Longside and the Haughs of Rora

Auchlee Bridge

The station was about quarter of a mile to the north of Longside village towards Bridgend, the road to it now bisects Longside Golf Course and crosses the Ugie by Auchlee Bridge.

The granite steps leading to the road from the path on the Mintlaw side of the F&B Way at Bridge of Auchlee show the marks of quarrying. A new bungalow, Station House, blocks the route of the railway line here and it is necessary to leave the Line and rejoin it close to the station on the opposite side of  Station Road.

There are now well tended allotments in what was once the station yard, note the traditional scarecrow between the poly tunnel and the sheds. The rowan tree in the foreground has been stripped of leaves by the recent gales but retains many berries. Like the berry laden white beams and hawthorns along the Line this tree attracted many small birds, notably assorted finches and siskins.

Longside Station, very desirable houses have been built along the platform, continuing an earlier tradition of exclusivity in this part of Longside.

Station Terrace, Longside

Despite the rather prosaic name, Station Terrace was generally considered to be the most upmarket area of Longside. The superior houses were built shortly after the arrival of the railway in 1862, they were close to the station convenient for their wealthy occupants such as the solicitors who used the train for their  daily commute to Aberdeen or Peterhead. 

The roof of Longside Parish Church beyond the golf course. 
Longside is a relatively young course, having opened as recently as 1979 and being extended to 18 holes in 1996. 

In 1916 a state owned railway line was constructed  across land which is now the golf course to connect Longside station to the Admiralty owned station at Lenabo  Airship Station.  When Line was built the then Laird of Cairngall,  Major Hutchison, was paid £2,500 in compensation for the loss of the land taken up by the Line to Lenabo. The line was abandoned in 1920 after the closure of Lenabo and dismantled in 1923.

The inordinately tall crow stepped tower of St John's Episcopal Church, Longside standing above the trees of Cairngall.

The Episcopal Church was built in 1853 on the outskirts of the village. There is a strong tradition of Episcopacy in the village and this is at least the third Episcopal church in the area. An earlier  Episcopal Church was burnt down by Hanoverian troops in following the Penal Act of 1746. A stricter Act of  1748 prevented Episcoplian priests preaching to any one other than  members of their own family. Reverend John Skinner who was Episcopal minister at Longside for an astonishing 64 years  spent 6 months in  in prison for his refusal to abandon Episcopacy and for attempting to circumnavigate  the act by preaching from the window of his house at Linshart. Rev Skinner was the author of Tullochgorum and is buried in the graveyard at Longside Parish Church. for further details of the Parish Church and Rev john skinner see

http://greygraniteblogspot.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/longside-kirkyard.html

A hawthorn branch laden with ripe haws. In the distance, surrounded by trees is Cairngall House. This is part of the once huge Cairngall estate which was purchased by James Rollo Duncan of Tillycorthie 1931. The 1,000 acre estate included  granite quarries, which by then were largely disused, a blacksmith's shop, meal mill, crofts, and property in the village of Longside. The title of Cairngall deeds were in name of Duncan's wife Isabella whose father, the grieve at Cairngall Home Farm, had died as the result of falling through a hatch in the steading there in 1881. For more details of James Rollo Duncan's extraordinary rags to riches life see http://greygranitewalkingtheline.blogspot.co.uk/2013_08_01_archive.html

Cairngall quarries were in operation from about 1880 but had fallen out of use by the time Duncan bought the estate. They provided granite for the  foundations of the Bell Rock Lighthouse and London Bridge, pier walls for the Houses of Parliament, surrounds for Trafalgar Square fountain, the pedestal of the Duke of Wellington's statue at the  Royal Exchange in Glasgow. 8 pillars outside St George's Hall in Liverpool each consist of a polished 18 foot column of Cairngall granite. The granite from the quarry was said to be very beautiful and very hard.

Auchlee Farm, the field is already green with autumn sown grain.

The long viaduct which carries the Line over the North Ugie Water. The greyish blue field contains neeps, now an increasing rare sight. As we crossed the viaduct a beautiful silvery swan flew slowly over the Moss of Rora trumpeting  occasionally. There were constant skeins of geese flying over head as we walked and we disturbed a large, ungainly heron which had been fishing in the Ugie.

Looking over Rora Moss and the Haughs of Rora from the viaduct. The moss was used for peat extraction and the two branches of the Ugie, the North and South Ugie Waters, join in the haugh. It was this section of the river which, until about the end of the 19th century was traditionally fished for freshwater pearls. A kelpie was said to dwell in the Ugie in the haugh.

 Little Ugie said to Muckle Ugie

'Where shall we meet?'

'Doon in the Haughs of Rora

When man is asleep.'