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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

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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 , 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. The seaward slope has still near the basis several courses of built boulders or rocks, some of them 5 or 6 tons weight, and retaining, notwithstanding that they are reached by the sea, their position as firmly:as at the time when the Pietish Druids (so says Rev. Mr. Rust) first placed them there ; and the whole embank- meat of stone and clay is still in a surprising state of excellent preserva- tion. In descending from the embankment into the cave, we find that the vestibule is about 10 feet lengthways of the cave, 14 feet wide, a,d before the embankment was raised it had been 20 feet high, but the em- bankment there has been raised for internal comfort 14 feet high, leaving 6 feet for head-room. Passing this vestibule, we come to the large hall, 64 feet long, 21 feet wide, and 25 feet high. Passing straight forward, through an opening 10 feet wide, we enter a second apartment, 36 feet long, 14 feet wide, and 20 feet high. Passing through a narrower passage of about 4 feet in width, and 20 feet in length, we come to a rude altar or dolmen for the image, composed of two stones and the projecting rock, 7 feet long, 3 feet broad, and 3 feet high, occupying by its breadth the whole width here of the cave, 3 feet, although the cave extends beyond this, with the average width of a few feet, and of consider- able height, for 34 feet. This cave, although for the last fifty years it has suffered most pitiably from the hands of Vandals, who have deprived it of its best pendent stalactites, is yet most grotesquely and beautifully adorned by them, reminding the visitor of cathedral carvings and screen- work. We pass the village of Collieston, the immediate neighbourhood of which is rich in caves, pools, and picturesque reeks, and, keeping on north- Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] 08:37 10 March 2015 wards, we find the same high precipitous coast-line for several miles, but so indented by creeks and narrow, tortuous ravines as to render the walk along the cliffs or heughs a very long one. Some of the eaves are of great extent. Many of them enter from the sea, and require a boat to reach them. Others are far above the sea-level, indicating a change in the rela- tive positions of the sea and the land. I have more than once explored one of these. It is called, I think, the Dowie-Stane Cave. From notes of my first visit I take this description :--Turning round a grassy hillock on 406 NOTES ON THE SEABOARD OF ABERDEENSIIIRE.

the brae-face, the mouth of the cave lay before us--not, as we expected, in the cliff, but in the green side of the brae. A good deal of ddbris and clay had been washed into it, but this made it the more accessible, and we had no difficulty in entering it. "When we had descended the mound of rubbish accumulated in the mouth, we found ourselves in a cave of large dimensions, and very lofty in the roof. At first we felt as if the darkness was very great, but we soon became accustomed to the gloom. When we turned to retrace our steps, after penetrating as far as we could without lights, a fine sight presented itself to our gaze. Our eyes, now accustomed to the dim light, could see the whole of that portion of the cave we had just traversed, lit up as it was by rays from the entrance. The opening being upwards, and not sheer out, we could not see the sea, but light enough was admitted to show the proportions of the cave. I measured to the entrance, and found it to be about 45 yards. Water was percolating from above, and dripping in all directions. The floor and sides were covered with a coating of fine wet clay, but no calcareous incrustations appeared; from which it would seem that lime is absent fl'om the rocks here. In the Statistical Account mention is made of one of the caves on the coast "called HeWs Lum," and it states that that cave "is upwards of 200 feet in length, and the pitch of the arch within, in some places, rises to the height of 30 feet." This cave is marked on the Ordnance map, as is also another, before coming to the Dowiestane, called the Fleshiewell Cave. The height of the cliffs, as given on the map, is 100 feet. At a distance of a little over a mile from Collieston, on a high rock jutting out into the sea, stand the ruins of the Castle of Old Stains. "Previous to the use of cannon, it must have been almost impregnable, the only approach to it being by a narrow defile on the north, which a few resolute and daring men might have made good against any opposing force. In the year 1594 the Earl of Errol], having joined in the Earl of 's rebellion, James vI., at the instigation of the politic Lord Lindsay, issued orders for its entire demolition, which were faithfully executed; and nothing of this aucient castle now remains but two sides of a square tower, and some masses of masonry strewed around it." Beyond the castle is a fine bay called Broadhaven, with a beautiful sandy beach ; but, within a few yards of the shore of this beach, numerous sunken reefs and rocks, just raising their ridges above the surface of the Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] 08:37 10 March 2015 water, render the navigation of the coast very dangerous. Here I was made acquainted with a peculiar feature often met with on this coast. Looking from the castle towards the Broadhaven, the dry white sand of whose shore was glittering in the sun, you see, first of all, a pretty steep grassy descent, ridged diagonally and horizontally with the tracks made by the sheep and cattle grazing on them. Beneath this, rather more than two-thirds down the slope, stretches out a broad grassy platform, level and greener than the rest. Beyond, again the slope NOTES ON THE SEABOARD OF ABERDEENSItIRE. 407

