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.