Walking the Line: Book launch

I am looking forward to giving a series of talks about the book in libraries along the route of the Formartine and Buchan Way.

Copies on sale shortly.

These have been arranged by Aberdeenshire Libraries and will take place as follows

Fraserburgh Library  Tuesday 7th July at  6.30 pm.

Peterhead Library  18th August at 2.00 pm.

Ellon  Library 19th August at 10.00 am.

Newmachar Library 19th August at 2.00 pm.

Mintlaw Library 14th September at 6 pm.

There will be opportunity to purchase the book and to have it signed.

There will also be signings at

Maud Railway Museum on July 11th and 12th from 1.00 - 3.30 pm

Better Read Bookshop, Ellon on Saturday 18th July from 1.00 - 3.00pm.

and Fraserburgh Heritage Centre on Saturday 22nd August from 12noon - 3pm.

Please come along and introduce yourself!

Walking The Line - The book

The Formartine and Buchan Way, a long distance footpath following the route of a disused railway, links the fishing ports of Fraserburgh and Peterhead with Aberdeen. It traverses the heartlands of rural Aberdeenshire, a land of prehistoric monuments, medieval castles, ruined churches and abbeys, scenes of ferocious religious conflicts, Jacobite strongholds, abandoned mills, the planned villages and elegant mansions of the improving lairds and the only hill carvings in Scotland. A valuable wild life corridor, the Formartine and Buchan Way is now a rich habitat for wild flowers, birds and mammals, many of which are endangered by modern farming methods used elsewhere.

Landmarks and curiosities along the route of the Formatine & Buchan Railway, now a popular long distance footpath and invaluable wildlife corridor, include the first lighthouse to be built on the Scottish mainland, a forgotten university,  an airship station, World War 2 airfields- both real and decoy, the hidden hideouts of Churchill’s secret British Resistance,  poor-houses and great estates.

Walking the Line: A Curious Walker’s Guide to the Formartine and Buchan Way, describes the wildlife landmarks seen along route of the Formartine Buchan Railway. The book will be of interest to those who recall the days before closure of the line as well as to those who enjoy the recreational facilities it now offers.

Grey Granite's book based on this blog will be published by GNSRA in early July 2015, price £9.90.

For more information and details of availability watch this space!

To register interest in purchasing a copy leave your details including email address as a comment to this post.

Peterhead's Proclamation Pend

A piece of public art above a pend next to Boots Chemists now celebrates what was arguably one of the most significant events in Peterhead's history.

On 21 August 1715 George Keith, 10th Earl Marischal and his younger brother James, loyal and ardent Jacobites, proclaimed James Francis Stuart, the Old Pretender, as James V111, rightful king of Scotland at the Tolbooth, then situated near what is now the site of the Townhouse close to the statue of Field Marshall Keith in Broad Street. Nearby Proclamation Pend commemorates this historic event, one of several proclamations in the North-east which along with the raising of the Standard of James V111 at Braemar by the Earl of Mar on 6 September was effectively the start of the 1715 Jacobite campaign. Four months later, on the night of 22 December 1715, too late to offer leadership in the campaign Stuart himself landed at Peterhead. The Jacobite campaign was short lived and so disastrous that on 4 February 1716  Prince James Francis Stewart, left Scotland from Montrose, two days before the Jacobite troops were disbanded.

The Howe O Buchan to Peterhead

From the Howe O’ Buchan crossing towards Peterhead the Line suddenly deteriorates to become an urban footpath overshadowed Peterhead’s westward expansion. Although pleasantly landscaped, bright with springtime daffodils and planted with alders, sycamores and the occasional horse chestnut there is little to see beyond the surrounding buildings.

 The present mansion of Howe O’ Buchan was built around 1840-5 but has the date stone of the earlier house behind it, inscribed A S W J S 1711, above the front door. The house contains a sculptured panel and bannisters which originated in Brucklay Castle.

By 1853 Howe o Buchan was the home of Thomas Walker, one of four brothers whose family had originated at Waulkmill and Bankhead in New Aberdour who between them owned the neighbouring  estates of Richmond, Balmore, Grange, and Howe O’ Buchan. When the railway station opened in Peterhead the water needed for the engines was pumped from Howe O’ Buchan.

Snowdrops at the Howe O' Buchan

 The Howe O Buchan crossing

Daffodils making a brave effort towards relieving the urban dullness

Meethill Reform Tower, seen from Station Road

The Reform Tower was built in 1832, on the site of a prehistoric burial cist, by the local Whig (now Liberal) Party to celebrate the introduction of the Parliamentary Reform Act of 1832. The Reform Act made Peterhead a Parliamentary Burgh and gave all male householders whose property had an annual value of £10 or more the right to vote.  The 5 storey granite tower, in plan a Greek cross, was originally intended to be an observatory, according to local tradition a child met his death by falling from the tower which once provided a hiding place for an escaped prisoner.

