Off the Beaten Tracks

A long way off track, a couple of dilapidated old carriages at Redhouse Farm, Rathen

Maud to Brucklay:The missing link

Grey Granite and Rufus were delighted to be told by a lady who was planting her spare daffodil bulbs by the side of the Line at Maud that the section of Line between Maud and Brucklay Station is now unofficially open. This missing link completes the route from Fraserburgh to Maud and avoids a diversion along the road. 

Leaving Maud Station the Line crosses the B9029 by a bridge still guarded by a WW2 pillbox

The WW2 pillbox

The Culsh Monument to Dingwall Fordyce, Aberdeenshires first MP on the hill above New Deer. The monument and the square tower of St Kame's Church, New Deer, can be seen from Line by looking west near the crossing with the South Ugie Water.

The 1876 monument to William Dingwall Fordyce is situated on the summit of Culsh Hill directly above the graveyard. The 80' high monument is constructed of dressed ashlar, a spiral staircase leads to the viewing platform directly below the spire but can no longer be entered. William Dingwall Fordyce was the first MP for Aberdeenshire. A Liberal, he was a benevolent, improving conditions for his tenants by introducing insurance for their cottages and increasing their mobility by running weekly carriages to Banff, Aberdeen and Peterhead. He was also largely influential in ensuring that the Buchan Railway was extended north beyond Ellon. It seems apposite that the monument can can be seen from the former railway line.

A wooden linesmans' hut close to Atherb

There are several distance markers on this section. This marker, denoting  32.5 miles from Aberdeen, is currently wedged into a lineside tree trunk near North Atherb 

Brucklay Station

A considerable amount of tree felling has been carried out to transform this section of Line and to open it up. When Grey Granite and Rufus last visited Brucklay Station in August 2010,  the Line was impassible beyond the new Brucklay Bridge. The good surface now makes for very easy walking.

Beware! We did hear shooting in the distance from time to time and saw several elegant pheasants.

Rufus surveying the Line from a vantage point on the bridge over the South Ugie Water

Deer Abbey Bridge

Deer Abbey Bridge from the south, looking towards the trees of Pitfour

NJ 96632 48145

This extraordinary Bridge is situated on the minor road, linking the A950 and B9029 which crosses the Formartine and Buchan Way at Bridgend, about 50 metres west of the Abbey of Deer. The bridge crosses the South Ugie Water, the boundary between the estates of Aden to the south of the river and Pitfour to the north. The southern half of the bridge is narrower than the northern half, this bizarre architecture came about because of a dispute between the  Fergusons of Pitfour and the Russells of Aden. The Fergusons carried out extensive landscaping of their estate, turning it into what became known as  'The Blenheim of the North'. The improvements included the creation of the 27acre Pitfour Lake by James Ferguson, the third laird who became MP for Aberdeenshire in 1790. The Russells of Aden feared that the artificial lake would cause flooding at Aden. The Fergusons ignored their concerns but the Russells got their revenge when the Pitfour side of the bridge was widened to allow coaches to pass over it. The Russells stymied this plan simply by refusing to widen their side and so the uneven bridge remains passable to single file traffic only.

Den of Old Maud

Maud Junction,  a distinctly autumnal look with fallen leaves. The lay out of the station reflected the need for lines to split to serve Peterhead and Fraserburgh and for the extensive goods yards needed by the cattle mart. The Peterhead platform is on the right, the Fraserburgh ones to the left, the goods yard was further left.




Maud Hospital,  originally the Buchan Combination Poorhouse, this imposing building designed by Alexander Ellis, was opened on 26th January 1869 in order to provide deliberately spartan accommodation for the poor of parishes across Buchan. This view from the Line just south of  Maud Station shows the side of the building. The presence of the railway and resultant good links across Buchan was a factor in the selection of Maud as the site for the poorhouse. The poorhouse assisted the development of Maud by providing employment for local tradesmen and craftsmen, including tailors who made uniforms from tweed and corduroy for the inmates, joiners who did maintenance work and made coffins. The school roll was considerably increased by the number of child inmates.



