culture & history of waughton & mormond hill, sturdy

Andrew David Sturdy Culture & History Waughton & Mormond Hill

December 2011

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Culture & History Study Waughton and Mormond Hill

Buchan, Aberdeenshire

Illustration

Fig.1 Terrain & 1:50 000 OS map 1 Fig.11 Religious Centre 10 Fig.2 Robert Gordon map 1640 2 Fig.12 Inscribed Stone? 10

Fig.3 1st Edition OS map 1760 2 Fig.13 Fount Stone 11

Fig.4 Aberdeenshire SMR & RCAHMS 6 Fig.14 Earthwork 1760 Strichen Estate Plan 11 Fig 5 Geology map 6 Fig.15 1st Ed OS & 1760 Estate plan 12

Fig.6 Area Views 7 Fig.16 Causeway looking west from Cairn 12 area 13

Fig.7 Resting Cairn 8 Fig.17 Causeway. Looking east from Cairn 12 area 13

Fig.8 Admiralty Chart of Scotland 1842 8 Fig.18 Causeway. Looking east from Cairn 13 area 13

Fig.9 John Ainslie map 1789 9 Fig. 19 Mormond Dead 14

Fig.10 Baldwin & Cradock’s map 1834 9 Fig.20 White Horse and Hunting Lodge 14

Location 56km N of Aberdeen and 8km S of Fraserburgh in the county of Aberdeenshire.

Contents

Location 1 Introduction 2 Site Report 3 Discussion 6 Summary 14

Bibliography 14


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Introduction Dr. J.F. Tocheri humanises Mormond Hill when he wrote, „standing as sentry over Buchan‟ in his introduction to the Book of Buchan 1910. His observation was probably based on his own extensive knowledge of local history, and his statement suggest that he was well aware of the strategic importance the Hill had once played in the defence of these shores. However, modern interpretations, if any can be found, have dehumanised the Hill to such a degree that the archaeological sites on it, demoted to the lowest archaeological common denominator, have been disengaged from local folk law, tradition and culture. The reason why the sites interpretation has changed so dramatically may be a reflection of the changing social and economic condition of the times, and the experience and understanding of the population on the world around them. Therefore to gain an understanding of the contribution that Mormond Hill has made, and continues to make, on Buchan, Aberdeenshire and the history of Scotland, modern interpretations should be waylaid in favour of the recorded historic of documents, maps, local history and language.

Fig.3. 1870 1st edition OS map

Fig2. Robertus Gordonius a Strathloch describebat 1640. Note the spelling of Mormond. Many attempts made to Gealicsied this name but seen here in its Welsh (old British) translation meaning Sea Hill. (Aberdour and Aberdeen may also have similar origins).


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Site Report

Table.1

No Index Name Aberdeenshire SMR Additional Interpretation

1 NJ95NE0001 Find spot Two flint arrowheads found here under a suspected cairn (now destroyed)

Evidence of human activity

2 NJ95NE0021 Hill Figure White Horse cut from hillside and backed filled with white quarts. Thought to commemorate a fallen Sergeant of Capt Fraser (Lord Strichen‟s & Lovat) who fell at Battle of Gilzen in 1794.

The horse is similar to other figures in the south of Britain. The war memorial story is one of many and its true origins are a subject of debate. Local 19

th century historians credited its

function as a Landmark to aid maritime navigation and this appears to be the most plausible reason

ii.

3 NJ95NE0020 Standing Structure. Hunting Lodge

Two storey rubble built building. Now a shell. Inscribe slab centre on south wall reads-„In this/ Hunter's Lodge/Rob Gibb/Commands/MDCCLXXIX‟. Rob Gibb was Charles II's jester.

Believe built by Capt Fraser . The date 1779 may be year of construction as the building is not on the 1760 estate plan. A toast to Rob Gibb is thought to have Jocobite origins

iii.

4 NJ95NE0004 Resting Cairn

Cairn; 17.0m in diameter and 1.5m high, prominently situated on a spur of Mormond Hill; some large stones around the circumference, particularly in the NE arc, may be kerb-stones, but most appear to be disturbed. BA,

Locally known as Resting Cairn for it is believed to have been the place to rest coffins on their way from Strichen along the Corpse Road to Rathen Church. Its construction is contemporary with the Bronze Age and the building material of quarts makes it more likely that it was also used as a maritime marker of that period.


