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The Kirktown of Rothiemay

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The Kirktown of Rothiemay The Kirktown of Rothiemay Introduction Early in the 18th century the Kirk of Rothiemay was described as standing “amid a wood of birch and alder, on Dovern.” This was the location of the Kirktown of Rothiemay, on the haugh of the River Deveron overlooked by Rothiemay Castle, probably on the site of a medieval chapel founded by St. Drostan in the 6th century8. Although Rothiemay is clearly an old settlement the Kirktown is first recorded in 1617, in which year it was erected a free burgh of barony by royal charter. Today there are few obvious signs of the old village remaining. After William Duff, Lord Braco, acquired the Castle and Estate of Rothiemay in 1741 he set about making improvements beginning with the construction of a new kilnbarn and fruithouse. Then in 1752 he determined to have the old village pulled down in order to improve his view and privacy, and moved the inhabitants and erected a new kirk and kirkyard about 800m to the west, in the neighbouring Milltown – the other settlement in Rothiemay. Around the same time, improvements were made to the gardens and policies surrounding the Castle, including the construction of a paved causeway between the Castle and the riverside, and the laying out of a new orchard/fruit garden to the west of the Castle. A new manse and a laundry were built within the Castle grounds and the doocot was repaired. A new inn was built in the Milltown, possibly to replace an earlier ostler house12, referred to by some sources. His son James Duff, 2nd Lord Fife and other successors continued with improvements to the gardens, and erected the mains farm steading. Extensive tree planting was carried out around the end of the 18th century. During the twentieth century, the history of the estate including the old village and kirk attracted the interest of several local historians and amateur archaeologists, most notably William Cramond1, W.Douglas Simpson8, and Harry Gordon Slade2. This investigation aims to build upon their research, using maps, aerial photographs and other historical sources to help record the fragmentary physical remains that survive on the ground today. A site plan has been produced using a combination of aerial photograph transcription and field survey (see over) and this shows the location of the principal features recorded. Further details of each of these features, including descriptions, photographs and plans are presented below. View south towards kirk mound from front of the castle garden [The Duff House Papers (University of Aberdeen) document many of these changes, mainly in the form of accounts for building work and repairs] [Major James Fraser refers to the ostler house around 1715 - a “Blind ale house very near Rothiemay’s House”] 2 NORTH Stone wall (1752) Causeway e t a g ditch e g d i r b e Rushes n e Rocky platform o c t n S e f h c t i d Unidentified linear features h tc i d n Peter's Well i h Castle laundry a r c (1754) t d i d Manse (1754) y a w e s u a C House platform Coniferous plantation (20th century) Flood plain Old garden of castle stump Kir Curling pond ktown (excavated Burn early 20th century) bank Site of Kirktown of Rothiemay tree Drawn by W. Reid Kirkyard mound March 2011 Castle site St. Drostan's River Deveron Church Queen Mary's Bridge House S i t e of V i l l a g e on strips Drainage/cultivati Site of orchard/plantation Queen Mary's Avenue Walled garden (19th century) 50m. ditch 10 20 30 40 h 10 05 c t i d SCALE 3 The site and its setting General Roy’s Military Survey of Scotland, 1748-55, shows Rothiemay House in enclosed parkland of about half a square mile in area. The kirktown lies within the parkland between the House and the River Deveron, on both banks of the (un-named) Kirktown Burn. The smaller milltown lies just outside the western boundary of the parkland, on the banks of the Deveron. The kirk is not named, but lay within the kirktown, on the west bank of the Kirktown Burn. General Roy's Military Survey of Scotland, 1748- 1755. ©British Library. Licensor SCRAN www.scran.ac.uk Park boundary wall from the Milltown side The park boundaries are preserved within the modern landscape and are depicted on historic and modern Ordnance Survey maps. They survive most clearly on the west side, where a massive estate wall runs north from the Deveron, and by less clearly defined field boundaries to the north and east. Today, the parkland is predominantly improved pasture and arable fields, but the area to the east of the Castle/House lies within a small conifer plantation (see site plan). A small area of formal garden ground remains around the present Rothiemay House. 