Lonmay Station, through Spillarsford to Craigellie

The section of Line between Lonmay Station and Craigellie is usually extremely wet and difficult to negotiate, particularly between Spillarsford and Craigellie where stagnant water often covers the pathway. We took advantage of a hard frost to re walk this otherwise attractive stretch. 

Looking from Spillarsford towards Craigellie. Despite the frost there was a bright sprinkling of gorse flowers and  a few silky pussy willow catkins opening on line side trees. The morning felt spring-like as the sun rapidly melted the frost. There were larks singing overhead, skeins of geese heading inland from Strathbeg reserve and a small flock of lapwings tumbling  in the air on the Craigellie side of the Line.

Cortes village seen from just north of Lonmay Station. Originally this small settlement, close to the Peterhead Fraserburgh Turnpike,   was known as Spillarsford from the farm, now a ruin, seen in the trees on the extreme right. Cortes House is about half a mile to the west of the village.The hamlet is actually in Rathen parish being on the Rathen side of the Ellie Burn, the boundary between Lonmay and Rathen. The name Lonmay is thought to be derived from 'Long meadow' and the district has long been famed for the quality of the early potatoes grown on the sandy podsol. The 3rd Statistical account (1960) records the production of seed potatoes for export to England and South Africa. Earlier editions of the Statistical Account indicate that the area contained extensive bog and has been laboriously reclaimed.During the 19th century seaweed, carted from the shores at Cairnbulg and St Combs was used as an effective fertiliser. 

Cairness House seen from the Line near Spillarsford Farm.

The estates of Cairness, Craigellie and Crimonmogate sprawl to the east of the Line, Cortes House is to the west close to  the junction of the Aberdeen to Fraserburgh and Peterhead to Fraserburgh turnpikes.

Spillarsford Farm, long abandoned and now an unseemly ruin on the Lonmay side of the Ellie. 

Close to the Line a little to the north of Spillarsford Farm, this set of ruins,inhabited until the 1970s,  once a mill and  rather more picturesque than the farm, was reached by  a rack running across the fields from Spillarsford.

The lower of the mill ruins, the bank between the mill and the burn has drifts of snow drops.

The beautifully detailed1st edition 25 inch to the mile OS map, dated 1870, shows the mill wheel in position on the gable end of this building, just above the  snowdrops. It also shows a small body of water close to the buildings, probably the mill dam, and the mill lade running under the bridge over the Line from which these photographs were taken. 

Hillhead of Craigellie Farm, the tower is an ornamental dove cot, rising incongruously from the steading. The trees in the background are part of the Craigellie policies.

The 1870 OS map shows a small cluster of cottages at Spillarsford of these the Poorhouse seen above and Station Cottage, below are labelled. This poor house served Rathen parish. A locally administered poorhouse was established in Rathen by 1860. Map evidence indicates that it  seems to have become defunct by around 1900 when  a new edition of the OS map was published.

This large imposing building at Lonmay Station (above) was the bank, the station agent lived in the small cottage below, Station Cottage, Spillarsford.There was also a shoemaker and small general store amongst the cluster of Spillarsford houses. Lonmay Station, yet another relatively isolated station, was convenient for Crimonmogate. In season shooting parties alighted at Lonmay and there was a typically large turning area for coaches and carriages outside the station. At the height of the herring season it was common for open fish wagons waiting for the Fraserburgh catch to be held at the sidings at Lonmay until there was room at Fraserburgh.

Cairness House

When 'The Howes of Buchan' was written good views of Cairness House could be obtained as one passed through the Lomnay area. However, since 1865 there has been considerable tree planting so that the house may now only be glimpsed from certain points along the Line. A good viewpoint is just south of the bridge carrying the road to West Strathellie over the Line. Evening sun makes it easier to identify the facade of Cairness

Evening sunlight lengthens the shadows on the Line by the Strathellie  bridge 

From this point about 100 yards south of the bridge Cairness may be glimpsed through the trees . The  building, which according to 'The Howes' , 'has some pretentions both to age and beauty was built from the designs of (James) Playfair and finished in 1799. The architecture is Grecian;and it is said that above £25,000 was expended in its erection. The main structure is of greenstone, quarried in Rora; but the porch is of Cairngall granite. The building was erected by Charles Gordon, Esq of Buthlaw....The interior of the house is a perfect specimen of art'

Last spring Grey Granite was able to visit Cairness, which is currently only open to the public by arrangement. There are 42 rooms, many of which have been restored and refurnished and are of considerable grandeur.  However,  Grey Granite was most impressed by the extensive replanting of trees in the grounds. This planting replicates the original planting using trees exactly matched to the original order to Dobbie's Tree Nursery. The current owners have expended enormous time, energy and finance on the restoration of the house which incorporates numerous Masonic symbols. Behind the neoclassical frontage is a semi circular courtyard  of offices designed so that the ground plan forms CH either for Charles Gordon or Cairness House. The most astonishing feature of the house is the Egyptian Room, decorated with fake hieroglyphs where again there is Masonic symbolism and a theory that Playfair, who died whilst working on the house, is buried beneath the floor. It has also been suggested that this room was used for the Masonic meetings.

The semi circular suite of offices to the rear of the house, the entrance is below the cupola. Each of the metal chimney pots, six on each stack was replaced by the current owners.

The front of the house is quite austere, a central block flanked  with pedimented porch and imposing steps by taller pavilions. The building of the house was financed by the income from the Gordon's plantations in Jamaica.