ABERDEEXSHIRE. 



ABERQAVENNY. 



14 



inhabitants are chiefly engaged in fishing. From July to September 

 there is an active herring-fishery, employing from 40 to 50 boats, and 

 several sloops. In spring a number of boats go to the island of Tyree 

 for the cod and ling fishery, and return by Glasgow, exchanging their 

 fish fnr coals. Fish are cured in the village for the Glasgow, Edin- 

 burgh, and London markets. Boat-building is carried on. Fairs are 

 held on the first Tuesdays of May, July, and October. 



Tin-riff, a small burgh of barony, in the parish of Turrift, is about 

 40 miles N.N.W. from Aberdeen. The population of the town iu 

 1841 was 1309. An hospital or almshouse was founded here in 1272 

 by Alexander Cumyn, Earl of Buchan. The remains of the old church, 

 built before the Reformation, stand in the burial-ground. The old 

 belfry has been repaired, and contains the parish bell and clock. The 

 present parish church was erected in 1794, and enlarged in 1830. 

 There are an Episcopal chapel and a Free church. The grammar 

 school of Turrift', now the parochial school, had a good reputation in 

 the IGth century : it is still well attended. There are a parish library 

 and a savings bank. The town is lighted with gas, and has many 



Houses and shops. A cross of considerable antiquity stands in 

 the principal street. Linen bleaching is carried on to a small extent. 

 There is a small woollen-cloth manufacture. Eight fairs for cattle, 

 horses, and sheep are held in the course of the year. Pigs are reared 

 in considerable numbers for the supply of pork to the London market. 

 Near Turriff is a substantial stone bridge over the Doveron, erected in 

 182 at a cost of 25001. 



The following villages may be noticed, the populations are those of 

 1841 :- 



BaOater, in Olenmuick parish, 41 4 miles W. from Aberdeen, on the 

 north bank of the Dee, population 371, is of recent origin, and is much 

 resorted to, on account of the beauty of the situation and the mineral 

 springs of the neighbourhood. The houses are regularly built, and 

 neatly fitted up for lodgera. The parish church is in the village, and 

 there is a post-office. Fairs for hiring servants are held on the first 

 Tuesday of May, old style, and on the Saturday before November iind 

 for wool on the last Tuesday in June and for cattle and sheep on the 

 second Monday and Tuesday in September, old style. The springs or 

 wells of Pananich, about two miles cast from the church, are four in 

 number, all chalybeate, stimulant, and tonic : there are lodgings at 

 the wells, and also hot, cold, and shower baths. Boddam, or Boddan, 

 3 miles S. fromPeterhcad. population 528, chiefly fishermen. Boddam 

 is near Buchan-head, on which there is a lighthouse of granite 118 feet 

 high, built in 1824, on an island connected with the mainland by a 

 beach of round stones, separating the north and south boat-harbour* 

 of Boddam : the south harbour will receive ships of a moderate 

 draught of water. .Vici/ov/A, in Foveran parish, in the district of 

 K!lon, 10 miles N. from Aberdeen : population 393. The houses are 

 aid roiii!iidiou<. The village stands on the burn of 

 i u, near its junction with the Y than, the mouth of which forms 

 the ]Mirt of Newburgh, to which a few small vessels belong. They 

 . linn-, timber, and bones ; and export grain and cattle, the 

 latter to London- or .'./", /;.">!/, population <i->l, U 



L'rtU, population 203, are in the parish of Strichen, in the district of 

 Buchan. Strichen has a neat town-house, a conmioclioi H p u-i .h < Imn-li. 

 a Free church, and a Roman Catholic chapel. The village was laid out 

 in 1764, and is regularly l.nilt, with a number of good, commodious, 

 slated houses. Weaving is carried on to some extent. Fairs for cattle 

 and horses are held in January, March, May, July, August, and 

 November. At New Leeds is a chapel for United Presbyterians. 