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No Index Name Description SMR Additional Interpretation

5 Recorded with number 6 Hunt Stone

Fount Stone A rectangular dressed granite block amongst a small scattering of smaller rocks.

Often confused with the Hunt Stone the Fount Stone is below that stone next to a track and near to a spring. Its name suggests outside worship and derives from the act of baptism. A possible pagan ritual site it may have been Christianised in the 7

th century at

the time of St Eddren‟s Hermitage also on Mormond Hill. May have fallen out of use after 1627 when Strichen received its own parish church and no longer requiring Rathen‟s.

6 NJ95NE0023 Hunt Stone A prominent earthstone semi submerged on the upper western slope of Mormond Hill.

The name suggests that this was a place to meet before Hunting. It is known to predate the Hunting lodge (3) for it appears on the 1760 estate map. The name „hunt‟ may be a corruption of its original name and if ever realised it may present a different interpretation of its function.

7 NJ95NE0022 Hill Figure Stag hill figure cut from hillside and backed filled with white quarts.

Commissioned by Mr F W Cordiner of Cortes Estate, near Fraserburgh, as a wedding gift to his bride in 1870.

8 NJ95NE0051 Eye Stone A large glacial boulder that has traditionally been used as a boundary stone.

Often suggested that it got its name from its eye-shape form. But such named stones are known as places of healing and named after the part of the body they cured. However, on the 1768 estate map it is marked „Een stone‟. Een the language of Buchan, Doric, means numerical „One‟. Or when pronounce „eyes‟. Why it would be called „One Stone‟ or plural „Eyes‟ is at present unknown. May have been an Observatory.

9, 10, 11

NJ95NE0052 NJ95NE0053 NJ95NE0054

Boundary stone Waughton Hill

Dressed boundary stone; still standing, which is depicted on the 1867 1st edition OS map.

The Parish Boundary was made in 1627 however it may have been traced onto existing estate lines. None of the stones appear on the 1760 estate map but their location near or on the earthwork causeway that is depicted, suggest they mark the route of this causeway.

12, 13, 14

NJ95NE0055 NJ95NE0070 NJ95NE0056

Cairn, destroyed

Site of a now destroyed cairn that is depicted on the 1867 1st edition OS map

The cairn‟s function on the landscape is linked to the period of their construction. They may be BA but most probable were markers for the route along this ridge, and may be cotemporary or pre-date the Corpse Road and utilised as lych-stone to rest coffins; they may have been places of interment. Placing a cairn over a corpse was thought to stop the spirit wondering home.

15 NJ95NE0072 Standing Structure

Tropospheric Scatter Relay Station

Site of Cold War NATO early-warning radio station to detect missile attacks. Station No.44. Radar dishes now removed but underground complex remains. Now used by commercial telecommunication companies and contains a compound of radio masts.


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No Index Name Description SMR Additional Interpretation

16, NJ95NE0068 Cairn, destroyed


May be linked to Number 17

17, NJ95NE0024 Standing Structure Now destroyed

Clearing and reputed site of a Hermitage known as St Eddren‟s

St Eddren (St Ethren) was a 7th

century monk/missionary. Rathen‟s old church is dedicated to him. Died 3

rd

December 669AD

18, 19, 20

NJ95NE0067 NJ95NE0066 NJ95NE0065



Marker stones that appear to mark the route from St Eddren‟s Hermitage (17) and his church in the settlement of Rathen, known as St Eddren‟s Slack. (Slack meaning a climbing hill track)

21, 22, 23, 24

NJ95NE0057 NJ95NE0058 NJ95NE0059 NJ95NE0060



Marker stones that appear to mark route from Waughton Hill or Eye Stone to a settlement at Number 25. May have once been called Forrest Slack.

25 NJ95NE0030 Farmstead destroyed

Farmstead depicted on 1867 OS map shows u-shape steading opening to the east.

One of many farmsteads along the north face of the Hill. The shape may point to the agricultural improvements of the 19

th century.

