Old Deer (, ) is a parish and village in the district of

Buchan Buchan is a coastal district in the north-east of Scotland, bounded by the Ythan and Deveron rivers. It was one of the original provinces of the Kingdom of Alba. It is now one of the six committee areas of Aberdeenshire. Etymology The ge ...

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. The population in 2011 was 152. The village lies on the A950, beside the Deer or South Ugie Water, west of

Peterhead Peterhead (; , ) is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is the council area's largest settlement, with a population of 19,060 at the 2022 Census for Scotland, 2022 Census. It is the largest fishing port in the United Kingdom for total landi ...

and from Mintlaw. Industries include

distilling Distillation, also classical distillation, is the process of separating the component substances of a liquid mixture of two or more chemically discrete substances; the separation process is realized by way of the selective boiling of the mixt ...

brewing Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and #Fermenting, fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with Yeast#Beer, yeast. It may be done in a brewery ...

, and the manufacture of woollens, and there are quarries of granite and limestone. The village of New Deer (formerly called Auchreddie) lies about west of the older village; to the north of New Deer is the ruined Fedderate Castle.

Etymology

The name ''Deer'' is likely to be of

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 ...

origin. The name involves the element ''*deru'' meaning "oak" (cf.

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 ...

''dair'' or ''darach''; cf. Welsh ''derw''; compare '' Dairsie'').

History

The parish records spell the name in various other ways such as Deare, Diere and Dier.

Columba Columba () or Colmcille (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is today Scotland at the start of the Hiberno-Scottish mission. He founded the important abbey ...

and his nephew

Drostan Saint Drostan (d. early 7th century), also known as Drustan, was the founder and abbot of the monastery of Old Deer in Aberdeenshire. His relics were later translated to the church at New Aberdour and his holy well lies nearby. Biography Dros ...

founded a monastery here in 719, of which no trace remains. The ''

Book of Deer The ''Book of Deer'' () (Cambridge University Library, MS. Ii.6.32) is a 10th-century Latin Gospel Book with early 12th-century additions in Latin, Old Irish and Scottish Gaelic. It contains the earliest surviving Gaelic writing from Scotland ...

'' is a most interesting relic of the monks, which was discovered in 1857 in the

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

library by Henry Bradshaw. It was probably stolen during the

Wars of Scottish Independence The Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late 13th and 14th centuries. The First War (1296–1328) began with the English invasion of Scotla ...

by English troops. It is a small manuscript of the ''

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

s'' in the

Vulgate The Vulgate () is a late-4th-century Bible translations into Latin, Latin translation of the Bible. It is largely the work of Saint Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels used by the Diocese of ...

, fragments of the liturgy of the

Celtic church Celtic Christianity is a form of Christianity that was common, or held to be common, across the Celtic-speaking world during the Early Middle Ages. The term Celtic Church is deprecated by many historians as it implies a unified and identifiab ...

, and notes, in the Gaelic script of the 12th century, referring to the charters of the ancient monastery, including a summary of that granted by

David I of Scotland David I or Dauíd mac Maíl Choluim (Scottish Gaelic, Modern Gaelic: ''Daibhidh I mac haoilChaluim''; – 24 May 1153) was a 12th century ruler and saint who was David I as Prince of the Cumbrians, Prince of the Cumbrians from 1113 to 112 ...

. These are among the oldest examples of

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

. The manuscript is also adorned with Gaelic designs. It had belonged to the monks of Deer and been in the possession of the University Library since 1715. It was edited by John Stuart for the Spalding Club, by whom it was published in 1869 under the title ''The Book of Deer'' (' in Gaelic). In 1218 William Comyn, earl of Buchan, founded the Abbey of St Mary of Deer, now in ruins, farther up the river than the monastery and on the opposite bank. Although it was erected for

Cistercians The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...

from the

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. They were created by the Catholic Church. Priories may be monastic houses of monks or nuns (such as the Benedictines, the Cistercians, or t ...

of Kinloss, near

Forres Forres (; ) is a town and former royal burgh in the north of Scotland on the County of Moray, Moray coast, approximately northeast of Inverness and west of Elgin, Moray, Elgin. Forres has been a winner of the Scotland in Bloom award on several ...

, the property of the Columban monastery was removed to it. The founder (died 1233) and he and his countess were buried in the church. The parish is rich in antiquities, but the most noted of them is the Stone of Deer, a sculptured block of

syenite Syenite is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock with a general composition similar to that of granite, but deficient in quartz, which, if present at all, occurs in relatively small concentrations (< 5%). It is considered a Alexander Marshall Mackenzie Alexander Marshall MacKenzie (1 January 1848 – 4 May 1933) was a Scottish architect responsible for prestigious projects including the headquarters of the Isle of Man Banking Company in Douglas, and Australia House and the Waldorf Hotel in ...

. Ruins of its predecessor survive in the grounds. Across Abbey Street is St Drostan's Episcopal Church, dating to 1851. Its roof has a bellcote at its western end.

Aikey Brae stone circle

Aikey Brae stone circle lies between Maud and Old Deer on the summit of Parkhouse Hill. It is a recumbent stone circle and was most recently excavated by Chris Ball and Richard Bradley in 2001. It is a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...

Notable people

* David B. Henderson, one of only two foreign-born Speakers of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

Abbey of Deer
- Article in the Catholic Encyclopedia
Old Deer Community Website
{{authority control Villages in Aberdeenshire Stone circles in Aberdeenshire Buchan