichie, fought in Queen Mary’s reign in 1562 on the eastern slope of the Hill of Fare, not far from Banchory. It was a contest between James Stewart (the Regent Murray, and half-brother of the Queen) and the Earl of Huntly. Huntly was defeated and slain, and his son, Sir John Gordon, who was taken prisoner, was afterwards executed at Aberdeen. Queen Mary, it is said, was a spectator both of the battle and of the execution.

In the seventeenth century, at the beginning of the Covenanting “troubles,” Aberdeenshire gained a certain notoriety as being the place where the sword was first drawn. In 1639 the Covenanters mustered at Turriff under Montrose, to the number of 800. The Royalist party under the Earl of Huntly, to the number of 2000 but poorly armed, marched to the town with the intention of preventing the Covenanters from meeting, but they were already in possession, and when Huntly’s party saw how matters stood, they passed on, the two forces surveying each other at close quarters without hostile act or word. This bloodless affair is known as the first Raid of Turriff. A few weeks later a somewhat similar encounter took place, when the Covenanters, completely surprised, fled without striking a blow. The loss on either side was trifling, still some blood was actually shed, and the Trot of Turriff, as it was called, became the first incident in a long line of mighty events.

Montrose, both when he was leading on the side of the Covenant, and later when he became a Royalist leader, paid several visits to Aberdeen, which, although supporting the Royalist cause, suffered exactions from both parties. In 1644 Montrose made a forcible entry of the town, which resulted in the death of 150 Covenanters, and in the plundering of the city. Later on, after his victory over Argyll at Inverlochy, Montrose gained a success for the Royalist cause at Alford (1645).

In 1650, after the execution of Charles I, his son Charles II landed at Speymouth, and on his way south to be crowned at Scone, visited Aberdeen, where he was received with every manifestation of loyalty and goodwill. The next year General Monk paid the town a visit, and left an English garrison, which remained till 1659. The Restoration was hailed with rejoicing: the Revolution with dislike. Yet at the Rebellion of 1715 scant enthusiasm was roused for the cause of the Pretender, who himself passed through the city on his way from Peterhead to Fetteresso. In the thirty years that passed before the second Jacobite Rebellion, public sentiment had grown more favourable to the reigning House. The ’45 therefore received little support in Aberdeenshire. A few of the old county families threw in their lot with the Prince, but the general body of the people were averse to taking arms. The Duke of Cumberland, on his way north to meet Prince Charlie at Culloden, remained with his army six weeks in the city; when he started on his northward march through Old Meldrum, Turriff and Banff, he left a garrison of 200 men in Robert Gordon’s Hospital, lately built but not yet opened. After Culloden small pickets of troops were stationed in the Highland districts of the county, to suppress the practice of cattle-lifting. Braemar Castle and Corgarff Castle in the upper reaches of the Dee and the Don still bear evidence of their use as garrison forts. The problem of dealing with the inhabitants of the higher glens, where agriculture was useless, and where the habits of the people prompted to raiding and to rebellion, was solved by enlisting the young men in the British Army. The Black Watch (42nd) as reorganised (1758) and a regiment of Gordon Highlanders (1759) were largely recruited from West Aberdeenshire, and this happy solution closed the military history of the district.

17. Antiquities—Circles, Sculptured Stones, Crannogs, Forts.

Aberdeenshire is particularly rich in stone-circles. No fewer than 175 of them have been recorded as existing in the district. Unfortunately many of them entirely disappeared when the sites were turned to agricultural uses; others have been mutilated, and owing to the removal of some of the stones, stand incomplete; a few have been untouched, and from these we may judge what the others were like. One of the best preserved is that at Parkhouse, a mile south-west of the Abbey of Deer. A circle of great blocks of stone, irregular and of unequal height, some standing erect, some evidently fallen down, is the general feature. Sometimes inside the circle, but more usually in the circumference of the circle itself, there is one conspicuously larger stone, in a recumbent position. This it has been usual to call the rostrum or altar stone. It is well marked at Parkhouse, being 14 feet 9 inches long, 5 feet 9 inches high, and estimated to weigh 20 tons. The so-called rostrum is usually on the south side of the circle and the stones facing it on the north are of smaller size.

