The principal public roads by which the district is intersected are:-1. The north road from Aberdeen, which enters Buchan at Ellon. At Birness, four miles north of Ellon, and twenty from Aberdeen, this road branches off in two directions-the one to the north, stretching on by Mintlaw to Fraserburgh ; and the other, in a more easterly direction, passing through Cruden to Peterhead. 2. The road from Aberdeen to Banff. After skirting the district in a northerly direction, from the Kirk of Fyvie-242 miles from Aberdeen-to Towie Castle, six miles farther on, it crosses the Ythan and enters Buchan, still stretching in a northerly direction to Turriff, 33 miles from Aberdeen; and passing the old Castle of Kynnedor, about five miles farther on, it continues its course till it reaches the bridge of Banff, where it crosses the Deveron, and leaves the district, at a distance of 47 miles from Aberdeen. 3. The road from Peterhead to Banff, running in a north-westerly direction. It passes through the village of Longside, six miles from Peterhead; crosses the south branch of the Ugie, three-quarters of a mile farther on, and intersects the Aberdeen and Fraserburgh road at Mintlaw, nine miles from Peterhead-passing within half a mile of Old Deer, which lies on the left, about a mile and a half from Mintlaw, and thence to New Pitsligo, 18 miles from Peterhead. It then stretches through a somewhat bleak region known as the Hills of Fife, leaving the village of New Byth on the left, and reaches the town of Macduff, about a mile from Banff. 4. The road from Peterhead to Fraserburgh. This pursues a more northerly direction than the last-mentioned,

keeping at no great distance from the sea. It leaves Peterhead by Queen Street, crosses the Ugie a little below Inverugie Castle; stretches along a highly-cultivated line of country till it reaches the village of St. Fergus, five miles from Peterhead; proceeding thence by the corner of the wood of Rattray, it passes close by the Kirk of Crimond, and joins the Aberdeen and Fraserburgh road at Cortes, near Cortes House, at about 131⁄2 miles from Peterhead, and four miles and a half from Fraserburgh. 5. A road from Fraserburgh, which, passing close by the Church of Tyrie, joins the Peterhead and Banff road, about a mile to the north of New Pitsligo, at the distance of 10 miles from Fraserburgh, and 17 from Banff. 6. A road from Fraserburgh to Strichen, branching northward from thence to Pitsligo, and then to Mintlaw in a south-easterly direction. There are also commutation roads in every direction.

Buchan is intersected by three sections of the Great North of Scotland Railway. The principal

section is what was originally designated the Formartine and Buchan Railway. Sanctioned in 1858, it was opened to Mintlaw in 1861, to Peterhead in 1862, and to Fraserburgh in 1865; it was amalgamated with the Great North Railway in 1866. It enters the Buchan district at Ellon. Stretching northwards, till it reaches the valley of the Ebrie, through which it runs by Arnage, Auchnagatt, and Nethermuir, this line reaches Maud Junction, about twelve miles north of Ellon. Here it divides-one branch running eastward, by Old Deer, Mintlaw, and Longside, to Peterhead; the other continuing in a northerly direction, by Brucklay, Strichen, and Rathen,

to Fraserburgh. The Cruden section, opened in 1897, branches off from the Formartine and Buchan section at Ellon, and pursues a north-easterly course, through the parishes of Ellon, Slains, Cruden, and Peterhead to Boddam, three miles south of Peterhead. It is 15 miles long, and there are stations at Auchmacoy, Pitlurg, Hatton, Cruden Bay, and Longhaven. The Banff and Macduff section (opened to Turriff in 1857, and extended to Banff and Macduff in 1860), enters the Buchan district at the point where it crosses the Ythan, about a mile to the north of Fyvie Station, and proceeds thence by Turriff, Plaidy, and King-Edward, to Macduff and Banff.*

*For descriptions of Buchan and accounts of the early history of the district, see "View of the Diocese of Aberdeen" and other publications of the Spalding Club, in particular "Antiquities of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff;" "A General View of the Agriculture of Aberdeenshire," by George Skene Keith, D.D.; "The Thanage of Fermartyn," by Rev. William Temple, D.D.; "The Castles of Buchan," by Rev. N. K. Macleod; "Buchan" [by James Ferguson, Younger of Kinmundy] in Quarterly Review, October, 1894; "Early Progress of Christianity in Buchan" by George Ogilvie, M.D.; "The Peat Mosses of Buchan" by Rev. James Peter; 66 Transactions of Buchan Field Club;" "A Book of the Parish of Deir," edited by Alexander Lawson, B.D., &c., &c, For discussions of the name "Buchan,' see "Coast Names near Peterhead" by H. B. Mitchell in "Transactions of Buchan Field Club," 1887-90 ; "The Personal and Place Names in the Book of Deir " by John Gray in the "Transactions," 1892-95; and "On the Names Buchan, Buchanan, and Scrimgeour" by Sydney C. Couper in Scottish Notes and Queries, ix., 181. Reference may also be made to a series of papers entitled, "A New History of Buchan," by James Moir, that appeared in the Peterhead Sentinel, 1896-98, and another series, “A History of Peterhead," by James Thomas Findlay in the Buchan Observer, 1896-97.

C

CHAPTER II.

FORVIE-COLLIESTON-SLAINS.

THE preceding chapter will have conveyed a

general idea of Buchan, its boundaries, extent, and character; and this and the following chapters will be devoted to detailed accounts of the district, these accounts being arranged in the order of an maginary tour-a tour by high-roads and by-roads, by stream and dale-in the course of which note will be taken of the features of interest that present themselves, and of the events that, in bygone days, marked the several localities traversed.

Starting on this tour, as if proceeding from Aberdeen, Buchan is entered near its southeastern corner, in the immediate vicinity of one of the most desolate and dreary regions in the district-at a point on the farm of Waterside of Slains, the property of Lady Gordon-Cathcart of Cluny. Close by is a bridge that crosses the Ythan -about a mile north of Newburgh-where there were previously a ford and a ferry-boat; the bridge was built in 1876 at a cost of £4000. Turning a little to the right, after crossing the bridge, a footpath will be found leading through the Sands of Forvie. This remarkable waste lies along the north bank of the Ythan, and extends to the village of Collieston, a distance of nearly four miles. Not far

from a salmon-fishing bothy, to which the footpath leads, are the foundations and a small part of the walls of what is said to have been the parish church of Forvie; but these ruins are so insignificant as to be almost indistinguishable amid the surrounding knolls. Situated on the farm of Knapsleask, on the estate of Pitlurg (formerly called Leask), about three miles northward of the ruins on the sands, are the ruins of another chapel, one gable of which and a Gothic window are still nearly entire. This chapel is said to have been the old parish church of Forvie, to have been erected in the end of the sixth or beginning of the seventh century, and to have been dedicated to St. Adamnan, Abbot of Icolmkill; it is now called St. Adamannan's Chapel. It is not easy, however, to account for its having been the parish church of Forvie; and perhaps the end of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century would be nearer the date of its erection than the sixth or seventh. A small octagonal-shaped font of granite, in good preservation, said to have been taken from the Church of Forvie, may be seen in the manse garden at Slains.

A former minister of Slains, Rev. Gavin Gib Dunn, was anxious to discover when the parish of Forvie was united to that of Slains, but so completely has the history of this remarkable locality been obliterated by the stream of time that he was wholly unsuccessful. "All my endeavours," says he, "to ascertain the era at which the parish of Forvie was annexed to that of Slains, have entirely failed." Nor is the period at which the parish was over-blown, or the cause by which the catastrophe was brought