St Fergus, a village and a coast parish of Buchan, belonging still in certain respects to Banffshire (detached), but locally situate in NE Aberdeenshire. The village lies 1 mile inland, and 5 miles NNW of Peterhead, under which it has a post office.
The parish is bounded NW and N by Crimond, E by the German Ocean, S by Peterhead, and SW by Longside and Lonmay. Its utmost length, from NNW to SSE, is 6 5/8 miles; its breadth varies between 3 furlongs and 4 miles; and its area is 9180 ¼ acres, of which 285 are foreshore and 39 ¼ water. The low flat shore, 6 1/8 miles in extent, is bordered landward by a natural rampart of clay and sand hills, which, rising in places to 50 feet above sea-level, and thickly covered with bent-grass, protect the interior from encroachments of drifting sand. Extending along the coast for several miles, but of unequal breadth, within this ridge, is ground called the Links of St Fergus, constituting, probably, one of the pleasantest plains in Scotland, and producing - from its wild thyme, white clover, and short grass, it is thought - mutton of peculiar delicacy and fineness of flavour. Along the shore is an inexhaustible quantity of shells, which have been advantageously used as manure. The river Ugie winds 4 miles east-south-eastward along all the Peterhead boundary to its mouth in the German Ocean; and its feeder, the Burn of Ednie, runs 3 7/8 miles south-south-eastward along all the south-western border. A canal, which was cut near the Ugie towards the close of last century, has long been entirely useless except for supplying water to a few farms. The surface exhibits a beautiful succession of rising grounds and valleys; but there is no hill, the highest point (164 feet) being 2 miles WNW of the village. The rocks comprise granite, gneiss, trap, quartz, and crystalline limestone. The soil of the seaboard district is sandy loam and moss, of the middle district a strong adhesive clay, and of the western district reclaimed moor and moss. Fully four-fifths of the entire land area are in tillage; barely 30 acres arc under wood; and the rest is pasture, links, moss, etc. Inverugie Castle, which is noticed separately, was the birth-place of the great FieldMarshal Keith (1696-1758). See Peterhead. The name of the parish was Inverugie, or, occasionally, Langley, till 1616, when it was changed to St Fergus, most likely after the ancient patron saint, an Irish bishop of the Roman party, who built a basilica here in the first half of the 8th century. St Fergus is in the presbytery of Deer and the synod of Aberdeen; the living is worth £325. The parish church, built in 1869, contains 658 sittings. There are also a Free church and a Baptist chapel (1810); and 3 public Schools - the Central(male), the Central (female), and the North - with respective accommodation for 120, 75, and 85 children, had (1884) an average attendance of ', 60, and 65, and grants of £0, £44, 14s., and £58, 17s. Valuation (1860) £7082, (1885) £8701, 16s., of which nearly six-sevenths belonged to Mr Ferguson of Pitfour. Pop. (1801) 1270, (1831) 1334, (1861) 1608, (1871) 1633, (1881) 1527.—Ord. Sur., sh. 87, 1876.
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