Buchan Combination Poorhouse, now Maud Hospital, from Hospital Road. The institution was taken over by Aberdeen County Council in 1930 when it became known as Maud Home. At this time it catered for 160 including 'ordinary poor, mental defectives, harmless lunatics and chronic sick'. The building was described as having 'narrow dark central corridors, with day rooms and dormitories on either side, enjoying neither cross light or cross ventilation'. The home was handed  over to the National Health Service in 1948 and became known as Maud Hospital.

The Line snakes along the eastern edge of  the Den of Old Maud, chiefly on an shallow embankment. On either side the land is marshy, there are extensive areas of ash trees and occasional willows and rowans in the den. As we walked along this section a single buzzard, flying high over the den was being mobbed by a group of rooks to which it remained indifferent. 

The willow herb seeds along the Line provided food for a flock of finches

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At the southern end of the Den there is a stand of immense beech trees one of which has recently lost a huge branch. The torn limb revealed rotten wood at its junction with the trunk but had this year's leaves on the branches.

Rusty leaves and beech mast littering the path.

Philorth to Rathen Station

Ripening brambles near Rathen Station

Grey Granite and Rufus have continued to walk the line throughout the summer but it has been inexplicably  impossible to upload onto the blog. Hopefully normal postings can now be resumed.

Today we walked from Philorth Halt to Rathen Station in beautiful, warm autumnal sunshine. The Line has already taken on a distinctly autumnal look. There are few flowers remaining on this stretch, the brightest colour comes from fruits and seeds along the path side. Small flocks of crows were sitting on the Line returning to the harvested grain fields as we approached. Three buzzards wheeled and high cried over Philorth woods.

Despite the autumnal look of the Line it was very warm and as we walked broom seed pods were bursting noisily.

Rosebay willow herb seed head, the long seeds were drifting across the line like threads of spider webs.

Dog rose hips, many exposed bushes have already shed their leaves

A line of exposed trees behind Philorth Halt has already been striped bare by the recent gales.

Rathen Station to Rathen village

Rathen Station is about a mile from the village it served.  This morning we decided to walk from the station to the village along the most direct route, before returning along the Line which we rejoined where it is crossed by the B9107 at The Leas. On a beautiful sunny May morning this made an enjoyable round trip of approaching 5 miles. There were skylarks, buzzards and an anxious tumble of nesting lapwings along our route and we noted the first heartease pansies and Herb Robert of the year on the sandy track over Gallows Hill.

A steepish sandy track leads over Gallows Hill and down into the village. There are good panoramic views towards Mormond and over to the Broch, the landscape a colourful Spring patchwork of greening grass and the flourescent yellow of oilseed rape.

St Ethernan's Church is on the left of the track as one enters the village.There are interesting gravestones, including that of Edvard Grieg's Great Grandparents. Corpses from Strichen were carried over Mormond Hill to be buried here prior to Strichen becoming a parish in its own right.

The plain birdcage belfry dated 1782

The diamond shaped wall sundial, which alas, lacks a gnomon, is dated 1625

The south aisle of the church has this ogee-arched aumbry and an inscription declaring Alexander of Philorth to be the patron.

 

The name Rathen may be a corruption of the saint's name or could be from the Gaelic for a round fort on a stream.  St Ethernan  (or Eddren) is thought to have been a  Pict of noble birth who studied religion in Ireland during the sixth century. He returned to Scotland where he travelled northwards as a missionary, establishing several religious settlements,  before  eventually reaching the Rathen area. St Ethernan lived as a hermit in a hollow on the East side of Mormond Hill, known as St Eddren's Slack, dying there on December 2nd, 668. Records dating from the 13th century mention a 'parson of Rathen' but there are no remains of the original church. However, Rathen is one of the oldest sites of continuous Christian worship in the North East

Adjacent to the old church is the Gothic church which replaced it in 1868, the broach spire is a prominent landmark

The Line close to Concraigs. The warm sun accentuated the coconut scent of the gorse and attracted many insects, there were small clouds of small white, small tortoiseshell and green viened white butterflies.