26, 27,

NJ95NE0061 NJ95NE0062



Numbers 26, 27 Stones and Numbers 28, 29, 30 Cairns may be linked to mark route of Green Slack.

28, 29, 30

NJ95NE0063 NJ95NE0064

Cairn, destroyed


See above.

31 NJ95NE0025 Natural feature

King‟s Seat hunting viewpoint. Traditionally a hunting viewpoint of a Scottish King (more likely Ri Alban, „King of Alban‟ the title used by Mormaers of Moray). Its spelling indicates its historical age for being a common area it has retained its Teutonic spelling, unlike, the nearby house on King‟s Field, which has been Gealicsied to Mains of Auchries.

32 NJ95NE0002 Find spot Site of find spot of flint arrowheads found in 1857 during land improvements. Now missing.

Evidence of human activity date unknown, may be assumed contemporary with BA Resting Cairn.

33 NJ95NE0038 Standing Structure, Well, destroyed

Janet Lamb‟s Well named on the 1867 OS map.

May have been named after a local woman. Date unknown but could be related to pilgrims on St Eddren‟s Slack as it appears next to this route.

34 Not Recorded

Earthwork Howe Rig, marked on 1857 and modern OS maps

Rig and furrow are evidence of cultivation that may span centuries. The date of this feature is not known but may be contemporary with early settlement during BA.

35 Not recorded Earthwork / Dam

Not recorded on SMR as a feature. Shown on SMR map at a point where a drain ditch runs into a natural water course and back to a drain ditch. A spring is also shown upstream of it.

Could be a natural feature that has been utilised to dam this spot to provide a head of water for a mill further down the hill side. The spring may have a connection with the Fount stone (5)


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Discussion The sites across Mormond Hill‟s summit share a common function in that they are all markers on the landscape. As markers they may be further subdivided into three types; distant navigation landmark, local navigation landmark and ritual landmark. Much will depend on the period in question to which „type‟ each site is assigned, for the sites interpretation changes as their function changes to reflect the circumstances of the people at any given timeiv. It maybe a reflection on our own time and circumstance that landscapes like Mormond Hill are being interpreted with greater emphasis on their land-value in momentary terms, and their cultural meaning and value is often reduced to a list of sites on a database‟s (fig.4). Such lists are often incomplete and may not provide a satisfactory format to an inquisitor on their historic landscape.

RCHMS Aberdeenshire SMR

Blue dots represent recorded sites

Fig.4 A fresh interpretation is needed that is deduced from all available evidence on the sum of the landscapes archaeological sites on Mormond Hill. But before meaning and function can be assigned to what these sites were, the question needs to be addressed „why are they here? To answer this question the geology and topography of the Hill needs to be examined. In geological terms Mormond Hill‟s solitary bulk is called an Inselburghv, (German for Island Mountain). Its formation was by the process of extreme pressure and heat being exerted onto sandstone transforming it into hard solid quartz. The land surrounding this quartz would have at one time been level with its summits, but through millions of years of wind, rain and glacial erosion, these softer surrounding rocks have been eaten away exposing the hill feature we see today. (fig.5)

Fig.5


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Just like Ayres Rockvi, Australia‟s famous Inselburgh, these features on the landscape continue to captivate the human imagination and are often personified into symbols of cultural identity. Such features have always attracted human activity and the probability of some of the earliest archaeology in Scotland being cited on Mormond Hill is high. To stress the significance of Mormond Hill‟s bearing on the psyche of its people, fig.6 shows computer generated views from point around its periphery. It also demonstrates how a simple Desk Study of a map may fail to relay a sense of place.

A : Peterhead B: St Fergus

C : Rattray D : St Combs

E : Fraserburgh F: Abordour

G : New Pitsligo H : Adziel Hill

Fig.6 Distant views generated using Memory Map OS edition computer software.


