Parish of Foveran

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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1791-99: Foveran 1834-45: Foveran

Foveran, a coast parish of E Aberdeenshire, containing the seaport village of Newburgh, which stands at the right side of the Ythan's embouchure, 5 miles SE of Ellon station, 6⁷/₈. E by N of Udny station on the western border, and 13¼ NNE of Aberdeen, under which it has a post and telegraph office, and with which it communicates by coach. It is bounded N by LogieBuchan, NE by Slains, E by the German Ocean, S by Belhelvie, and W and NW by Udny. Its utmost length, from E to W, is 6¼ miles; its greatest breadth is 3½ miles; and its area is 10,844 acres, of which 248¾ are foreshore, and 63 water. The Ythan, in places here ¼ mile broad at high water, flows 1½ mile south-south-eastward between Foveran and Slains to its barobstructed mouth in the German Ocean, and at Newburgh is joined by Foveran Burn, which, rising near Tillery, runs 7¹/₈. miles through the interior; whilst another of its tributaries, Tarty Burn, traces most of the Udny border. The coast-line, 1½ mile long, is low and sandy; and from it the surface rises gently inland to 300 feet at Hillhead of Ardo, 78 at the parish church, 212 near Davieshill, and 400 at the western border near Edgehill. The principal rocks are trap, gneiss, mica slate, and conglomerate; and the soil varies from a sandy loam to a rich clay loam and a strong clay. The parish is poorly wooded, its eastern exposure stunting what trees there are; and nearly all the land is devoted to agriculture, large tracts of waste having been drained and enclosed about the beginning of the present century. The castle of Knockhall, 1 mile NNW of Newburgh, built by the Udny family in 1565, was captured by the Covenanters under the Earl Marischal and the Earl of Errol in 1639; and, accidentally burned in 1734, still stands in a ruinous state. Of Foveran Castle, near Foveran House, not a vestige remains. The oldest part bore the name of Turing's Tower, after its first possessors, from whom it passed, about the middle of the 17th century, to a branch of the Forbeses of Tolquhoun. A rhyme, ascribed to Thomas of Ercildoune, foretold-

' When Turing's Tower falls to the land,
Gladsmuir shall be near at hand;
When Turing's Tower falls to the sea,
Gladsmuir the next year shall be.'

The tower did fall not long before 1720, and in 1745 the Highlanders were for giving the name of Gladsmuir to their victory at Prestonpans (Chambers's Popular Rhymes, p. 219, ed. 1870). An ancient burying-ground near the village retains a fragment of the 'Red Chapel of Buchan,' or Chapel of the Holy Rood. Foveran House, 1 mile SSW of Newburgh, is an old mansion; whilst Tillery, in the W of the parish, 1½ mile SSE of Udny station, is a more recent Grecian edifice. Five proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 6 of between £100 and £500, 1 of from £50 to £100, and 6 of from £20 to £50. Foveran is in the presbytery of Ellon and synod of Aberdeen; the living is worth £296. The parish church, on the right bank of Foveran Burn, 1½ mile SW of Newburgh, is a plain edifice of 1794, containing 700 sittings, and a marble monument with two fine busts of Col. John Augustus and Col. Robert Fullerton Udny, of Udny and Dudwick, who died in 1859 and 1861. There is also a Free church 1³/₈ mile further SSW; and three public schools -Cultercullen, Foveran, and Newburgh Mathers-with respective accommodation for 100, 170, and 169 children, had (1881) an average attendance of 128, 105, and 170, and grants of £116, 17s., £74, 14s., and £143, 9s. Valuation (1860) £9099, (1881) £13,166, 13s. 7d. Pop. (1801) 1391, (1831) 1609, (1861) 1891, (1871) 1859, (1881) 2042.—Ord. Sur., sh. 77, 1873.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer