Arnage

On Good Friday  morning the station at Arnage appeared to be reverting back to nature, gradually being cloaked in new verdant growth and is being prettily colonised by all manner of green things.

A muddle over the use of the passing loop at Arnage and misdirected signalling there caused the first head on collision on a single line section of the GNSR, just south of the station at Gallowhill on 12th March 1874. This collision between a light engine running south  and a mixed train heading for Peterhead, both of which were running late,  resulted in the deaths of three footplate staff and the severe injury of  a fourth. 

 South Lodge, Arnage Castle
The rather grand entrance and the South Lodge of the Castle are situated a few yards to the east of the remains of the bridge which carried the line over the minor road from New Deer. The castle drive runs northwards parallel to the Line for several hundred yards, gradually ascending before curving off to the right. The castle is hidden from the Line by trees.

Arnage Castle was built about 1650, and started as  a z plan castle,  by Thomas Leiper, local master mason, probably on the site of an earlier building. It was much  altered in the Victorian period by Aberdeen architect James Matthews who enlarged the first floor windows and added an imposing baronial entrance, the original having been blocked up. The castle was paid rather a back handed compliment  by Pratt in 1858 as 'a castellated rather than a Gothic building, and, with a few judicious alterations in harmony with its original style would hold a prominent place among the houses of distinction in the neighbourhood'. For much of its history the castle was in the possession of the Ross family,  Provost John Ross of Aberdeen bought Arnage in 1702 (he of the Town House in Aberdeen) and it remained with his family until 1937 when the estate was sold by the  7th and last of the Leith-Ross lairds of Arnage, Lt. Col. William Leith-Ross. For 40 years until his death in 1976,  the castle was owned by the wealthy housebuilder Donald Charles Stewart (D.C. Stewart). Stewart was a Rolls Royce owning philanthropist with an interest in antiques and in lavish parties at which international screen and stage stars were regularly entertained.

A Linesman's hut doing duty as a garden shed, part of a loading bank to the right

The station platforms are gradually reverting to wildness, in addition to the invading trees they are carpeted with  celandines, and primroses, swathed in periwinkle and honeysuckle whilst  daffodils are gradually spreading from the  Arnage Castle driveway on to the up platform. .

Primroses flowering on the platform edge

Lesser periwinkle cascades over the edge of the platform

The down platform,  looking south.

Heading north towards Auchnagatt 

Primroses on the permanent way by mile post 23 and  a quarter just North of Arnage Station, the wooded policies of Arnage Castle are on the right. A confident and aristocratic cock pheasant, splendid in his breeding plumage crossed the track heading for the castle policies just as this picture was taken.

Aden Park to Deer Abbey, the Garden of Buchan

The district containing the estates of Pitfour and Aden, both of which were extensively developed in the 18th and 19th centuries by their wealthy 'improving' lairds, the Russells of Aden and Ferguson's of Pitfour is sometimes referred to as 'The Garden of Buchan'. Walking along the section  Line which runs between the estates,  through the verdant countryside of the Ugie valley, it is easy to see how this epithet was earned. Particularly in Spring the rich and varied flora, hedgerows and numerous trees of the sheltered Ugie valley are very different from  the barer, bleak and windswept plain  nearer the coast where the lineside flora is not yet as lush.

The embankments by the bridge carrying the Fetterangus to Old Deer road over the Line are covered in Few-flowered Leek (aka Few-flowered Garlic) Allium paradoxum . 

The delicate, snow white flowers of Few-flowered Leek (aka Few-flowered Garlic) Allium paradoxum.This uncommon plant, which can become invasive, as it clearly has in the Aden area where it crowds many verges, is an introduction from the Caucasus. As the name would suggest the plant smells of garlic.

Lesser celandines under the remains of the bridge which before realignment of the road, carried the busy A950 over the Line close to Pitfour and Aden Park. It is necessary to cross the road to continue towards  Deer Abbey and Maud. Proceed with caution!

Path leading from the Line by the road crossing to Aden Country Park. 

The well managed and attractive country park covers  230 acres of the once extensive Aden Estate. The park contains several visitor facilities, including Aberdeenshire's Farming Museum, camping and caravan sites, a lake, Victorian arboretum and a sensory garden. There are extensive waymarked walks  throughout the park. The unique semi-circular farm steading, dating from around 1800, and the slightly later coach house have been restored and house the museum, a cafe and  a gift shop.

The Aden Estate was bought by Alexander Russell of Montcoffer in 1758 from James Ferguson of Kinmundy whose own estates included adjacent Pitfour on the opposite bank of the Ugie. The estate included the village of Old Deer and extensive farmland which Russell,  an enthusiastic agricultural improver, set about developing. His improvements included planting  wooded areas originally intended to provide shelter throughout the estate and now a very attractive feature of the area.

Further improvements involved enlarging the mansion, building the unique semi-circular steading, coach house and gate lodges.   Kininmonth and Ludquharn were added to the estate which at its most extensive covered 31 square miles.

The decline of the estate set in after World War 1 when maintenance costs rose and farm income declined. About 75% of the estate was gradually sold off but it proved impossible to make ends meet. So  in 1937  Sidney Russell, the last Laird, was forced to sell the Aden House and its policies, the remaining 52 farms and much of Old Deer. Sadly the estate, which was then used for shooting rapidly fell into disrepair and the mansion became derelict.

1975 Banff and Buchan Council aquired Aden and began to restore the buildings and grounds  and established Aden Country Park and Heritage Centre.The remaining outside walls  of the Russell's mansion have been consolidated and stabilised,  an indication of the lifestyle of the lairds is given by the size of the ruins and the nearby  laundry, icehouse and gasworks.

Delicate Blackthorn blossom.

There are primroses along the verge near Deer Abbey

Also by Deer Abbey we found the first pale violets of the year

Pink Purslane (Montana  sibirica) occurs in damp, shady places and is particularly suited to the coditions under some bridges.

Deer Abbey with the daffodils of Deaconess Anna Ritchie's former home Newlands flowering in the the background. Under the Abbey wall there are the large leaves of butterwort

Pollen rich willow catkins

Saplinbrae

Saplinbrae on the Pitfour Estate, was built in 1756. Its first use was probably as a coaching inn for travellers on  the  Banff to Peterhead, road but by 1760 it became the manse for the minister of the Qualified Episcopalian Chapel which  Lord Pitfour had built on the opposite (Abbey) side of  the road. When Admiral Ferguson's  widowed mother-in-law, Lady Langford, moved north in the 1850's the house was altered to become the  Dower House using stones plundered from Deer Abbey. As the Pitfour fortunes began to fail it was leased out and has had various uses, currently as a country house hotel.

The aniseed scented leaves and frothy white flowers of Sweet Cicely in the shelter of the bridge carrying the Line over the Ugie

Bridgend Farmhouse with Aikey Brae in the background.

Not the best of photographs but it was such an unexpected pleasure to spot this clump of cowslips  under the tree in an inaccessible place near Bridgend Farm

Newly emerging hawthorn leaves and flower buds

Unfurling Rowan a leaves and flower buds (below) catching the morning sunlight

Fraserburgh Station:Now and then

The location of  Fraserburgh Railway Station today, compare with the photograph below which shows the station before closure. The road sweeping round to the right continues along the line of the old tracks.

The very impressive booking hall

Inside the ticket office

The reopening of the station in 1903  following alterations to accommodate the St Combs branch which used the platform on the right

The station with coaches for St Combs waiting under the awning on the right, the locomotive shed is on the left, under the bulk of the South Kirk. The shed is now virtually all that remains and is part of a fish merchants yard. The imposing baronial bulk of the Dalrymple Hall still survives.

Spring flowers along the Line

Delicate soft green needle clusters opening on larch

The 54 miles of the walkway provide a superb wild life corridor where vegetation is relatively free from management and grows largely undisturbed by agrichemicals. The plants provide food and shelter for a wide range of birds and small mammals. For those who walk sections of the Line frequently the changing vegetation marks the changing seasons and gives each stretch, from the barren windswept miles of the north  to the tree lined stretch through the great estates of Aden and Pitfour in the 'Garden of Buchan' and the gentle rolling countryside of the Ebrie valley its own character.

Gorse along the Line, suddenly the bushes which have carried some sprigs of flowers all through this mild winter are covered in coconut scented flowers. Daisies thrive and have flowered all year round in the grass at the edge of the path, worn short by passing feet.

Coltsfoot with small hairy caterpillar.
The as yet leafless coltsfoot, is now in  flower, the flowers are smaller and paler than the brash dandelions which have also flowered all through the winter. The leaves will appear once the flowers have faded.

Naturalised daffodils give splashes of colour, usually near road crossings and houses. An old friend of Grey Granite recalled that in the days of steam trains when trains were stationary at a certain point outside Strichen the firemen would occasionally get out of the cab to pick daffodils from the embankment. 

Delicate blackthorn flowers

Lesser celandines open and shine in the sunlight. There are great swathes of them on the damp places, ditches and embankments along the Line

Willow catkins