From _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, 1903-4]

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.

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.

“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.

A number of hill-forts, more or less disintegrated, are traceable in the higher ground in the vicinity of Lochs Kinnord and Davan. These show concentric lines of circumvallation, with stronger fortifications at various points. Vitrified forts, where the stones have been run together by the application of heat, are found at Dunnideer near Insch, and on the conical summit of Tap o’ Noth near Rhynie. The Barmekin at Dunecht encloses an area of more than two acres, and consists of five concentric walls, three of earth-works and two of stone.

Numerous cairns, barrows or tumuli exist all over the county, at Aberdour on the coast, at Birse, Bourtie, Rhynie, Turriff, and elsewhere. Human remains have been found in most of these; and as a rule flint arrow-heads and other implements are also associated with them.

18. Architecture—(_a_) Ecclesiastical.

The history of Scotland from an architectural point of view does not reach very far back into the past. Till the tide of civilisation flowed into Scotland from the south in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, there existed in the country no architecture worthy of the name. When the Normans became the ruling power in Britain, they brought architectural ideas with them and these superseded the crude attempts at church building hitherto made. The Scottish churches built under the influence of Columba were simple and rude, consisting of a small oblong chamber with a single door and a single window. The Norman style, which obliterated these structures, dates from the twelfth century and, being carried along the coast of lowland Scotland, gradually changed the manner of building. It is characterised by simple, massive forms and especially by arches of a semi-circular shape, sometimes enriched by zig-zag, and by the use of nook shafts and cushion capitals. Of this period the remains in Scotland are not numerous, and they are very few in Aberdeenshire. The earliest specimen we can point to is the ancient church of Monymusk, which contains some Norman building incorporated in the modern church erected on the old site. Monymusk is on Donside seven miles up the river from Kintore. It is a place of great antiquity. The Culdees first appear there in the twelfth century, and the Earl of Mar built a convent for them on condition that they should submit to canonical rule. The lower part of the church tower and the chancel arch are of the Norman style. The tower has been entirely rebuilt except the lower doorway, which has a round arch-head with a hood mould enclosing it. These small fragments suggest that they were part of the convent erected by the Earl of Mar very early in the thirteenth century.

The rounded arch gave place in the thirteenth century to the early Gothic, of which the most striking feature is the pointed arch. This is the _First Pointed Period_. Ornament was more general, the mouldings were richer and more graceful and the foliage of trees was occasionally copied. The windows were narrow, lofty and pointed, giving an impression of space and lightness. Aberdeenshire is too far north to have developed many examples of this early style, but it has some. The Abbey of Deer is perhaps the most ancient ecclesiastical building, but it is now a complete ruin, all the best parts of it having disappeared within the last fifty years. It was founded in the thirteenth century. Deer had been an ecclesiastical centre long before that time. The story goes that Columba and his pupil Drostan travelled from Iona to Aberdeenshire when Bede was Mormaer (Earl) of Buchan. They were first at Aberdour on the coast, but ultimately journeyed to Deer, where Columba requested the Mormaer to grant him a site for a church. At first the Mormaer refused, but his son fell ill and in consideration of the efficacy of the prayers of the two holy men in bringing the youth back to health, the Mormaer granted them the lands of Deer and this was probably the first place in Aberdeenshire where a regular Christian church was erected. No trace of that church, built in the sixth century, is left.

The Abbey was an entirely different structure and not begun till early in the thirteenth century. It was founded by William Comyn, Earl of Buchan, and was really a Cistercian Abbey, originally occupied by monks sent from Kinloss. From the ruins now within the grounds of Pitfour House, it can be made out that the length of the building (nave and chancel) was 150 feet. A few mouldings and the arches of some windows indicate that it belonged to the first pointed period. The building was of red sandstone probably brought from New Byth, some 12 miles distant. After the Reformation the Abbey fell to decay and its walls became, as in many other cases, a quarry from which other buildings were erected. In 1809 the ruins were enclosed with a wall by the then proprietor, Mr James Ferguson of Pitfour, but since then they have dwindled.