Approaching the Broch

The section of Line between Fraserburgh Golf Club and the point where the Line peters out close to the Esplanade is one of Grey Granite's least favourite sections; it is strewn with litter, smells of cooking from the Golf Club and Dunes Driving Range and Coffee Shop and tends to be fairly busy, often with the kind of walker who wants to chat. Less obviously there are locations of historical significance along this semi urban stretch. 

Sign in Kirkton Cemetery, one of the many good examples of Victorian ironwork to be seen in the Broch



'The Toolies' factory. In spring there is a raucous mechanised hawk flying in demented circles from the roof in an attempt to deter nesting gulls. 

 

The grim looking row of grey industrial buildings on the landward side of the Line is the former the Consolidated Pneumatic Tool Company factory. C.P.T. Was associated with Fraserburgh for about a century. Around 1903 the American company began making pneumatic drills in the Broch before diversifying to make other pneumatic tools, including the hammers used on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. C.P.T. began to make portable power tools used by munitions manufacturers in 1914 and rapidly expanded to become a major supplier to the British arms industry. In World War 2 C.P.T. produced fuel pumps and booster controls for Spitfire engines. Fraserburgh became an important centre for the manufacture of munitions employing a workforce of almost 2500 producing Bofors guns, Howitzer gun-units and turret rings for Churchill tanks. Unfortunately, the vast factory was an easy target for enemy planes approaching over the North Sea from Norway and became one of the reasons that Fraserburgh suffered a disproportionate number of air raids.

From 1905 until the closure of the Line 'The Toolies' was served by a siding which enabled raw materials and completed products to be taken directly in and out of the factory by train.

The St Combs Light Railway ran alongside the  Buchan Line from Fraserburgh Station to opposite the graveyard, the point at which the two lines diverged can still be seen on the seaward side of the B9033.

The Broch skyline from the Links which hide the remains of St Modans Chapel. Left to right: The South Church, Dalrymple Hall, Kinnaird Head Lighthouse.

The South Church, was built (1878 -1880) in a towering Germanic Gothic style on the site of an eighteenth century school on the Links. The church now houses the Moses Stone, the only relic of the short lived Fraserburgh University. All that remains of Fraserburgh station is an engine shed, on Harbour Road directly below the South Church.

The Dalrymple Hall was built in 1881, largely financed by Captain John Dalrymple. This ambitious building, with its baronial tower, originally housed a cafe, dining room, newsroom, public hall, public baths and once a month was used for the sheriff court. The building, still known as 'The Cafe' is now an arts centre.

The massive white tower of Kinnaird Head Castle surmounted by the lighthouse is a conspicuous landmark as one approaches the Broch along the Line. The castle was built by the Frasers of Philorth around 1570 or earlier, but was converted into a lighthouse in 1787, the lantern and lens date from 1902.This was one of the earliest Northern Lighthouse Board lights and now houses the Scottish Lighthouse Museum.

Strichen Toll House

Strichen Toll House on the B9093, the old turnpike road, seen from the point where the entrance to the Aberdeenshire Council Depot crosses the Line.

Following the Turnpike Act of 1795,  local Turnpike Trusts, consisting of landowners and burghers whose estates exceeded £400 Scots,  were able to apply for an Act of Parliament empowering them to build roads, in some cases, by raising statute labour and to levy tolls to pay for their construction and maintenance.  

The Turnpike Act stipulated that the roads had to be built and maintained to a high standard, in Aberdeenshire  the average cost of turnpike roads was £350 per mile. The Trustees, usually the landowners through whose estates the road was to pass, borrowed capital to build the road then recovered  the cost by renting out the right to collect tolls. Toll houses  were built every six miles.  These were usually two roomed cottages, often with a rounded or semi-hexagonal gable end to allow the toll keeper to see travellers approaching from both directions. Outside the toll house a barrier with a counter balanced bar (the 'turnpike')blocked the road until the toll had been paid. Charges varied from locality to locality and with the type of traffic using the road, vehicles were charged according to the number of horses pulling them. 

 

The completion of  the railway in 1865 drastically reduced the amount of road traffic and sounded the death knell of toll keeping and in 1866 all toll bars were removed from Aberdeenshire roads.