The Peterhead Tories also constructed a monument to commemorate the Reform Bill, situated in Broad Street, this is a single column on a granite base surmounted by four square panels bearing Latin inscriptions, the plant badges of Scotland, Ireland nations, and the arms of the Earl Marischal - removed from Inverugie Castle by Captain Ferguson of Pitfour, in turn topped by a Lion Rampant, in gold rather than red, so that it   symbolises a united Great Britain.

 The path ends ignominiously on a large carpark behind Peterhead Academy and Community Centre, the one concession to its former status as a railway line being the bollards at the crossing with York Street which resemble sleepers.

The former station site

Victorian confidence and style and 21st century utilitarianism on the Links

The east end of the Fraserburgh Links, the engine shed which is all that remains of Fraserburgh railway station is just below the South Church, the edge of the Links was truncated and the ground levelled to allow for the building of the railway.

Victorian confidence and prosperity are expressed in the South Church with its elegant steeple, the splendidly baronial Dalrymple Hall and in the distance to the right the stubby point of the Old Parish Church steeple and the Town House rotunda. All in stark contrast with the modern Walking Way sculpture and alas, the rubbish bins on the Leisure Centre carpark

The railway is now celebrated by ‘The Walking Way’, prominent sculpture of steel girders and oak beams which attracts attention to a white concrete pathway on the seaward side of the Links .The shapes of the sculpture and pathway, which leads from the Leisure Centre car park to the crossing with South Harbour Road, were inspired by the railway which ran directly below the installation. This is the work of sculptural artist Jane Kelly and was put in place in the summer of 2007.

Vast crowds of excited people from Fraserburgh and the surrounding villages congregated on the Links on 22nd April 1865 when the first train steamed in to Fraserburgh Station. For almost everyone in the crowd this was the first time they had seen a steam locomotive and many were too apprehensive about the possibility of  'the train taking it into its head to try some gymnastics on the Links' (Cranna) to stand too close to the railway line. Evidently it was a common misconception that railway accidents occurred so frequently that it would be foolhardy to approach too closely.  Monday 24th August was a public holiday in Fraserburgh and hundreds of people overcame their fears enough to buy cheap tickets for the special excursion trains to Aberdeen and intermediate stations.

The Links were the scene of an extraordinary spectacle in August 1904 when Buffalo Bill (Colonel Wild Bill Codey) and his Indian Braves brought an extraordinary extravaganza involving 500 horses and over 800 people, including  Annie Oakley and an  enormous staging  like a wild west film set, to the North-east. It is estimated that over 19,000 spectators watched the spectacle in Fraserburgh alone. The company was transported to Fraserburgh in 3 special trains consisting of 49 wagons specially adapted to carry the livestock, which included elephants, the set and circus performers.

The Railways of Scotland:Aberdeen and The Grampians

This excellent DVD provides a vivid insight into the glory days of  the Formartine Buchan Line as a working railway. There are long sequences showing trains operating on the line as well as on other routes in the North East. Many of the locations which appear as they are today on this blog are shown on the DVD as they were before the Beeching axe fell. The wonderful sound of the steam trains alone makes the DVD memorable. It is available from www.railwayvideos.com

Newmachar: The Buchan train has gaen a stacher

The  Line around Newmachar was notorious for being blocked by snow, on several occasions over the life of the Buchan Line trains became stuck in drifts in the vicinity. Walking this section in the sunshine and heat of a late September Indian summer it was hard to envisage how bleak it must be on a night of 'blin drift'.

Looking north from Newmachar Station towards the deep cutting through the Hill of Strypes. Here the  line climbs to 450 feet in a cutting almost a mile long and about 50 ft deep in places. The sleepers were an attempt to provide shelter from drifting snow for the crossing loop and shallow cutting just beyond the station. There is now car parking and easy access to the line here.

The deep cutting north of Newmachar, known as Satan's Den,  and the shallower cuttings immediately north and south of the station were notorious for being blocked by snow as this old piece of railway doggerel says:

'The Buchan train has gaen a stacher,

She's got snoored up aboot New Machar

May she be spared to rin more swacher

In Nineteen hunder and seeven,'

More recently during the blizzard of  19th January 1960 the second morning train from Fraserburgh and Peterhead became stuck in a drift 8ft deep. Despite heroic efforts of the railway company it was almost 24 hours before the 57 passengers could be rescued by  a relief train.  50 soldiers from the Gordon Barracks along with railway workers from as far away as Montrose were required to help dig the stranded engine out of the drift. During this blockage a trawler was used to deliver the mail and essential supplies to Peterhead and Fraserburgh.

Cutting south of the station, the banks white not with snow but with the drifting plumes  of rosebay willow herb seed heads

All that remains of Newmachar station

On the horizon just south of the station this stone looking tantalisingly like a symbol stone is nothing more than a cattle scratching post. Already next year's crop is through the ground.

This wide sweep of the line near Newmachar is reputedly due to the insistence  of the Laird of Pitrichie, a major shareholder, that the Line pass as close as possible to Summerhill (as Newmachar was then called) and resulted in the station being inconveniently almost half a mile from the village. However this wide curve enabled the Line to climb from the level of the River Don to the summit of the hill at Newmachar at a manageable gradient and the minimum of heavy engineering work.