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When viewed on a map the Hill could be interpreted as being at the hub with the northeast coastline running along its rim. Such a view would be accurate if the Hill was an observatory, but when the hill is viewed from out at sea along that rim, its value as a landmark is clearly evident. What is not clear is why such a hill appears to have never been utilised for occupation and fortified, like so many other hills across Aberdeenshire in the Iron Agevii. This may be interpreted that either the people were so strong that they had no need of a fort, or that the hill was sacred; revered or feared? The answer may lay with the earliest known manmade site on Mormond Hill, a Bronze Age cairn known locally as the Resting Cairn. Made from the composite material of the hill, the reflective qualities of the quartz and its size would have made it visible from a great distance. These facts may yet substantiate a ritual interpretation concerning the hills pre-history. (fig.7)

Fig.7 Resting Cairn

However, the Resting Cairn is also a good example of how social and economic circumstances have changed the way sites may be interpreted at any given point in time. Its latest manifestation on a recent archaeological Walking Survey by a developer was simply, „A Cairn‟, an interpretation which devalues it to a commodity. But it is still regarded by locals as the „Resting Cairn‟ and is associated with being the spot where coffins were rested on the Corpse Road from Strichen to St Eddren's Church Rathen, (this will be expanded on later). It looks likely though that this cairn adopted that name sometime in the past 250 years, and it became a symbol to represent the ancient Corpse Road that ran a short distance behind it. This theory has been deduced on the cairn being named „Big Cairn‟ on the 1760 Strichen Estate map, a map that depicts many other stones by their local name, and is unlikely to have misrepresented this one. Being called „Big Cairn‟ it may suggest that there were either smaller cairns nearby, or its size was extraordinary in scale. The scale may indicate the stature of those entombed beneath it, but it is obvious that this structure was meant to be seen, and seen from a great distance. This puts the Resting Cairn in the same „type‟ as the distance landmarks of the much later Hunting Lodge and White Horse Hill figure. Although this was useful as a landmark for land travellers, another group of travellers, mariners, would have seen them as a „life-saver‟.

Fig.8 Admilraty Chart 1842


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The area of coast east of Mormond Hill between St Combs and Fraserburgh is known as Rattray Briggs and is a traitorous stretch of shallow water harbouring a reef of razor sharp rocks. Its notoriety has been passed down through the local oral tradition with the saying, “Keep Mormond Hill a handspike high, And Rattray Brigs you'll not come nigh.”viii (Fig.8) The prominence of Mormond hill as a nautical landmark is often overlooked by modern observers of antiquity in their cars. But Mormond Hill once held a monumental place not only in Scottish history, but in the history of Britain. For in the 18th century it was interpreted, and given the accolade, as the battle site Mons Graupiusix, a battle around 84AD between the Romans under Agricola and the Caledonians or Free-British under Calgacus, (the precursor of the Pictish nation). Why this battle became so important to British historians of this century, is that although the Caledonians lost they were not defeated, only separated from the other British tribes in the south until the act of union in 1707AD reunited them.

Fig.9 John Ainslie 1789

Considering that three times before the NE has provided the battle field that decided the fate of Scotland; Macbeth‟s army was crushed at Lumphanan by Malcolm with the assistance of an Anglo-Saxon army in 1056x, Baraxi in 1308 saw King Robert I defeat the Earl of Buchan and destroying the Comyn‟s claim to the crown, and Harlawxii in 1411 when the nobles of Aberdeen halted Donald the 2nd Lord of the Isle ambition in becoming King of Scotland. So it was natural to assume considering its location and topography, such a nation forging battle took place here. To date, archaeology has been unable to substantiate the Mons Graupius claim, but with recent discoveries like those found at Rhyniexiii that demonstrates interaction with the Roman Empire, and a growing interest in this period of Scottish history, it may do so yet. One thing that is known to have arrived from the Roman World on Mormond Hill was Christianity. It is thought that Christianity may have come to Scotland as early as the second century via refugees fleeing Persecution from the Roman Empire. The first recorded missionary in Buchan was St Ninianxiv who may have travelled through Aberdeenshire from the mission he set up at Withorn in 396 or 397AD. It is

Fig.10

Baldwin & Cradock 1834


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assumed he set up a religious settlement at Andet in Methlick near a well also called St Ninian‟s Well; and may have built the church, now destroyed, at Tyrie know as the White Church of Buchan which resembled his White Church at Whithorn. If proven, this puts Mormond Hill on a transit route between Methlic and Tyrie that incorporates other early Christian Celtic sites like Aberdour, Old Deer, Rathen, St Combs, Longmay and Rattery. This may also explain why there are so many slacks (tracks) incorporating cairns and earthstones up the gentler northern slopes and flanks of the Hill; for the Hill is an obvious focal point serving as a communal gatherings place for religious and secular events.