No mention of Deer is possible without reference to the famous _Book of Deer_—a manuscript volume of the highest value, emanating not from the Abbey but from Columba’s monastery in the same region. The book was brought to light in 1860 by the late Mr Henry Bradshaw, University Librarian at Cambridge. It had lain unrecognised in the Library since 1715. It contains the Gospel of St John and other portions of scripture in the writing of the ninth century; but of even greater importance is the fact that on its margins it contains memoranda of grants to the monastery, made by Celtic chiefs of Buchan and all written in Gaelic. These jottings are of the highest historical value.

Some traces of the Early Pointed style are found in St Machar Cathedral (the greater part of which, however, is much later). The old church of Auchindoir close to Craig Castle has a good doorway and other features of this period.

From the middle of the fourteenth to the middle of the fifteenth century (1350-1450) is in Scotland the _Middle Pointed Period_. The windows were made larger, the vaulting and buttresses less heavy. The Cathedral of St Machar belongs in part to this time. The legend goes that St Machar in obedience to the commands of Columba, of whom he was a disciple, journeyed to Scotland and at Old Aberdeen founded a church. This church in the twelfth century became the seat of a bishopric founded by David I. The original church was superseded probably about 1165, the only relic of this Norman period being part of the abacus of a square pier. All other traces of earlier work have vanished. In the fourteenth century Bishop Alexander Kyninmonth II rebuilt the nave, partly of red sandstone with foliated capitals of great beauty and decorated with naturalistic imitation of leafage, one capital representing curly kail (colewort). The same kind of decoration is seen in Melrose Abbey. Later on the two impressive western towers, which are to-day conspicuous objects in the eastern landscape to all travellers northward-bound from Aberdeen, were added. They form a granite mass of solid and substantial masonry, and, being finished with machicolation, parapet-paths and capehouses, were really like a castle in Early English architecture. Still later on, in the sixteenth century, Bishop Elphinstone, who founded the University of Aberdeen, who built the first Bridge of Dee, and gave a new choir to St Nicholas Church, completed the central tower and placed in it fourteen bells “tuneable and costly.” The sandstone spires over the western towers were added by Bishop Dunbar early in the sixteenth century, in place of the original capehouses. The central tower fell in 1688, crushing the transepts.

In 1560 the government ordered the destruction of the altars, images and other monuments of the old faith, and this cathedral suffered with the rest. It was despoiled of all its costly ornaments and the choir was demolished. The roof was stripped of its lead and the bells were carried off. All that remains to-day is the nave (now the parish church), a south porch, the western towers and fragments of the transept walls, which contain tombs of Bishop Lichtoun, Bishop Dunbar, and others. This is the only granite cathedral in the country, and, though dating from the Middle and late Pointed periods, has reminiscences of the Norman style in its short, massive cylindrical pillars and plain unadorned clerestory windows. Another feature is the great western window divided by six long shafts of stone. The finely carved pulpit now in the Chapel of King’s College is a relic of the wood-carvings destroyed in 1649. The whole is extremely plain but highly impressive and imposing. Its flat panelled oak ceiling decorated with heraldic shields of various European kings, Pope Leo X, and Scottish ecclesiastics and nobility (48 in all) is worthy of mention. This heraldic ceiling was restored in 1868-71.

Of later date is King’s College Chapel, at no great distance from the Old Cathedral. It is a long, narrow but handsome building begun in 1500, shortly after the foundation of the University by Bishop Elphinstone. The chapel and its graceful tower are the oldest parts of the College buildings which had originally three towers.

The surviving one is a massive structure buttressed nearly to the top and bearing aloft a lantern of crossed rib arches, surmounted by a beautiful imperial crown with finial cross, somewhat resembling St Giles’s in Edinburgh. The difference is that King’s College has four ribs while St Giles’s has eight. The whole is of freestone from Morayshire. The entire building is a mixture of Scottish and French Gothic styles, and retains in the large western window the semi-circular arch, a peculiarity of Scottish Gothic throughout all periods. The canopied stalls and the screen of richly carved oak, Gothic in design and most beautifully handled, take a place among the finest pieces of mediaeval carved work existing in the British Empire. Their beauty and delicacy, according to Hill Burton, surpass all remains of a similar kind in Scotland. The chapel contains the tomb of Bishop Elphinstone. It was once highly ornamented, but meantime is covered with a plain marble slab. Its restoration is in prospect.