descends as before, till it meets the beach. I had ]ingered at the castle to sketch, and my friend was far in advance. Seeing such an apparently smooth field before me, and expecting to have the impetus of my first descent checked by the broad green patch, before I had to make the second descent to the water, I began to run down the slope, bounding over the cattle paths and acquiring considerable speed, when all at once, when I reached the middle ground, I found I had plunged into a deep morass. I got out with all haste, and no detriment beyond being well covered with mud, but had to make a considerable detour before I could reach the beach. The clay had formed a ridge by the beating up of the sea. This ridge had accumulated water from the numerous springs which abound in the rocks above, and also the d;bris of vegetable matter till soil was formed, so that at last there was a natural water-meadow hanging half-way down this steep brae-face. These occur frequently, almost wherever there is a beach, and are carefully preserved. A very little labour with a spade would drain any one of them ; but as they afford the richest pasture to be met with near, their extension is fostered rather than prevented. About half a mile farther on the coast, and directly east from the farm-house of Clochtow, is a very extensive cave called the Dropping Cave, or the White Cave of Slains. It differs from the one I have already described, in that it occurs in limestone and is incrusted in- teriorly with stalactites and stalagmite. At one time some of the stalactites were continuous from roof to floor, and were very beautiful. ~Iost of these, however, have been taken away and used for lime. To enter this cave, one must crawl on hands and knees--nay, almost on one's stomach, through a narrow and low opening, and in a shallow stream of water, which issues by this, the only aperture, from the cave. After a little way is passed the cave rises to a great height, and well repays the trouble incurred in visiting it. The w~ter, which exudes from the rocks in the neighbourhood, is charged with calcareous matter, and covers the roof and sides and floor with limy incrustations. Two miles further along the coast brings us to the borders of the parish of Cruden, and another h~lf mile to Cove Arthur. This last is in- accessible at high water. It is larger than the Dropping Cave, and quite dry. It was formerly used as a place of concealment in the days of smuggling, and has since been occasionally occupied by gipsy vagrants; and some vestiges of a fireplace are still existing. The Rev. Mr. Rust Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] 08:37 10 March 2015 thus refers to the cave :-- "Cove Arthur, in Cruden, lies a few hundred yards north of the bonn- dary between the parishes of Cruden and Slains. It is situated at the base of the face of high mural rocks, in a small bay of 150 yards diameter, to which there is one descent on the north by a steep incline of green sward for 100 feet. When you reach the stony, rocky beach at the reces- sion of the tide, for it is not accessible at full tide, you have to scramble southwards over great water-worn boulders, which have fallen down from 408 NOTES ON THE SEABOARD OF ABERDEENSHIRE.

the precipitous cliffs of the hardest cleft and stratified gneiss, which have through the lapse of untold ages given way to the unceasing action of the waves below and the weather above; making, once perhaps in a century or two, a stalk of rock of a hundred feet high and a hundred or a thousand tons in weight to fall with a crash to the bottom to be gradually pulver- ised. At the furthest angular recess to which you can reach, with the awful perpendicular and overhanging rocks towering above, before, and around you, some of them apparently ready to let go their hold, although they may have retained it as at present for untold ages, you ar'rive at the mouth of the cave. The flow of the mouth had originally been, just as the flow of the interior of the cave still is, on a level with the high-water mark ; so that once on a time the waves had had free access, as the water- worn appearance of the altar, cromlech, or dolmen, and of the floor and sides of the interior of the cave abundantly testifies. With great labour, perseverance, and skill, a large powerful and adequate barricade or em- bankment of stones and clay has been artificially raised to the height still of 10 feet, with a base of 40 feet, sloping inside and outside, and resisting the fury of the highest of mountain waves and wintry stormy tempests ; keeping the cave quite dry, and the inmates quite safe and comfortable. This embankment you have to ascend, and in doing so you enter the vestibule of the cave, about 18 feet square, with the same height above your head. Onward, always going west, for the cave lies east and west, you come to the inner entrance. It continues the same height, thus furnishing light within, but it is only M)out 26 inches wide. Having passed this, you enter a magnificent, large, arched apartment, 60 feet long, 30 feet wide, and nearly the same in height ; the cave altogether being 100 feet in length, formed by nature. But the great natural curiosity is the altar, cromlech, or dolmen, at the inmost or westmost extremity, which is a large solid, flat, smooth rock i~ situ on the floor, 3 feet high, 8 feet broad, and 12 feet long, nearly entirely detached from the sides of the cave, although now partly packed around at the head with stones by human hands. This" (thinks Mr. Rust) "had been the altar of the Druids, the cromlech, or what the ancient Britons in Brittany and the present inhabitants there still call a dolmen." As I have already stated, the principal rocks met with on this part of the coast are gneiss and mica schist. To these may be added several porphyritic combinations and basalt. Half a mile north of the second Cove Arthur, at the fishing village of Whinnyfold (pronounced locally Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] 08:37 10 March 2015 Funnyf~al), the rocks change abruptly from gneiss to granite. The parish of Cruden carries on the coast-line 7 miles. Immediately beyond Whinnyfold there is a broad sandy beach, called the Ward of Cruden. The south end of this beach is marked by a remarkable reef of sunken rocks, called the Scaurs of Cruden, and many a gallant ship has been wrecked upon them. Northwards the bay is terminated by pre- cipitous cliffs of red granite, which extend onwards from this point as far as . A stream from the interior joins the sea at the north end NOTES ON THE SEABOARD OF ABERDEENSHIRE. 40~

