88 Notes and Sketches. 



when the roads began to be formed gentlemen were 

 not sufficiently attentive to carry them in the most 

 proper direction ; they generally followed as nearly as 

 they could the old course of the road ; and as bogs had 

 been originally the most dreaded obstructions, to avoid 

 these, the roads had been in general carried along the 

 high grounds where they could be come at ; so that in 

 many cases they were carried a considerable way about 

 to shun a vale and get up a hill. After wheels began 

 to be employed, it was found that the pulls going uphill 

 were very inconvenient, to avoid which it has been 

 necessary, in many instances, to abandon a road that 

 had been smoothed at a considerable expense, and to 

 make a new one in a more proper direction." 



This description applies to the Aberdeenshire roads 

 of the second half of the eighteenth century. These 

 roads which were simply narrow, unmetalled tracks, 

 with ditches cut along the sides, the hollows filled, and 

 large stones removed, but rarely causewayed, speedily 

 became a muddy slough when the weather was wet. 

 And as early as 1741 we find the recommendation 

 to try a layer of " small stones and chingle" (a rough 

 approach to macadamising) " in time coming" on some 

 of the roads. Six inches depth of this had to be 

 applied, and the fact duly certified before " the usual 

 allowance" would be made to those who were charged 

 with the maintenance of the road. 



Directly after the Rebellion of 1745 Government 

 roads and bridges for wheeled vehicles began to be 

 systematically engineered and constructed, the roads 

 having a hard bottom of stones. The first two lines of 

 modern road across the Eastern Grampians were made 

 by the military. These are the road from Brechin by 

 Fettercairn, the Cairn o' Mount, and Potarch Bridge, to 

 Alford, Clatt, and Huntly, made about 1746 ; and the 

 road (named after General Wade) from the Spital of Glen- 

 shee, by Castleton of Braemar, Crathie, Gaynshiel, 

 Corgarlf, and Tomintoul, to the Spey near Grantown, 



; 