None so blind as will not see

Cowslips  (Primula veris)

Grey Granite cannot comprehend those, and they are many, who say that they find the Line boring. The Line is never the same on two consecutive walks, the wild life: the birds, flowers and mammals are constantly changing and give special character to each section of Line and each season.

This morning there was an eddying grey mist but the gorse formed great yellow, coconut scented banks near Rathen Station. There were unexpected cowslips and intensely mauve violets in the granite hardcore at the edge of the Line. There are now many clumps of cuckoo flower in the ditches, where last week there was only an isolated patch, sweet Cicely and pink campion on the banks of the Water of Philorth, mallards in the river, buzzards over the woods, chaffinches and bluetits  in the gorse and  today no people to impose vacuous chatter.

Strichen viaduct to the B9093: The French Farm

Grey Granite walked along the Line from Strichen viaduct to the B9093 where she turned off to Howford Farm, 'The French Farm'. There is a pleasant walk along the bank of the Ugie back to Strichen from the farm. Alternatively one may cross the bridge below the farm and follow the old Peterhead to Banff coach road up to the Skillymarno Road, returning to Strichen via the kirkyard. MacFarlane writing in 1723 (Description of the Parish of Strichen) mentions that there was a bridge 'for those on foot only at Howfoord,  (sic) where there was also a ford'.The existing bridge was constructed in 1777. 



Cherry blossom at Strichen Station

The wet area of ground under the viaduct, close to the Ugie, has huge patches of exquisite wood anemones (Anemone nemorosa)

There is a large patch of snake's heads (Fritillaria meleagris) by the  large pond under the viaduct. These have almost certainly  been planted

There are currently many violets in flower along this section of Line

Howford, seen from the Line.

The rather imposing new house behind the trees on the left of the picture replaced  the original  early 19th century farmhouse, built  for Louis Servan, a French emigre.   This building, seen to the  right of the silage tower, is now a much decayed  ruin, used as a store but  still showing its former elegance.  Its rounded corners, arched windows, tiny pavilions and back courtyard are in complete contrast to  the traditional foursquare granite farmhouses of Buchan.

Little definite is known of Louis Servan, beyond that he died in 1834 , is buried in the old Strichen Parish Church kirkyard and married twice. His first wife, Mary Black died on 8th March 1814, Servan died,aged 80,  on 8th December 1834 at Howford and was survived by his second wife, Mary Keith.

Mrs C.J.  Thomson, in her memoir of Strichen in the 19th century,  'Around the White Horse' mentions an old Frenchman, Louis Survanne (sic) whose politics were of the Ancien Regime. Dr Gavin, Mrs Thomson's  father introduced Servan to a visiting Prussian who firstly   affected to be  a Republican and had a violent disagreement  with Servan. The Prussian then reappeared disguised as his own brother  and had another long political discussion this time  agreeing with Servan. This incident had a profoundly disturbing effect on Servan who had to be escorted home and died shortly afterwards. This suggests that Servan may have fled France during the Revolution  (1789-1799).  However, Jean Scott, niece of Lorna Moon (Nora Low) in a 1948 broadcast for the  BBC French Service, quotes, but gives little credence to, the legend  that Servan helped  the Laird of Strichen escape from a band of French soldiers, members of Napoleon's Army, against whom he was fighting in Spain. According to this particular version of events the laird, his henchman having been killed,  surrendered to the French in order to avoid capture then persuaded Servan to help him escape. As a reward for his help the Laird promised the impoverished Servan a house and land back in Strichen. On their safe return  laird built the 'French House' for Servan and according to the story it was in honour of his escape from Spain that the white horse on Mormond Hill was constructed. Coincidentally Jean Scott was a member of the French Resistance in World War 2.