4 1st Edition Ordnance Survey 6-inch map (Banffshire, xv and xvii, surveyed 1867, published 1871) 5 St. Drostan’s Kirk The foundation walls of the old kirk of St. Drostan are visible on the mediaeval kirkyard mound. These walls are not shown on the 25” O.S. map surveyed in 1867, and appear to have remained hidden from 1752 until excavated by Col. Forbes in the early 20th century. The edge of the mound can be followed for part of the girth but there is no trace of the surrounding fail-dyke and kirkstyle mentioned in the Kirk Session records. These are available from 1604 onwards and indicate that the Kirk itself was small and poorly lit with a seated loft, apparently thatched until 1626, when it was slated. The glebe and manse, and school are also mentioned. The foundation walls uncovered by Col. Forbes. The kirk doorway and font saved from demolition. The kirk door surround and stone font were saved when the kirk was demolished - the surround appears to have been used for a doorway in the castle until it was demolished in 1964. It was then moved with the font to the current church site and can now be seen built into the north wall. The bell is now installed in the belfry at Rothiemay School. James Gordon (c.1615-1686), the well known map maker and historian, was minister of Rothiemay from 1641 to 1686 and is thought to be buried within the aisle of the Kirk of Rothiemay13. 6 Kirkyard mound (indefined) Altar position Gravestone External stairs Kirktown Burn N Door 10 0 10 20 FEET 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 METERS Scale Plan of St. Drostan's Church, Rothiemay (remeasured October 2010) 7 The Kirktown site Roy’s Military Survey suggests that the kirktown lay on both sides of the Kirktown Burn (see page 3). Today, at least one building platform survives on the east side of the burn, opposite the kirk, and a series of ditches appear to divide the ground behind into small plots (see site plan on page 2). However, there is no evidence of buildings on the west side of the burn around the kirkyard, as this area seems to have been subjected to an improved rig layout in the 18th or 19th century, destroying most of the earlier features. The field has been left in grass in more recent times, except for some cultivation during WW2, and the regularly spaced impressions of the rigs can be seen in low incident light conditions. Other linear features survive within this rig system, on a slightly different alignment, and these appear to correlate with some of the garden features shown on Roy’s Military Survey. Two straight parallel features on an approximate north south axis seem to correspond with the ‘orchard’ or plantation, which he shows lying south of the Castle. Other faint linear depressions on an approximate east west axis are visible in the grass in front of the castle and the straight line of an old fail-dyke or bank is clearly visible running at right angles to these, from near the front dyke of the castle garden in the direction of the kirkyard mound. These may be the remains of the old castle gardens, which Roy shows lying to the east and south of the Castle. The garden grounds are discussed further on page 12. A boggy strip on the west side of the burn, north of the kirkyard mound, is the remains of a curling th pond excavated by Col. Forbes early in the 20 century. The kirktown site showing the cultivation/drainage strips and imprint of the orchard on the left. 8 The ground on the east side of the burn is rough and stoney and does not appear to have been cultivated. To the northeast of the building platform is a bank of stones which may have been associated with the building of the causeway wall and ditch erected around 17526. At the north end next to the forestry plantation, the stones on the surface appear to have been deliberately arranged for some unknown purpose. This area is worthy of further investigation. View west over Kirktown Burn along edge of conifer plantation 9 Queen Mary’s bridge Mary Queen of Scots spent the night of 2nd September 1562 in the Castle, as a guest of Lord Saltoun – by-passing Strathbogie on her way north. Her route was later commemorated with an avenue of trees, a few of which remain planted along the riverside, and by the bridge and causeway between the riverside and the Castle. William Duff ordered parapet walls and pillars to be erected on the bridge in 17566.
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