Aden, Old Deer and the Formartine Buchan Way

Aden Country Park provides a good starting point for a circular walk taking in the park itself, Old Deer, an attractive riverside path and a short but interesting section of the Formartine Buchan Way.

The Mansion House 

 In its heyday Aden was owned by the Russell family. The 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  reorganising  and planting wooded areas to provide shelter throughout the estate. Gradually the  mansion, now merely a shell, was enlarged  and a unique semi-circular steading, coach house and gate lodges were built.  Kininmonth and Ludquharn were added to the estate which at its most extensive covered 31 square miles. Following World War 1 the estate declined and was sold off by last laird in 1937.

The semi circular steading now houses a cafe, museum and theatre

The lake

1975 Banff and Buchan Council began to restore buildings and grounds -established Aden Country Park and Heritage Centre. This now extends to 230 acres of award winning, well maintained parkland and includes a caravan park and camp site, an arboretum, farming museum  and  a sensory garden. 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.

Following the footpaths in the park signed to Old Deer one emerges into the village through a narrow gate in the park dyke beside the Parish Church of Deer and the bridge over the South Ugie Water

 The forerunner of the bridge which carries the road to Mintlaw over the South Ugie was the scene of a foul murder in December 1576 when Thomas Fraser, second husband of Isabel Forbes was murdered by William Gordon of Gight in  a dispute about the inheritance of her previous husband's   Strichen estate.  The wall of Aden Estate, now Aden Country Park, forms the south side of the bridge, a narrow gateway by the Parish Church leads into the park.

A pleasing ecclesiastical jumble in Old Deer, The roof of St Drostan's Episcopal Church in the distance and in the foreground part of the wall of the original Parish Church of Deer and and right angles to that the bulk of the present Parish Church.

Yellow Corydalis (Corydalis lutea) growing on the walls of the ruined church

The ruins of the old Parish Church of Deer and the new parish church, built in 1788-9.

The old church was the site of the infamous rabbling of Deer which took place in March 1711 when the presbytery attempted to replace the deceased Episcopalian minister, George Keith, with the Presbyterian Rev John Gordon and a riot ensued.

The Book of Deer was probably written in the vicinity during the 9th century by the monks of the original Abbey of Deer .

A short distance along Abbey Street a signed path leads down to the Formatine Buchan Way. After following the Ugie, the banks currently thick with  meadowsweet and clumps of purple comfery, yellow monkey flower, pale mauve valerian and dog roses, for a short distance  the Line is reached. 

Bridge carrying the Line over the Ugie

Heading east one can return to the Park either by following a narrow footpath on the right immediately after the bridge carrying the Fetterangus - Old Deer road over the line or at the signed gate where the line crosses the main road. Between the Line and the old fever hospital is a low lying meadow, currently fragrantly blanketed in frothy cream meadow sweet. From this short section of Line Aikey Brae,  Saplinbrae, the  South Lodge of the Pitfour Estate and Cartlehaugh can all be seen.