of the Ward, and here lies the growing fishing-town of Port Erroll, where the present Earl has formed a very commodious harbour. Dr. Pratt says of this bay :--" The beautiful beach which follows the sweep of the bay extends from the Scaurs--a group of prominent reeks running out about half a mile into the sea--to the water of Cruden, a distance of nearly 2 miles. Near the centre is the Hawkla~5 a lofty headland, which commands a magnificent view of the German Ocean, extending on the one hand to the Bay of , and on the other to the Buehan-Ness Lighthouse, an interval of nearly 30 miles. Below the eye,~the sweeping beach, with sands as smooth and firm as the floor of a cathedral ; on either hand extensive braes and links, exuberant with wild-flowers; on the left, in the middle distance, Slains Castle towering over the cliffs. These, with its pure and exhilarating air, constitute this one of the most pleasing spots on the coast." The neighbourbood of the Ward of Cruden was, in the 3,ear 1012, the site of a bloody and final battle, in which the Danes were totally defeated by the Scots. In the vicinity of the Hawklaw are the remains of a vitrified wall, and there are similar remains on two other eminences close by. Near these, among the sand-hills, is a well, known as St. Olave's Well ~a very copious spring, bubbling strongly up from among the sand, and so famous once as to have been a point of pilgrimage. It did not escape the notice of the famous Rhymer :-- " St. Olave's ~Vell, low by the sea, Where pest nor plague shall ever be." Forsyth, in his .Bea~llies of Sco[hu~[, mentions the ruins of a castle near this place. Speaking of the battle already referred to, he says :--" The armies met about a mile to the west of the present Slains Castle, upon a plain in the bottom of the Bay of Ardendraught, near which the Danes had then a castle, the ruins of which are still to be seen." There are no traces of any ruins now, except the vitrified remains just mentioned. But that a town and tower had been there once is proved, for the old charters say--" Totas et integras terras de Ardendraught eum turre et fortalieio earundem." The battle-field of Cruden seems to have extended over some four miles, and relies in the shape of battle-axes, mortuary urns, neck-chains, jet beads, etc. etc., have been collected over all that space. The fight was a most bloody one, and is supposed to be the origin of the name Cruden, Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] 08:37 10 March 2015 from Crofu-Dane or Crudane, "The death or slaughter of the Danes." Some three or four miles from this spot, at the southern extremity of the parish of , and about five miles to the south-west of Peter- head, is Cairn-Catto, or The Battle Cairn. It was at one time of great extent, but has been greatly demolished by the use of the stones for dikes. It is a series of eists or stone tombs, many of which I have seen. Dr Pratt thinks that the cairn is doubtless on some great battle-field, which seems to have been chosen with considerable skill. Taking the 410 NOTES ON THE SEABOARD OF ABERDEENSHIRE.