Fig.11 Religious centre

No investigation has been carried out to ascertain if these cairns and stones are contemporary with the arrival of Christianity or came later, or even much earlier. Considering that St Colm‟s at Daviot and St. Manire‟s at Crathie were built on the sites of standing stone circles, and that often Christian sites were adopted from pagan sites, there is every reason to assume that these tracks could be very ancient indeed.

Fig. 12 Inscribe Stone?

A possible inscribed stone depicting a Christian Valknut or Triquetra symbol inside a circle. Waughton Hill. Location withheld by the author until clarification.


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It is interesting then that the Fount Stone (fig.13) which stands in a natural amphitheatre near the top of the Hill, receives little recognition today, and is often confused with the Hunt Stone that stands a little way above it. Its modern SMR interpretation, „maybe a place where baptism took place‟, is more a reflection of the decline of Christianity in current society than a statement of function. It should be emphasised that before the move of the Celtic Church to adopt the Church of Rome‟s doctrine in the 12th century, along with the introduction of buildings to house congregations, all communal religious festivals would have been conducted in the open air in much the same way as the pagan people used sacred groves (nemeton).

Fig.13 Fount Stone

The Fount Stone then continues the suggestion of a ritual landscape, and this is borne out by two other sites to the north of it, St Eddren‟s Hermitage and St Eddren‟s Slack. St Eddren (also known as the St Ethren) appears to have been a member of a noble Pictish family. His association with Mormond Hill and the surrounding area runs deep, for not only is his hermitage on the hill but the ancient track that runs between it and Rathen‟s Church of which he is patron, is called St Eddren‟s Slack. One tradition tells the story of how he became befriended by a deer that continued to live outside his hermitage until his death in 669AD; his feast day is 3rd December. The reason why almost 1200 years later in 1870 the local laird had the figure of a Stag cut into the hill as a wedding gift for his bride, on this side of the Hill, may have something to do with this story. The act of baptism leaves little evidence on the landscape, but the act of burial leaves plenty. It is the observance of Christian burial that may hold the key to interpreting Mormond‟s Hill most intriguing site, the earthwork shown on the 1760 estate plan. xv(fig.14)

Fig.14 Earthwork 1760 Strichen Estate Plan


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This feature runs from west to east across the summit of the saddle and roughly 1km parallel to the southern ridge line of the, Hunting Lodge, White Horse and Resting cairn. Archaeological evaluation may determine the age of this feature (or even if it exists), but such features are not common in this part of Britain. If contemporary with the Resting Cairn it may be a cursus. If later it could be a political boundary like Offa‟s Dyke between England and Wales or Scot‟s Dike between England and Scotland, on a smaller scale. But considering the whole area was under the remit of the Mormaer‟s and Earl‟s of Buchan, there would have been no need for such a physical political statement. What is most likely is that this earthwork is the remains of a causeway that use to be used as the Corpse Road between Strichen and Rathen mention earlier. (Fig. 15)

Fig.15 Comparison between 1st edition OS map and 1760 Estate plan


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It is difficult to trace the feature on the ground today, but it may be assumed that it either follows the modern parish boundary line, that is so distinguishable due to recent land-use with the northern side as heath land for game bird shooting, and the southern as grassed moorland. But there is a linear feature in the heather 10m to the north of this boundary approximately 3-4m wide that warrants investigation. (Fig. 16, 17, 18)

Fig.16 Causeway. Looking east from Waughton Hill to Mormond Hill.

