Aberchirder (, ) known locally as Foggieloan or Foggie, is a village in

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire (; ) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Aberdeenshire (historic), Aberdeenshire, which had substantial ...

, Scotland, situated on the A97 road six miles west of

Turriff Turriff () is a town and civil parish in Aberdeenshire in Scotland. It lies on the River Deveron, about above sea level, and has a population of 5,708. In everyday speech it is often referred to by its Scots name ''Turra'', which is deriv ...

Etymology

The name Aberchirder, recorded in as ''Aberkerdour'' means 'mouth of the Chirder'. It is formed from the

Pictish Pictish is an extinct Brittonic Celtic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from late antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited number of geog ...

word ''aber'' 'river mouth' and the stream-name ''Chirder'' which is itself formed from the

Gaelic Gaelic (pronounced for Irish Gaelic and for Scots Gaelic) is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". It may refer to: Languages * Gaelic languages or Goidelic languages, a linguistic group that is one of the two branches of the Insul ...

words ''ciar'' 'dark, brown' and ''dobhar'' 'water'.''Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Graphic and Accurate Description of Every Place in Scotland''
, Frances Hindes Groome (1901), p. 5 This stream name is probably an adaptation of an earlier Pictish name.

History

The village of Aberchirder was founded in 1764 by Alexander Gordon, the 5th Laird of Auchintoul. Until 1823 its official name was, in fact, Foggieloan after a small farm community on the site of which it was built. There is some uncertainty as to how the name Foggieloan originated. There are various theories; the most likely is that there is a stretch of moorland north of where the farm town existed (and, now, north of the village) which was named Foggieloan Moss from two Gaelic words (peat moss) and (meadow), so Foggieloan means peaty or boggy meadow. Kinnairdy Castle, now belonging to the Innes family is 2 miles to the south west, where the

River Deveron The River Deveron () is a river in the north east of Scotland. The river has a length of , and has a reputation for its Atlantic salmon, sea trout and brown trout fishing. In its upper reaches peaty water flows over a bottom of shingle and roc ...

joins the Auchintoul Burn. In 1823, the village is said to have been renamed 'Aberchirder' by the landowner, John Morison MP (later the 6th Baron of Bognie and Mountblairy), after the 13th century Thanes of Aberkerdour of Kinnairdy Castle. As a planned community, the village was built on a grid pattern around a central square and had a mix of single storey thatched, stone-built houses fronting onto the streets (to prevent people having their

midden A midden is an old dump for domestic waste. It may consist of animal bones, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human oc ...

s on show) with long gardens intended to provide the inhabitants with a seasonal supply of food. Alexander Gordon envisaged a thriving industrial village and built a small linen factory in Back Street (now North Street) which produced fine linen table-cloths and wincey using flax from Auchintoul Moss. By the late 19th century, wealthier inhabitants had built some grander houses and there was a selection of religious establishments throughout the town catering to various denominations in addition to the Church of Scotland and Free Church (1840, James Matthews) buildings. In 1960, the

Royal Observer Corps The Royal Observer Corps (ROC) was a civil defence organisation intended for the visual detection, identification, tracking and reporting of aircraft over Great Britain. It operated in the United Kingdom between 29 October 1925 and 31 Decembe ...

opened a small monitoring bunker, to be used in the event of a nuclear attack. It was closed in 1991 and remains intact.

Transport

The town is served by the 301 service between

Huntly Huntly ( or ''Hunndaidh'') is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, formerly known as Milton of Strathbogie or simply Strathbogie. It had a population of 4,460 in 2004 and is the site of Huntly Castle. Its neighbouring settlements include Keith ...

and Macduff, and the 303 between Huntly and

. The town was formerly served by the 308 to

Inverurie Inverurie (Scottish Gaelic: ''Inbhir Uraidh'' or ''Inbhir Uaraidh'', 'mouth of the River Ury') is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland at the confluence of the rivers Ury and River Don, Aberdeenshire, Don, about north-west of Aberdeen. Geography ...

. This service was withdrawn in 2021.

References

;Specific ;General * ''AA Touring Guide to Scotland'' (1978)

External links

Foggieloan
*

Gazetteer for Scotland The ''Gazetteer for Scotland'' is a gazetteer covering the geography, history and people of Scotland. It was conceived in 1995 by Bruce Gittings of the University of Edinburgh and David Munro of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, and co ...

, 2002-2004
Aberchirder
* Gazetteer for Scotland, 2002-2004

{{authority control Royal burghs Villages in Aberdeenshire Banff and Buchan