St Nicholas Church, Aberdeen (now the East and West Churches) contains in its transepts and groined crypt and in its wood-carving, interesting relics of twelfth, fifteenth and sixteenth century work. The nave was rebuilt in the Renaissance style of the time (1755).

Greyfriars Church, removed a few years ago to make way for the new front of Marischal College, was a pre-Reformation church, built by Alexander Galloway, Rector of Kinkell, early in the sixteenth century. Its chief features were its range of buttresses and a fine seven-light, traceried window.

The Protestant churches that succeeded these ancient buildings were inferior as architecture. It was only in the nineteenth century that taste began to revive and some attempt at grace and embellishment was made. Architects began to study old styles, and this combined with the increasing wealth of the country created a new standard in ecclesiastical requirements. To-day our churches tend to grow in architectural beauty.

19. Architecture—(_b_) Castellated.

The earliest fortifications in Scotland were earthen mounds, surrounded with wooden palisades. They were succeeded by stone and lime “keeps” built in imitation of Norman structures. The presence of the Normans in England during the eleventh and twelfth centuries drove the Saxon nobility northwards, and they were followed in turn by other Normans, who obtained possession of great tracts of country. The rectangular keeps of the Normans have in consequence formed the models on which most of the Scottish castles were constructed. In the thirteenth century there were castles at Strathbogie, Fyvie, Inverurie and Kildrummy. These have mostly been rebuilt in recent times and the more ancient parts have disappeared. The general idea in them all was a fortified enclosure usually quadrilateral. The walls of the enclosure were 7 to 9 feet thick and 20 to 30 feet high. The angles had round or square towers, and the walls had parapets and embrasures for defence and a continuous path round the top of the ramparts. The entrance was a wide gate guarded by a portcullis. The comparatively large area within the walls was intended to harbour the population of a district and to give temporary protection to their flocks and possessions in times of danger. Some of the finer examples, such as Kildrummy, closely resemble the splendid military buildings of France in the thirteenth century. One of the towers is usually larger than the others and forms the donjon or place of strength, to which retreat could be made as a last resort, when, during a siege, the enemy had gained a footing within the walls.

Kildrummy Castle is one of the finest and largest in Scotland, and even in its present ruinous condition gives an impression of grandeur and extent such as no other castle in Aberdeenshire can rival. It was built in the reign of Alexander II by Gilbert de Moravia, Bishop of Caithness. Situated near the river Don, some ten miles inland from Alford, and occupying a strong position on the top of a bank which slopes steeply to a burn on two sides, and protected on the other sides by an artificial fosse, it was a place of great strength. Its plan is an irregular quadrangle, the south front bulging out in the centre towards the gateway. It had six round towers, one at each angle and two at the gate. One of the corner towers—the Snow Tower—55 feet in diameter, was the donjon and contained the draw-well. The castle possessed a large courtyard, a great hall, and a chapel, of which the window of three tall lancets survives. It was built in the thirteenth century, and therefore belongs to the First Pointed Period. The stone used is a sandstone, probably taken from the quarries in the locality, where instead of the prevailing granite of Aberdeenshire a great band of sandstone occurs.

This famous castle passed through various vicissitudes. It was besieged in 1306 by Edward I of England and was gallantly defended, but, in consequence of a great conflagration, Nigel Bruce, King Robert’s brother, who was acting as governor, yielded it to the English, he himself being made prisoner and ultimately executed. Some of the buildings date from this period, when it was rebuilt by the English, but it soon fell into Bruce’s hands again. Twenty years after Bannockburn it was conferred on the Earl of Mar. The rebellion of 1715 was hatched within its walls. Thereafter being forfeited by Mar, it eventually came into the hands of the Gordons of Wardhouse. Recently it was purchased by Colonel Ogston, who has built a modern mansion-house close by and crossed the ravine with a bridge, an exact replica of the historic Bridge of Balgownie near Donmouth.

