CHAPTER VII. 



RIVER YTHAN. 



ANGLING SEASON : 25th February to 31st October. 

 NETTING SEASON : 25th February to 9th September. 



District Fishery Board sits in Aberdeen. Clerk, D. W. B. Chalmers, Esq., Advocate, 

 Golden Square, Aberdeen. 



THIS river and the Ugie flow quietly through the gently undulating 

 country which lies between the districts of Formartine and Buchan. 



The Ythan rises at the springs called the Wells of Ythan, and 

 takes a course east and then north-east to Auchterless, where there is 

 a low fall. The stream then turns abruptly south-east, and, with the 

 road to Turriff on the right hand, and the railway on the left, flows 

 in this direction to Fyvie. It then meanders with many windings 

 through the flat stretch between Fyvie and Methlick, past the old 

 House of Gight, which belonged to Lord Byron's mother the thick- 

 walled castle is now a most picturesque ruin, the property of the Earl 

 of Aberdeen. From Gight to beyond Haddo House the stream is 

 richly wooded on either bank. I am afraid to say how many 

 thousand trees I have heard were planted on the Haddo Estate by 

 the distinguished statesman and forebear of the present peer, who 

 then held the property. The Ythan is most enticing to the trout 

 fisher in many of the reaches near Methlick. 



The general course of the river is thereafter south-east, with one 

 or two curves before reaching Ellon ; and soon afterwards, at the 

 Kirkton of Logie Buchan, it expands into the estuary, which is 

 4 miles in length and rather more southerly in direction. The 

 actual mouth is somewhat constricted, the outgoing water having to 

 contend constantly with a sand-bar fed from a perfect wilderness of 

 sand the Sands of Forvie. The total course of the river from the 

 Wells of Ythan to the mouth is about 36 J miles. 



The estuary, as defined by the 1868 Salmon Act, is " a portion of 