 Some of the inhabitants are employed in manufact n-tftld, 



or X'i i the parish of Old Deer, in the district of Buchan : 



population 014. Several persons are employed in the manufacture of 

 linen yarn in the village ; and in it or in other parts of the parish are 

 lint-mills, and mills for making woollen cloth and yarn for stockings. 

 The United Presbyterians have a chapel. 



The county is for the most part included in the jurisdiction of the 

 Synod of Aberdeen, which comprehends, in addition, nearly the whole 

 of Banffshire and part of Kincardineshire. The number of parishes 

 wholly or partly in this county, according to the Population Returns 

 of 1841, is 88. These are parishes both for ecclesiastical and civil 

 purposes. There are besides 14 quoad sacra parishes, that is, districts 

 constituting distinct parishes for ecclesiastical purposes alone. In 

 Aberdeenshire there are about 70 congregations of the Free Church, 

 about 20 of the United Presbyterian Synod, and several of other 

 Presbyterian Dissenters, Independents, and Roman Catholics. The 



rians have a chapel in Aberdeen. St. Mary's College, at Blairs, 

 near Ab.-rdceti, i.< an institution founded in 1827, for the training of 



lates for the Roman Catholic priesthood in Scotland. It is 



under the care of a Principal, a procurator, and three professors, and 



had I., ii 1851. The Scottish Episcopal Church has a large 



1. uly of adherents in the north-eastern portion of Sc.itbnd. The 



itains 21 congregations ; several of these have 



existed from the period of the first reformation. Aberdeenshire 

 is well supplied with so I. 



! are. a county prison and a bridewell at Aberdeen, and small 

 ins at. Old Abo '.Irlilruiu, Invcniry, Kintore, 



Frascrburgh, and Turriff; but these are used only occa- 



';,- and for voy brief < . There is also a new prison 



at Peterhend, which town is the seat of a sheriff court. The county 



of Aberdeen returns one member to the Imperial Parliament. The 

 number of electors in 1852 was 4022. Peterhead, Inverury, and 

 Kintore are included iu the Elgin district of burghs, which returns 

 one member ; the other burghs of the district are Elgin, Cullen, and 

 Banff. 



History and Antiquities. Of the most ancient period of its history 

 Aberdeenshire contains various monuments ; such as cairns, barrows, 

 Druidical stones, and the structures called Picts' houses. There are 

 some ancient camps, supposed to be Roman. A singular monument 

 called the Maiden Stone is found in Chapel of Garioch parish. It is 

 a stone pillar, 10 feet above ground, and supposed to be imbedded 

 6 feet below the surface; it is nearly 3 feet broad and 1 foot 

 thick, marked with hieroglyphic or other characters, supposed to be 

 Danish. In the parish of Aboyne and Glentanner are the remains of 

 a Picts' house, a circular inclosure of stones regularly laid without 

 cement, and partly imbedded in the rock. The inclosure, which is 

 83 feet in diameter, is on the top of a hill called Knockbeg : it is con- 

 nected with others of a similar character by two parallel dykes forming 

 an inclosed way or avenue, the main line of which may be traced for 

 nearly 50 miles, near the north bank of the Dee ; some branches diverge 

 in a direction traversing the river and the Grampian Mountains. 



Aberdeenshire was the scene of the battle of Cruden, in the beginning 

 of the llth century, between the Scots and the Danes under Canute, 

 afterwards king of England. In the 14th century Robert Bruce 

 marched into Aberdeenshire to chastise Comyn, or Cumin, Earl of 

 Buchan, whom he defeated. In 1411, during the captivity of King 

 James I., and the regency of the Duke of Albany, the battle of Harlaw 

 was fought in Chapel of Garioch parish. In 1644 Montrose defeated 

 the Covenanters under Hurley, not far from Aberdeen, which he 

 entered. Monk occupied Aberdeen in 1651 ; and the troops of the 

 Pretender, under Lord Lewis Gordon, occupied and levied contribu- 

 tions on it in 1745. A detachment of the royal forces, sent from the 

 north by Lord London to relieve the town, was defeated at Inverury. 



