Off the Beaten Tracks

A long way off track, a couple of dilapidated old carriages at Redhouse Farm, Rathen

Maud to Brucklay:The missing link

Grey Granite and Rufus were delighted to be told by a lady who was planting her spare daffodil bulbs by the side of the Line at Maud that the section of Line between Maud and Brucklay Station is now unofficially open. This missing link completes the route from Fraserburgh to Maud and avoids a diversion along the road. 

Leaving Maud Station the Line crosses the B9029 by a bridge still guarded by a WW2 pillbox

The WW2 pillbox

The Culsh Monument to Dingwall Fordyce, Aberdeenshires first MP on the hill above New Deer. The monument and the square tower of St Kame's Church, New Deer, can be seen from Line by looking west near the crossing with the South Ugie Water.

The 1876 monument to William Dingwall Fordyce is situated on the summit of Culsh Hill directly above the graveyard. The 80' high monument is constructed of dressed ashlar, a spiral staircase leads to the viewing platform directly below the spire but can no longer be entered. William Dingwall Fordyce was the first MP for Aberdeenshire. A Liberal, he was a benevolent, improving conditions for his tenants by introducing insurance for their cottages and increasing their mobility by running weekly carriages to Banff, Aberdeen and Peterhead. He was also largely influential in ensuring that the Buchan Railway was extended north beyond Ellon. It seems apposite that the monument can can be seen from the former railway line.

A wooden linesmans' hut close to Atherb

There are several distance markers on this section. This marker, denoting  32.5 miles from Aberdeen, is currently wedged into a lineside tree trunk near North Atherb 

Brucklay Station

A considerable amount of tree felling has been carried out to transform this section of Line and to open it up. When Grey Granite and Rufus last visited Brucklay Station in August 2010,  the Line was impassible beyond the new Brucklay Bridge. The good surface now makes for very easy walking.

Beware! We did hear shooting in the distance from time to time and saw several elegant pheasants.

Rufus surveying the Line from a vantage point on the bridge over the South Ugie Water

Deer Abbey Bridge

Deer Abbey Bridge from the south, looking towards the trees of Pitfour

NJ 96632 48145

This extraordinary Bridge is situated on the minor road, linking the A950 and B9029 which crosses the Formartine and Buchan Way at Bridgend, about 50 metres west of the Abbey of Deer. The bridge crosses the South Ugie Water, the boundary between the estates of Aden to the south of the river and Pitfour to the north. The southern half of the bridge is narrower than the northern half, this bizarre architecture came about because of a dispute between the  Fergusons of Pitfour and the Russells of Aden. The Fergusons carried out extensive landscaping of their estate, turning it into what became known as  'The Blenheim of the North'. The improvements included the creation of the 27acre Pitfour Lake by James Ferguson, the third laird who became MP for Aberdeenshire in 1790. The Russells of Aden feared that the artificial lake would cause flooding at Aden. The Fergusons ignored their concerns but the Russells got their revenge when the Pitfour side of the bridge was widened to allow coaches to pass over it. The Russells stymied this plan simply by refusing to widen their side and so the uneven bridge remains passable to single file traffic only.

Den of Old Maud

Maud Junction,  a distinctly autumnal look with fallen leaves. The lay out of the station reflected the need for lines to split to serve Peterhead and Fraserburgh and for the extensive goods yards needed by the cattle mart. The Peterhead platform is on the right, the Fraserburgh ones to the left, the goods yard was further left.




Maud Hospital,  originally the Buchan Combination Poorhouse, this imposing building designed by Alexander Ellis, was opened on 26th January 1869 in order to provide deliberately spartan accommodation for the poor of parishes across Buchan. This view from the Line just south of  Maud Station shows the side of the building. The presence of the railway and resultant good links across Buchan was a factor in the selection of Maud as the site for the poorhouse. The poorhouse assisted the development of Maud by providing employment for local tradesmen and craftsmen, including tailors who made uniforms from tweed and corduroy for the inmates, joiners who did maintenance work and made coffins. The school roll was considerably increased by the number of child inmates.



Buchan Combination Poorhouse, now Maud Hospital, from Hospital Road. The institution was taken over by Aberdeen County Council in 1930 when it became known as Maud Home. At this time it catered for 160 including 'ordinary poor, mental defectives, harmless lunatics and chronic sick'. The building was described as having 'narrow dark central corridors, with day rooms and dormitories on either side, enjoying neither cross light or cross ventilation'. The home was handed  over to the National Health Service in 1948 and became known as Maud Hospital.

The Line snakes along the eastern edge of  the Den of Old Maud, chiefly on an shallow embankment. On either side the land is marshy, there are extensive areas of ash trees and occasional willows and rowans in the den. As we walked along this section a single buzzard, flying high over the den was being mobbed by a group of rooks to which it remained indifferent. 

The willow herb seeds along the Line provided food for a flock of finches

.

At the southern end of the Den there is a stand of immense beech trees one of which has recently lost a huge branch. The torn limb revealed rotten wood at its junction with the trunk but had this year's leaves on the branches.

Rusty leaves and beech mast littering the path.

Philorth to Rathen Station

Ripening brambles near Rathen Station

Grey Granite and Rufus have continued to walk the line throughout the summer but it has been inexplicably  impossible to upload onto the blog. Hopefully normal postings can now be resumed.

Today we walked from Philorth Halt to Rathen Station in beautiful, warm autumnal sunshine. The Line has already taken on a distinctly autumnal look. There are few flowers remaining on this stretch, the brightest colour comes from fruits and seeds along the path side. Small flocks of crows were sitting on the Line returning to the harvested grain fields as we approached. Three buzzards wheeled and high cried over Philorth woods.

Despite the autumnal look of the Line it was very warm and as we walked broom seed pods were bursting noisily.

Rosebay willow herb seed head, the long seeds were drifting across the line like threads of spider webs.

Dog rose hips, many exposed bushes have already shed their leaves

A line of exposed trees behind Philorth Halt has already been striped bare by the recent gales.

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.