2018 Oot an Aboot
May 2018 Midmar
We were very lucky with wonderful weather for our first outdoor visit for summer 2018. We spent the evening touring historical sites in Midmar with our secretary, Marion, as expert guide. The old and the new church at Midmar, the remains of St Mary’s at Old Kinnernie and Sunhoney stone circle were all included in the tour, topped off by tea and cakes at Marion’s house. Many thanks Marion for a great evening.
June 2018 Ballater Village
Our evening visit to Ballater was courtesy of the Ballater Local History Group and our guides for the evening were lead by Alistair Cassie. Our tour of the village started at the Queens Jubilee cairn built with 60 stones gathered from the surrounding hills.
The next stop was the quarry crane which was rescued from Cambus o May quarry, the metalwork renovated, timbers replaced and now forms the entry point to the village.
A short puff up the hill and we visited the Mackenzie Memorial seat which was cleaned and renovated in 2014-15. An impressive feat by a volunteer group. Many thanks to BLHG for a fascinating tour enlivened by many humorous stories.
July 2018 Portsoy
A group of CHG members had a fascinating trip by car & foot to explore the coastal heritage of parts of Moray & Aberdeenshire.
En route to the coast we stopped at the recently opened memorial to the Women’s Land Army sited close to the village of Clochan (north of Keith), then we drove through some of the fishing villages of Moray noting the tightly packed terraced fishermen’s houses, fronting straight onto the pavements.
First was Portgordon and next we stopped at Buckpool to have a look at the mid 19th century granite walled harbour that soon after opening started to block up with all the pebbles that got swept in by the sea. This harbour was replaced with the harbour at Buckie which we drove past.
Then on to Cullen where we had a picnic lunch and walk along the wonderful beach, where holiday-makers were already sunbathing!
After lunch we spent the afternoon at Portsoy a visit to the salmon bothy at Portsoy , the boatshed where they re training many youngsters to build boats and finally we were treated to afternoon tea at a hostel behind the beach. All these enterprises have been created by the Portsoy Community Enterprise. Our visit was just 1 week after the vibrant Portsoy Boat Festival and our thanks go to the community for spending the time with us.
August 2018 Ordie
We had a good turnout of members for our final outing of 2018, visiting the historical sites of Ordie. We started at the site of the diatomite works where Peter Craig gave us an illustrated talk on the extraction of diatomite from under the peat in the Black Moss.
Next we leapt back 700 years in time to visit the Hall of Logie Rothwaine (or Logie Ruthven). The remains of the moat that surrounded this fortified site are still visible. This was the gathering point of Andrew Moray’s troops before the Battle of Culblean in 1335. An interesting walk on a lovely evening