The principal memorials of the middle ages in the county are the 

 mins of feudal castles. On the north coast, between Fraserburgh and 

 Banff, are the remains of the ancient castle of Dundargue, situated on 

 a rock which rises from the sea to the height of above 60 feet, and is 

 connected with the mainland at high-water only by a narrow ledge 

 of rock. Here Henry de Beaumont, the English Earl of Buchan, was 

 besieged by Sir Audrrw Murray, regent of Scotland during the cap- 

 tivity of David II. On the same coast, near Banff, are the remains of 

 Ken-Edgar Castle, once the seat of the Comyns, Earls of Buchan. 

 Pitsligo and Pittulie castles are both on the coast near Fraserburgh. 

 Craigston Castle, in the same neighbourhood, built in the 17th 

 century by one of the Urquharts of Cromarty, is a fine old building in 

 good preservation. Fedderate Castle, near New Deer, was a fortress 

 of considerable strength. On the eastern coast are the ruins of Slaina 

 Castle, once the seat of the Earls of Errol, demolished in 1594, by 

 order of James VI. ; and on the north-eastern bank of the Ythan 

 stands Fyvie Castle, one of the finest gothic edifices in the county. 

 There are numerous other ruins of ancient castles or towers. The 

 monastic and other ecclesiastical remains are very few. Near the 

 village of Old Deer are the ruins of a Cistercian abbey, and in Fyvin 

 parish are the remains of a priory of Tyronenses, said to have been 

 founded by Fergus Earl of Buchan near the close of the 12th century. 



ABERFFRAW. [AHOLESKY.] 



ABEHFOHD. [YORKSHIHK.J 



ABERGAVENNY, Monmouthshire, ft market town, and the seat 

 of a Poor-Law Union, in the parish and hundred of Abergavenny, is 

 picturesquely situated at the confluence of the rivers Usk and 

 Oavenuy, in the range of meadows, surrounded by several lofty hills, 

 in 61 49' N. lat, 3" 2' W. long. ; distant 14 miles W. by N. from 

 Monmouth, and 143 miles W.N.W. from London. The population in 

 1851 was 4797. The living is a vicarage in the archdeaconry of 

 Monmouth, and diocese of Llandaff. Abergavenny Poor-Law Union 

 contains 26 parishes, with an area of 63,600 acres, and a population in 

 1851 of 17,664. 



The town is long and straggling, the streets narrow, and the houses 

 irregularly built; but considerable improvements have been made by 

 enlarging the market-place and removing projections. There is a 

 fine old bridge, of 15 arches, over the Usk ; also the remains of a 

 castle, and of a Benedictine priory founded soon after the Conquest. 

 The church, an ancient and spacious structure, has some interesting 

 architectural features ; in the interior are several curious old monu- 

 ments. There are in the parish a district church, called Trinity 

 Church, two chapels for Baptists, and one each for Independents, 

 Methodists, and Roman Catholics. The grammar-school, founded in 

 1548, had 27 scholars in 1850. There are National and British schools, 

 and a savings bank. The principal trade is in wool, of which a con- 

 siderable quantity is sold in the market in the months of June and 

 July. There are extensive collieries and iron-works in the neighbour- 

 ing district. The market is held on Tuesday. The Monmoiitlixliin- 

 and Brecon canal passes nearthetiwn, and gives considerable facilities 

 for trade. A county court is held in the town. Abergavenny is sup- 

 posed to have been the Roman station of (iobannimii, so called from 

 the river Gobannius (Gavenny). The town once possessed a charter 

 of incorporation, which was forfeited in the reign of William III. 

 Tim Abergavenny Cymreigyddon Society, established in 1832, for the 



