Ballater, view from Pannanich
spacious hotels with electric light and all modern conveniences on a luxurious scale. Six miles distant is the famous Linn of Dee. The Duke of Fife’s Highland residence, Mar Lodge, as well as Mar Castle and Invercauld House, the home of the Farquharsons, are all in the vicinity. From Braemar the ascent of Ben-Macdhui is usually made, and sometimes also Loch-na-gar. A road leads from Braemar up the valley of the Clunie and over the Cairnwell to Blairgowrie. (pp. [8], [21], [22], [33], [66], [68], [75], [112], [161], [162].)
=Byth= (360), usually New Byth, is a village three miles from Cuminestown, and founded in 1764. It is a bare and treeless district. Near it are the hills of Fishrie with a large number of crofts given off by the Earl of Fife in 1830 to poor people evicted from other estates at a time when the fashion began of amalgamating small holdings in larger farms. (pp. [91], [124], [163].)
=Collieston= is a fishing village circling round a romantic bay near the parish church of Slains. Here in 1588 one of the ships of the Spanish Armada (_Santa Catherina_) was wrecked. The fishermen still call the creek St Catherine’s Dub. Several small cannon have been recovered from the pool. Eighty years ago, Collieston enjoyed a certain notoriety for smuggling, and the graveyard of Slains close by contains evidence of the deeds of violence that the contraband trade brought about. (pp. [38], [48], [54].)
=Culter=, eight miles west of Aberdeen, celebrated for its paper-mills, which date back to 1750. This paper-mill, the first of its kind in the north, manufactured superfine paper and in particular the bank-notes of the Aberdeen Bank. (p. [89].)
=Cuminestown= (466), a village on the north side of the Waggle Hill in Monquhitter, was established by Joseph Cumine of Auchry in 1763. Joseph Cumine was a pioneer in agricultural improvement. He planted trees and started the manufacture of linen. About a mile distant is the smaller village of Garmond. The villages were once much more populous in the days when the spinning of flax and the knitting of stockings were rural industries. (p. [40].)
Braemar from Craig Coynach
=Ellon= (1307), a thriving town on the Ythan, is the junction for the Cruden and Boddam Railway. It has a shoe factory and large auction marts for the sale of cattle. The Episcopal Church—St Mary’s on the Rock—was designed by George Edmund Street and is a handsome building in Early English style. A prominent divine in the pre-Disruption controversies, Dr James Robertson, was parish minister of Ellon from 1832 to 1843. Later he became a professor in Edinburgh University. Ellon is a place of great antiquity. It was the seat of jurisdiction of the Earldom of Buchan, and there the earls held their Head Court. (pp. [29], [41], [163], [164], [171].)