Kirkton to Rathen Station, Spring flowers

This morning the temperature reached 16.5c, tempting out a couple of small tortoiseshell butterflies, a very hairy caterpillar and several bees. The section of Line between Fraserburgh and Rathen has been transformed by the recent warm weather. The occasional hawthorns and silver birches are starting to open their leaf buds, the slowest of the willows have catkins. Close to the pond at Craigiewan there are several blackthorn bushes 'wearing white for Eastertide'. The walkway  is brightened by sudden patches of celandines, marsh marigolds and clumps of daffodils and by the ditch feeding the Water of Philorth a small colony of cuckoo flower.

On the far side of the drainage ditch a small clump of Marsh Marigolds (Caltha palustris) and on the near bank the myriad yellow stars of Lesser Celandine (Ranunculus ficaria)

Daffodils on the embankment close to Fraserburgh Golf Club

Daisies (Bellis perennis) and the minute white stars of  Whitlow Grass (Erophila verna)
Whitlow grass grows profusely in the sandiest parts of the track.



The unexpected delicate flowers of Lady's Smock, (Cardamine pratensis) also known as Cuckoo Flower caught my eye growing amongst the young leaves of Comfrey by a ditch feeding the Water of Philorth

Strichen Town House

At the edge of Strichen a viaduct carries the Line over the River Ugie and gives an excellent view over the village roof tops. The prominent embattled tower and spire belong to the Town House

The town hall building was gifted to the community by Mr Fraser of Strichen House in 1816, around the time he came of age  and succeeded to estates in Inverness and Ross-shire. McKean (Banff and Buchan, an Architectural Guide, 1990) describes the tower and spire as being of 16th century Scots Tollbooth inspiration, whilst the adjoining hall block is classical. Originally the hall had an open arcade on the ground floor which was used as a covered market. The steeple contained a bell. Mrs C. Thomson,( 'Around the White Horse'), records that prior to the steeple being fitted the inhabitants of Strichen were woken at 5 each morning by the Town Crier sounding a drum or, in foul weather, a horn. Once the Town Hall bell was operational the day began an hour later.The bell became the signal for the Town Crier, resplendent in his uniform, a red coat with blue piping, to begin his rounds announcing events of local importance such as the availability of a cart of fresh herring at the Town House or that an ox or sheep had been killed. For a time during the late 19th century a female school was held in the lower part of the building.

The plainer spire of the former Free Kirk, (1893) now the parish church,  at the far side of the village may also be seen from the viaduct.

Around the White Horse

Holmwood House

Grey Granite has been reading, 'Around the White Horse', the memoirs of Mrs C.J.Thomson, Miss Charlotte Jane Gavin of Holmwood House, Strichen. The original was written in 1888, just 23 years after the railway arrived in Strichen and  is a fascinating account of village life .Born in 1811, Miss Gavin was the sixth daughter of Dr Alexander Gavin of Strichen. In addition to his six daughters Dr Alexander had five sons, all the children were regarded as being well educated, the girls first by a governess, then when they were older, at a school in Aberdeen. The boys all attended the parish school until they were thirteen when they went to University in Aberdeen. The family was considered to be part of Strichen 'society' .

Today the front garden of Holmwood is carpeted in crocus and snowdrops, poultry roams the garden.

Miss Gavin describes the benefits of the railway to the community, 'This pleasant view (to the West of the town) down the valley of the Ugie is cut off now by the railway embankment, built in 1865, but in exchange for the amenity of  a pleasant prospect, there are the practical advantages of easy ingress and egress to and from the village with facilities for traffic which largely promote the prosperity of the people.



There are two banks in the village and a monthly market. The railway does good service on these occasions, bringing the country folk by noon and carrying them off again to their homes by four o'clock p.m.; so that scenes of drunkenness a thing of the past; all is quiet before evening as if no market had been.'

Miss Gavin records that when Captain Fraser of Strichen House returned from the travels of his youth he married a French wife, Miss Leslie of Bohine, a Roman Catholic. Although  a Protestant himself, 'he endowed the Roman Catholic Church with a nice house for the priest and several acres of land as a glebe'. This house, on Brewery Road, built in 1751, is now known as  'The Cloisters' and is just visible from the Line.

The Cloisters glimpsed from the Line. The building on the left was a originally a chapel.

The ruins of the chapel for Strichen House, seen from the Line opposite Borrohill Wood