A local paper of 12th January 1867 records an earlier snow related accident on this exposed section of the Line:  "On Monday morning an accident occurred on the Formatine and Buchan branch, which fortunately was unattended with loss of life. The 5 am goods train from Aberdeen had proceeded within a short distance of New Machar station when, in consequence of the heavy snow, the engine was thrown off the rails over the embankment, dragging after it the tender. Both were considerably damaged, but the injury done to

the wagons is not serious. Those in charge of the train

escaped unhurt".

Looking to the west towards Newmachar Parish Church

Kingseat Farm
Kingseat derived its name from a King of Scotland, Malcolm Canmore (Malcolm 3rd)  having rested there during his peregrinations in pursuit of Macbeth whom he eventually encountered  and slaughtered at Lumphanan.  Malcolm is said to have rested his army at Kingseat, the stone on which he sat to quench his thirst with water from a nearby well  was still being pointed out to visitors as late as 1894. The king decreed that the water he was given tasted 'better than ale' and henceforth the  well  was given the name 'Better Ale Well'. The story of naming of the well is probably apocryphal but the  name Kingseat appears on Robert Gordon's map of around 1637.

Modern housing development of the site of Kingseat Hospital, hospital buildings have been demolished but the old wall still exists. The track leads to a disused gravel quarry, according to Canmore, the site of Better Ale Well.

Built by  Aberdeen District Lunacy Board between 1901 and 1926 Kingseat Hospital was based on a German model and was designed to give patients, who were housed in 10 separate villas, an environment where they could benefit from fresh air,a tranquil, spacious setting and have opportunity to work on the land. This experimental concept  was considered to be revolutionary at the time and was beneficial not only to the  478 patients housed there by 1905 but also to Newmachar. The excellent facilities for sports and recreation at the hospital were available to members of the wider community and the influx of medical and domestic and ancillary staff boosted the local economy. Eventually clinics such as baby care and chiropody were based at the hospital. During the Second World War the hospital was requisitioned by the Navy and officially became HMS Bacchante, a naval hospital, receiving patients from many incidents including the the sinking of the Royal Oak.   Kingseat reverted to its roll as a psychiatric hospital after the war but closed in 1995 after which most of the hospital buildings were demolished to be replaced by a modern housing development.

Pipes  at Kennedy Transport's storage facility close to the Line - a reminder of the proximity of Europe's oil capital

A steep scramble up the embankment at Standryford Bridge leads on to the B997 an old road with an intersting history and which provides a route back to Newmachar

During the 18th century this was the main route   from Newmachar to the Bridge of Don and onwards into the city of Aberdeen.  An example of a 'Commutation Road 'and now regarded as 'the back road' it is a long  established road with an interesting history. During the 17th century Acts of parliament ordained that property owners were to pay 10sh per £100 value of their property annually for the construction, repair and maintenance of roads and bridges. Less wealthy individuals were expected to contribute   around 6 days of physical labour as road builders. This particular burden could be avoided or commuted by paying 3d per day in lieu of  work. The money engendered by this was used to employ skilled road builders and the roads, including this one, constructed by them were known as 'Commutation roads'.  It appears on General Roy's map of 1747 -1755. 

Cross of Sacrifice in the new cemetery.

Close to the entrance to the cemetery is the Cross of Sacrifice, designed in 1918 by Sir Reginald Blomfield, architect of the  Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing  in Ypres, this simple, elegant cross is present in all cemeteries which contain over 40 Commonwealth War Graves. The cemetery opened in 1905 and the cross was dedicated in 1950.The original war memorial is on a hill to the south west of the village known as 'The Shanny'.

The cemetery contains headstones of 61 naval and  merchant navy seamen who died at Kingseat during the Second World War.

Newmachar church, a plain rectangular building replacing an earlier church of 1639, now much enlarged by a sympathetic modern extension at the east end, dates from  1791 and  occupies an elevated position in the heart of the community it serves. The walls are of dressed granite, although all but the south wall are now harled. The west gable carries a birdcage bellcote, topped by a large  ball finial - a clear landmark visible from the Line. A tall narrow session house adjoins the church. Beneath the bell cote the shallow chancel stands proud of the line of the gable and has a round window with plain glass. The north and south walls both have four arched windows, these include the beautiful Crombie Memorial  window, dating from 1915 and designed by Douglas Strachan this illustrates St Machar and connections with the bishops of Aberdeen.

 The kirkyard well planted with protective yews.

Gravestone of Rev George Moir in a quiet  corner of the graveyard surrounding the kirk he left. 

George Moir  was the much respected parish minister for 3 years until he left the Church of Scotland following the Disruption of 1843. Moir was followed by a large section of his congregation and became the first Free Kirk Minister of Newmachar. Moir and his followers met for worship in the barn at Mameulah until 6^th August of 1843 when the new Free Kirk building, situated by the cross roads in the village and probably the first in Scotland to be ready for use after the Disruption, was functional. The Free Kirk building has been demolished.