Fig.17 Causeway. Lokking west from area of Cairn No.12

Fig.18 Causeway. Looking east from area of Cairn No.13

The evidence that this was the Corpse Road is in its description by Andrew Jervise FSA Scotxvi:

“The inhabitants (Strichen) long continued to bury their dead at Rathen, and some of the lych-stones, or boulders, which were used resting coffins upon, when being conveyed to the churchyard, still stand by the side of the old road which leads to Rathen, through between the hills of Mormond (Epitaphs, i. 136). These stones were named from the Anglo-Saxon word lie or lyce, ‘a dead body or corpse.’’ The numerous earthstones and cairns along this causeway strongly suggest that this was the route of the Corpse Road. The reason why it were needed is that Strichen, moderately populated throughout history evident in the many crop marks and finds of funeral urns of the beaker type as well as its Recumbent stone circle, did not have its own church until 1627ADxvii. (Note: Strichen is mention in a charter 1206AD by Fergus last Celtic Mormaer of Buchan calling it Crux Medici (Cross of the Doctors). If it had been religious


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settlement as suggested by Wattxviii when he wrote of Strichen parish being gifted to the monks of Arbroath, it vanishes around the time of the construction of Deer Abbey around 1218xix. Therefore Strichen, in the parish of Rathen had to burry its dead on the opposite side of Mormond Hill and had little choice but to negotiate the hill.) However, when times were particularly bleak, as with the great famines in Aberdeenshire of 1695 and 1699, the living had not strength or inclination to observe burial rites, and the comment on the 1760 Estate map which reads “Place were three men has been buried” next to the causeway indicates the practise of disposing of bodies in the peat bogs instead of continuing on their goulash journey.

Fig.19

Summary The Corpse road is still recited in the oral tradition of the area and the Resting cairn as already explained could be a memorial to it. But with no interpretation in the modern medium, its decline into obscurity is set to continue and is the cause and effect of a landscape and its sites function becoming obsolete. With Strichen receiving its own parish church in 1627 and the construction of the 18th century road transport network made possible by the drainage of the lowlands, which had traditionally been avoided because of the bogs there. The trek up and over the hill is no longer needed. Many people around Mormond Hill today when asked to interpret Mormond Hill will say it is an iconic cultural feature on the Buchan landscape. But asked „why‟, they are often slow to answer. A romantic may say this proves that landscapes are charged by human emotion, that the ability to know something on instinct with the absent of reason, is a link to how people of the past must have felt and saw the world. However modern interpretation of this landscape, forged in a secular world, view it as an asset to be developed and exploited. xx

Fig.20 White Horse and Hunting Lodge, Waughton Hill


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i Tocher J.F., The Book of Buchan, Peterhead, The Buchan Club, 1910

ii Anderson William, The Howes o’ Buchan, Peterhead Sentinel, 1865

iii Anderson William, The Howes o’ Buchan, Peterhead Sentinel, 1865

iv Bender Barbara, Theorising Landscapes and the Prehistoric Landscapes of Stonehenge, University College London, 1992

v Merritt Jon & Leslie Graham, NE Scotland A Landscape Fashioned by Geology ISBN 978 1 85397 521 9

vi Issacs. Jennifer, Australian Dreaming: 40 000 years of Aboriginal History, Sydney, 1980

vii http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/archaeology/sites/forts/

viii Gregor Walter, Notes on tThe Folk-Lore of the North-East of Scotland, 1881

ix Tacitus, Germania, Agricola, and First Book of the Annals, London Taylor and Walton, 1840

x Tocher J.F., The Book of Buchan, The Buchan Field Club, 1910

xi Buchan Jim, A School History of Aberdeenshire, 1961

xii Munro Alexander, Memorials of the Aldermen, Provosts and Lord Provosts of Aberdeen 1272 – 1895, Aberdeen, 1897

xiii Nobel Gordon, Rhynie Environs Archaeological Project, Department of History & Archaeology, University of Chester 2011

xiv McCallum Duncan, The History of The Culdeees, Ancient Clergy of the British Isles AD 177 – 1300, John Menzies, 1855

xv Oswald Al,Prehistoric Linear Boundary Earthworks, English Heritage, May 2011

xvi Jervise Andrew FSA Scot, Epitaphs & Inscriptions from Burial Grounds & Old Buildings in North East Scotland, Douglas

Edinburgh 1879 xvii

The Spalding Club, Illustrations of the Topography and Antiquities of the Shire of Aberdeen & Banff, Aberdeen. 1847 xviii

Watt William, A History of Aberdeen and Banff, London & Edinburgh William Blackwood and Sons, 1900 xix

Simpson Douglas M.A., A Forgotten Aberdeenshire Monastery, Aberdeen University Press 1922

culture & history of waughton & mormond hill, sturdy

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