Hopeman (, ) is a seaside village in

Moray Moray ( ; or ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland. Its council is based in Elgin, the area' ...

, Scotland, it is situated on the coast of the

Moray Firth The Moray Firth (; , or ) is a roughly triangular inlet (or firth) of the North Sea, north and east of Inverness, which is in the Highland council area of the north of Scotland. It is the largest firth in Scotland, stretching from Duncans ...

, founded in 1805 to house and re-employ people displaced during the

Highland clearances The Highland Clearances ( , the "eviction of the Gaels") were the evictions of a significant number of tenants in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, mostly in two phases from 1750 to 1860. The first phase resulted from Scottish Agricultural R ...

. According to the 2011 census, Hopeman has a population of 1,724 and approximately 701 households.

The village

The village was founded around 1805 by Laird William Young of Inverugie who brought displaced Gaelic families from Campbelltown to establish a fishing industry in Hopeman. The settlement was expanded with the building of a harbour in 1865 by Admiral Archibald Duff of Drummuir. The harbour was used as a fishing port and Hopeman stone from the nearby Greenbrae and Clashach quarries were shipped from the harbour. The old part of Hopeman has a grid-iron street layout. The main part of the village is set back from the beach and there is a

village green A village green is a commons, common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common pasture, grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for ...

with playing fields, a

playground A playground, playpark, or play area is a place designed to provide an environment for children that facilitates play, typically outdoors. While a playground is usually designed for children, some are designed for other age groups, or people wi ...

and a

skate park A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, scootering, and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, stairsets, quarter pipe ...

). The B9012 passes west to east to the south of the village. The main street, Harbour Street, runs north to south from the harbour to its junction with the B9012. During the summer the village organises a hugely popular gala which runs for a whole week. Activities range from traditional sandcastle competitions through to rock concerts, fancy dress parades, Songs of Praise and an Arts and Craft Fete. 2014 will see the village celebrate the 40th anniversary of its gala, which will commence on 19 July. Hopeman

Golf Course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, tee box, a #Fairway and rough, fairway, the #Fairway and rough, rough and other hazard (golf), hazards, and ...

is to the east of the lodge and includes the famous 12th hole, named Prieshach, where the green is located within a cove named Clashach below the level of the tee box.Hopeman Golf Clu
http://www.openfairways.com
Accessed on 15 August 2012 Phayrelands is to the west of the village on the main road towards Cummingston.

Beaches and harbour

Hopeman has two large

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is usually defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural ...

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from Rock (geology), rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological s ...

es split by the man-made

harbour A harbor (American English), or harbour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be Mooring, moored. The t ...

. The West Beach is the smaller. The East Beach is surrounded by large, grassy sand dunes, and has colourful

beach hut A beach hut (also known as a beach cabin, beach box or bathing box) is a small, usually wooden and often brightly coloured, box above the high tide mark on popular bathing beaches. They are generally used as a shelter from the sun or wind, c ...

s and large rocky areas with excellent rockpools (the one at the eastern edge is known as Daisy Rock). Further to the east is a smaller hidden beach with

stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

s and large rock formations. There are quite a few birds to be found on the beach, such as the herring gull, the

great black-backed gull The great black-backed gull (''Larus marinus'') is the largest member of the gull family. It is a very aggressive hunter, pirate, and scavenger which breeds on the coasts and islands of the North Atlantic in northern Europe and northeastern Nort ...

, the

black-headed gull The black-headed gull (''Chroicocephalus ridibundus'') is a small gull that breeds in much of the Palearctic in Europe and Asia, and also locally in smaller numbers in coastal eastern Canada. Most of the population is migratory and winters fu ...

, the

curlew The curlews () are a group of nine species of birds in the genus ''Numenius'', characterised by their long, slender, downcurved bills and mottled brown plumage. The English name is imitative of the Eurasian curlew's call, but may have been infl ...

and the

oystercatcher The oystercatchers are a group of waders forming the family (biology), family Haematopodidae, which has a single genus, ''Haematopus''. They are found on coasts worldwide apart from the polar regions and some tropical regions of Africa and Sout ...

. The areas of

gorse ''Ulex'' (commonly known as gorse, furze, or whin) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. The genus comprises about 20 species of thorny evergreen shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. The species are na ...

heathland A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...

surrounding the eastern beaches are home to the whitethroat, the robin and the

yellowhammer The yellowhammer (''Emberiza citrinella'') is a passerine bird in the Emberiza, bunting family that is native to Palearctic, Eurasia and has been introduced species, introduced to New Zealand and Australia. Most European birds remain in the br ...

. Now and then

bottlenose dolphin The bottlenose dolphin is a toothed whale in the genus ''Tursiops''. They are common, cosmopolitan members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Molecular studies show the genus contains three species: the common bot ...

s turn up in the

off the coast of Hopeman, from where they can easily be seen. Hopeman Harbour is in between the East and West Beaches. It is small and now mainly houses pleasure vessels. In the past it was used for landing fish caught by fishermen from the village. The harbour is home to the

Gordonstoun Gordonstoun School ( ) is an elite co-educational Private school (United Kingdom), private school for boarding and day pupils in Moray, Scotland. Two generations of British royalty were educated at Gordonstoun, including Prince Philip, Duke of Ed ...

seamanship department and, whilst the school's yacht is berthed elsewhere, the smaller craft used for sail-training are berthed here. The marina in the harbour was installed by Moray Council in 2008.

Education

Hopeman

Primary School A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

is on the East side of the village and has around 250 pupils. The catchment area includes Hopeman and the nearby villages of Duffus and Cummingston. There are nine classes in the school. It is split into three houses, Duff, Cameron and Gordon, for an inter-house competition in summer. At lunch time, primary 4 to primary 7 kids get a chance to go down to sea park at their lunch break.

School is but a few miles away and provides an all-round education based upon the principles of its founder Kurt Hahn.

Places of Worship

Th
Hopeman Kirk
was built and dedicated around 1857. Originally a daughter church of Burghead Free Church of Scotland, it became part of the United Free Church of Scotland in 1901 and then, by the union of 1929, rejoined the Church of Scotland. In 1979 the Hopeman Kirk became formally linked with the Duffus Kirk and the Spynie Kirk, and together they form one church in three locations. Before startin
Hopeman Baptist Church
in 1898, the founding members walked to Lossiemouth Baptist Church every Sunday for worship. After several years the people from Hopeman formed a local congregation, erecting a building and establishing themselves in the village. Hopeman Baptist Church is affiliated with the Baptist Union of Scotland, and they meet regularly for worship, prayer, and Bible study.

Sport

Hopeman is home to Hopeman Golf Club, which was founded in 1909 and has been named in Sky Sports top 18 Scottish holes. Hopeman is also home of Hopeman FC, who are a welfare team that play in the Moray District Welfare League Premier Division. There is also a youth team called Hopeman Dynamos that train young kids aged 5 to 12, some of which have gone on to play for Junior teams like Burghead Thistle or for Lossiemouth FC and other Highland League youth teams as well as Elgin City and Inverness Caledonian Thistle youth teams. One of the first football clubs in Hopeman was Hopeman Rangers.

References

External links

Moray Council
*http://www.hopemangala.co.uk {{Authority control Villages in Moray