During the fourteenth century, Scotland, exhausted with the struggle for national independence, was unable to engage in extensive building. Beside, Bruce’s policy was opposed to castle building, as such edifices were liable to be captured by the enemy and a secure footing thereby obtained. His policy was rather to strip the country, and to destroy everything in front of an invading army, with a view to starving it out. The houses of the peasantry were made of wood and could easily be restored when destroyed. The houses of the nobility took the form of square towers on the Norman model and all castles of the fourteenth century were on this simple plan—a square or oblong tower with very thick walls and defended from a parapeted path round the top of the tower. The angles were rounded or projected on corbels in the form of round bartizans. At first these parapets were open and machicolated. As time went on, the simple keep was extended by adding on a small wing at one corner, which gave the ground plan of the whole building the shape of the letter =L=. The entrance was then placed as a rule at the re-entering angle. Such keeps are usually spoken of as built on the =L= plan. The ground floor was vaulted and used for stores or stables and as accommodation for servants. The only communication between this and the first floor was a hatch. In early castles the principal entrance was often on the floor above the ground floor and was reached by a stair easily removed in time of danger. Access from one storey to another was by a corkscrew or newel stair at one corner in the thick wall. Thus constructed a tower could resist siege and fire, and even if taken, could not be easily damaged.

Of this kind of keep Aberdeenshire has many excellent examples, the most perfect, perhaps, being the Tower of Drum. It stands on a ridge overlooking the valley of the Dee. To the ancient keep built probably late in the thirteenth century was added a mansion-house on a different plan in 1619. The estate was granted to William de Irvine by Bruce in recognition of faithful service as secretary and armour-bearer. Previous to that, Drum was a royal forest and a hunting-seat of the king. The keep, which stands as solid and square to-day as it did six hundred years ago, is quadrilateral and the angles are rounded off. The entrance was at the level of the first floor. The main stair is a newel. In the lowest storey the walls are twelve feet thick, pierced with two narrow loops for light. In a recess is the well. On the top of the tower are battlements, the parapet resting on a corbel-table continued right round the building.

Hallforest near Kintore is an example of a fourteenth century keep. It was built by Bruce as a hunting-seat and bestowed on Sir Robert de Keith, the Marischal. It still belongs to the Kintore family but is now a ruin.

The fifteenth century brought a change in castle-building. The accommodation of the keeps was circumscribed and the paucity of rooms made privacy impossible. One way of extending the space was, as we have said, by adding a wing at one corner. Another mode was to utilise the surrounding wall, for the keeps were generally guarded by a wall, which formed a courtyard or barmekin for stabling and offices. This was often of considerable extent and defended by towers. As the country progressed and manners improved, buildings were extended round the inside of the courtyard walls. In the sixteenth century the change went further and developed into the mansion-house built round a quadrangle. The building was first in the centre of the surrounding wall; ultimately the courtyard was absorbed and became the centre of the castle.

Balquhain Castle in Chapel of Garioch, two miles from Inverurie, was originally a keep like Drum, but being destroyed in 1526, it was rebuilt. Very little of it now remains but its massive, weather-stained walls have a commanding effect. The barmekin is still traceable. Queen Mary is said to have passed the night prior to the Battle of Corrichie at Balquhain. It was burned in 1746 by the Duke of Cumberland.

Many other castles on the same general plan are dotted up and down the county. Some are in ruins, some have been altered and added to on other lines, but the original keep is still a marked feature in most of them. Cairnbulg—recently restored—on the north-east coast has a keep of the fifteenth century with additions of a century later. Gight, now ruinous, but formerly celebrated for its great strength, occupies a fine site on the summit of the Braes of Gight, which rise abruptly from the bed of the Ythan. It also is a fifteenth century edifice built on the =L= plan. It has a historical interest as having once belonged to Lord Byron’s mother, from whom it was purchased by the Earl of Aberdeen. Another of the same kind is Craig Castle in Auchindoir. It was completed in 1518 and is also on the =L= plan. So too is Fedderat in New Deer.

