Scottish Geographical Magazine Notes on the Seaboard Of
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This article was downloaded by: [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] On: 10 March 2015, At: 08:37 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Scottish Geographical Magazine Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rsgj19 Notes on the seaboard of aberdefenshire William Ferguson a a Kinmundy Published online: 30 Jan 2008. To cite this article: William Ferguson (1886) Notes on the seaboard of aberdefenshire, Scottish Geographical Magazine, 2:7, 403-411, DOI: 10.1080/14702548608521099 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14702548608521099 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. 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Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub- licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http:// www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions NOTES ON THE SEABOARD OF ABERDEENSHIRE. 403 NOTES ON THE SEABOARD OF ABERDEENSHIRE. BY WILLIAI~I FERGUSON, OF KINMUNDY. II. PROCEEDING along the coast from the mouth of the river Ythan in a northward direction, the coast-line is very bold and precipitous, broken, however, here and there by narrow creeks or broader bays. The first six miles is through the parish of Slains. The average height of the rocks is from 170 to 200 feet, and they consist of gneiss and mica slate, with numerous veins of quartz ; and at one part of the coast they are overlaid with limestone. In one of my trips I approached this part of the coast at the village of Collieston, a hamlet of fishermen's cottages, where advantage has been taken of a ravine which affords a comparatively easy access to the water. Part of the village is built on the water edge, and part on the cliff 200 feet above. A deep deposit of dark red clay covers the cliffs, curling over the rocks, if I may so express it, and presenting a steep grassy slope leading to the rocks themselves. In some places the clay comes down very close to the water, but there is always an outlier of rock shielding it from the waves. In one spot I observed that the overflow of a small stream had washed out a chasm in the clay at least 30 or 40 feet deep ; showing that the deposit is of very considerable thickness. Immediately to the south of the village is the Coast-guard station, built on the summit. The pretty bay below is called Port Thuddcn, and round the point to the north is the Carlin Cave. Then comes Tarness Haven, which is the harbour of Collieston. In the old aisle of the parish church above is the burial-place of the ErroU family. Gavin Turriff, in his .4nti9uarian, says :--"Upon Saturday, the 16th July 1631, the high and mighty Lord Francis Earl of Erroll in his own place of the bounds departed this life, and was buried within the church of Slains upon the night, convoyed quietly with his own domestics and country friends with torch-light." The hill to the north is called Cransdale. At the base of it Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] 08:37 10 March 2015 is "a fissure of about 30 yards in length, 4 feet in width, and from 20 to 30 in height, called the Needle's Eye, through which the sea in an easterly gale rushes with impetuous violence. This fissure perforates a round bluff-hill of solid rock, which is covered with a layer of earth to the depth of several feet, and its sides are smooth and polished by the action of the waves." Round this hill is a pool or bay, called St. Catherine's Dub, where tradition says the St. Catherine, one of the ships of the Spanish Armada, was wrecked in the year 1588. "The truth of this report is supported 404 NOTES ON THE SEABOARD OF ABERDEENSHIRE. by the fact that in 1855, the Rev. Mr. Rust, parish minister of SIMns, succeeded in raising one of the guns from this pool. This gun is complete in every respect, and not even corroded. The quality of the cast-iron is such, that competent judges, after a severe test, were disposed to pro- nounce it malleable iron. The extreme length of the gun is 7 feet 9 inches ; from the muzzle to the touch-hole, 6 feet 9 inches. The diameter of the bore is about 3~ inches. The ball and wadding are in a perfect state of preservation : the weight of the ball is 4 pounds."--PRA~'T. I believe this gun is now at Haddo House. In 1839 or 1840, it is said Lieut. Paterson, R.N., succeeded in bringing up either one or two guns, and the Countess of Erroll obtained two more in 1876, which were sent to Balmoral Castle. Tradition still clings to the belief that the treasure chest of the St. Catherine is ill the pool, and even asserts that it may be seen at low water. Take the following from Uncle Ned, on the Danes and the Spanish Armada, in The Crookit Meg :-- " ' There's a learn (a sea-bird) fishing in St. Catherine's Dub,' he would say, pointing to a deep gash in the rocks. 'Langsyne, Effie, a great Spanish barque--the St. Catheri~e by name--struck upon that reef. It was a ship of the great Armada, and it carried the admiral's flag. It went to the bottom with every sowl on board. They say that a great store o' gowd lies at the bottom o' the Dub--that was the clash o' the country- side when I was a wean. But lang or ev'n the Armada sailed, the Danes kent every landing-place alang the Heughs. They were wild folk, fearin' neither God nor man. Mony a farm-house they harried, and theyburned the kirks, and spared neither mother nor maiden. But in the end a great battle was fought at the Ward--it began in the dawnin', and lasted far on thro' the nieht--and the saut-water thieves were forced back to their ships. It was a grand deliverance, and the Yerl built a kirk on the battle-field, for it was said that mair than mortal man took part in the feeht. That's an auld wife's story, it may be ; but the battle was won wi' God's help, we may richtly believe. The kirk stood for a thousand years, and may be stannin' yet : for ae wild winter nicht a mighty wind arose, and blew for a week, so that no man could stand against it. When it ceased the kirk was gone--it had been owercassen wi' the sand; and indeed the sand-bank itsel' may be seen to this day at the water o' Slains.'" Close to St. Catherine's Dub is the first of the two caves, which both Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] 08:37 10 March 2015 bear the name of Cove Arthur, the other one being farther on the coast, in the parish of Slains. "It lies" (says Mr. Rust in Druidism E~:humed) "at the junction of the gneiss and mica schist, and is constituted by what geologists call a fault, having gneiss on the west side, and mica schist on the east. The entrance looks to the south, the cave running south and north, and ex- tending to 174 feet in length. The entrance had been originally and naturally the whole width and height of the cave, but the bottom of the NOTES ON THE SEABOARD OF AP, ERDEENSHIRE. 405 entrance has been elevated by an embankment of stones and clay, exclud- ing the sea at high water, or at stormy seasons, which had formerly swept into the cave, as the bottom is about the elevation of high-water mark. And the top of this embankment, which is presently 4 feet higher than the mouth of the cave, being placed considerably outside the mouth, you have to descend from it into the mouth, while the mouth itself is thereby rendered invisible from the sea ; and this cave might be lighted up at night without the glare being seen externally, either from sea or land. This embankment extends in a ravine or fissure between two walls of rocks 18 feet asunder, which are the continuation seaward of the sides of the cave. The embankment has a basis of 70 feet between the cave and the sea, and the elevation of 24 feet caveward and 34 feet seaward, with slopes to resist the pressure and attacks.