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