In the sixteenth century the troubled reign of Queen Mary was unfavourable to architecture, but towards the end of it the rise of Renaissance art began to exert a decided influence, especially on details and internal furnishings, and in the next century gradually but completely dominated the spirit of the art. Another influence at work was the progress made in artillery. The ordinary castles could not now resist artillery fire, and all attempts at making them impregnable fortresses were abandoned, and the only fortifications retained were such as would make the buildings safe from sudden attack. In consequence, what had before been grim fortresses were now transformed into country mansions, whether on the keep or on the quadrangle plan; and sites were chosen as providing shelter from the elements rather than defence against human foes. The Reformation, too, which secularised the church lands and gave the lion’s share to the nobility, was a notable influence in revolutionising architecture. The nobility being now more wealthy were enabled either to extend their old mansions or to build new ones. Hence the great development that took place in the quiet reign of James VI. The effect of the Union in 1603, which drew many of the nobility to England, was civilising and educative, and raised their ideas of house accommodation as well as their standard of comfort and domestic amenity.

The change was of course gradual. The old keeps and the castles built round a courtyard were still in evidence, but picturesque turrets corbelled out at every angle of the building, slated, and terminating in fanciful finials, became the rule. The lower walls were kept plain, the ornamentation being lavishly crowded only on the upper parts. The roofs became high-pitched with picturesque chimneys, dormer windows and crow-stepped gables. All these features so characteristic of the mansion-houses of the fourth period (1542-1700) are well marked in Craigievar, which is one of the best preserved castles of the time. Its ground plan is of the =L= type, but the turrets

and gables are corbelled out with ornamental mouldings and the upper part of the castle displays that profusion of sky-pointing pinnacles and multifarious parapets which mark the period. The same is seen at Crathes and at Castle Fraser. The last is altogether an excellent specimen. It consists of a central oblong building with two towers at the diagonally opposite ends, one square and the other round, and is therefore a development into what has been called the =Z= plan or stepped plan—induced by the general use of firearms in defence. Here, as at Craigievar, gargoyles originally used to carry off rain water from the roof are brought in as a piece of fanciful decoration, apart from any utilitarian purpose, and project from the walls at places where rain-spouts are irrelevant.

The castle has a secret chamber or “lug,” in which the master of the house could over-hear the conversation of his guests in the dining-hall. Nothing could better illustrate the treachery and cunning which had been bred by the difficulty of the times. Mr Skene, the friend of Sir Walter Scott, minutely investigated this contrivance as it exists at Castle Fraser, and no doubt his account of this ingenious but dishonourable device for gaining illicit information suggested King James’s “Lug,” so happily described in _The Fortunes of Nigel_.

Castellated buildings of this class are so numerous in Aberdeenshire that it is possible to name only a few. One of the finest is Fyvie Castle on the banks of the upper reaches of the Ythan in the very centre of the county. It is not like many others a ruin, but a mansion-house modernised in many respects, but still retaining all the picturesque features of the olden time. It occupies two sides of a quadrangle, with the principal front towards the south, one side being 147, the other 137 feet in frontage. At the three corners are massive square towers, with angle turrets and crow-stepped gables. Besides these towers, there are in the centre of the south front two other projecting towers, which at 42 feet from the ground are bridged by a connecting arch, eleven feet wide, the whole forming a grand and most impressive mass of masonry called the “Seton” tower, a magnificent centre to what is perhaps the most imposing front of any domestic edifice in Scotland. At the south-east corner is the “Preston” tower, built by Sir Henry Preston, and the earliest part of the building, dating from the fourteenth century. In the south-west stands the “Meldrum” tower, so-called from the succeeding proprietors (1440-1596). They erected this part and the whole range of the south front except the “Seton” tower already referred to, which is a later addition. The Setons succeeded the Meldrums and it is to Alexander Seton, Lord Fyvie and Earl of Dunfermline, that the castle owes its greatest splendours. Besides planning this tower, he ornamented the others with their turreted and ornate details. He also built the great staircase, which is a triumph of architectural skill. It is a wheel or newel staircase of grand proportions, skilfully planned and as skilfully executed.