cairn, which is on a piece of level ground, with a gentle rise in the centre, as the 2ob~t d'a2pui , the right towards the north is flanked by an extensive morass; the front to the left is traversed by a narrow ravine called the Leaca Howe, extending to the left for several miles, which at that time must have been nearly impassable. The ground in front slopes gradually towards the ravine, becoming steep as it approaches its margin. The south-western declivity is, or was--for the plough has unsancti- moniously invaded this ancient battle-field--covered with small mounds of stone and earth, and circular rings which evidently were the sites of the camp-fires. Graves abound in all directions. A bleak hill rising beyond the glen is called Dun-a-cluach. In the hollow between is a huge block of granite, calculated to weigh from sixty to seventy tons. It is raised a little from the ground on a platform of supporting blocks. I was told many years ago, by an old man in the neighbourhood, that in his young days it was a Laggan, or moving stone. It has, however, long since ceased to respond to any person that has attempted to prove its capacity in that respect. Our old friend said some herd-laddies had jammed it with stones. At any rate, it is not now a Laggan-stone, but it is a splendid specimen of a boulder of red granite. All around there are camp-faulds, camp-pits, camp-wells; a king's grave, a silver cairn, Picts' houses, a subterranean vault, celts, flint arrow- heads, etc. etc. "The Leaca Howe (Leaca=lech, or leac, a stone; pro- bably so named from the great stone in it, just referred to)having the hills of Cairn-Catto and Dun-a-cluach on its eastern margin, and the hills of Aldie on its western, had, at a remote period, been well stocked with trees, the trunks of which are still to be found at the bottom of the hollow. Extending northwards, this ravine had terminated in an extensive wood, now a bleak and barren waste, known as ' The Moss of Savoch of Long- side.' Both sides of the ravine were, till a comparatively late date, covered with the vestiges of the terrible conflict which had taken place in its vicinity. The number of flint arrow- and spear-heads that have been picked up, and the endless recurrence of tumuli, may be looked upon as the unwritten records of the battle, its remote date, and sanguinary char- acter. Till very lately, the mounds on the slopes of the hills to the east of the Howe might be counted by the hundred. They were of different sizes, varying from six to upwards of twenty feet in diameter, and were generally elevated above the surface of the field from eight inches to a foot. Eighteen or twenty of these, in a south-westerly direction from the Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] 08:37 10 March 2015 cairn, were apparently formed with great care, being accurately circular, flat on the top, seven or eight feet in diameter, and raised six or eight inches above the surface. They were altogether of a different character from the ordinary mounds in the vicinity. For what purpose these were constructed it is difficult to imagine." The nine clear springs near by, known as the "Morris Wells," now supply the town of Peterhead with water. These strange, mystical, unknown memorials of the past mingle with the most practical utilitari- NOTES ON THE SEABOARD OF ABERDEENSHIRE. 411

anism of the present; and the modern march of improvement will, ere long, abolish these relics of an unknown story. Perhaps,--Who knows ? "That old camp's deserted round, Sir Knight, you well might mark its bound ; The Pictish race The Trench long since in blood did trace ; The moor around is brown and bare ; The space within is green and fair ; The spot our village children know, For there the earliest wild-flowers grow ; But woe betide the wandering wight That treads its circle in the night."

THE CULTIVABLE AREA OF THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN. BY J. T. WILLS. IN the excellent Map of Africa just published by the firm of Justus Perthes, colours are used to distinguish cultivable and forest land from steppe, or dry, uncultivable grazing ground and waste. But the attempt to thus colour the Egyptian Sudan correctly has altogether failed. In the well-known countries of Algeria, Tunis, and Cape Colony, the colouring is not satisfactory or consistent. In Algeria the cultivable area is made to roughly coincide with the area that has over 20 inches of annual rainfall. This is fairly correct. In the Cape the colouring includes almost all lands having more than 10 inches of rainfall, which is certainly wrong. In Tunis two-thirds of the area marked as cultivable has, according to the best authorities, a rainfall of less than 10 inches, which is absurd ; and we are forced to suppose that the colouring is based on the rainfall returns of not more than two or three recent years, of which the altogether exceptional year 188~ was one. See the rainfall map in R~clus's Gdogra]~hie Universelle, vol. ii. p. 363. In the Sudan the uncultivable waste is made to extend everywhere to within sixty miles of the Abyssinian frontiers, and half the cultivable area is made to lie between the Red Sea and the Atbara. This is not so in fact. The evidence we have is clear, unanimous, and conclusive, and is to the following effect :--The rainfall upon the great plains, between the White Nile and the Gash (the Egyptian provinces of Taka and Senaar) is all that can be desired for the growth of maize, sorghum, cotton, tobacco, Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] 08:37 10 March 2015 and the like, as far north as Abu-Harras on the Blue Nile, and nearly as far as KassaIa on the Gash. It is considerable as far as Kawa and Kamlin, and even up to near Gosrejeb and Filik ; but it there decreases in amount very rapidly, and at Khartum it is light and precarious. It is only the very " tail of the monsoon" that catches Khartum, which, in fact, lies in the desert. The rainy season lasts only 3½ months at Abu-Harras and Tomat, but it lasts four at Senaar, and over five at Rosares and Famaka, and for a month at ]east after the last rains the country lies " in a regular vapour bath."