Aboyne
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|---|---|
 The Green in Aboyne | |
  Aboyne Location withinAberdeenshire | |
| Population | 2,920 (2022)[4] |
| OS grid reference | NO527986 |
| • Edinburgh | 79 mi (127 km) |
| • London | 399 mi (642 km) |
| Council area | |
| Lieutenancy area | |
| Country | Scotland |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | ABOYNE |
| Postcode district | AB34 |
| Dialling code | 013398 |
| Police | Scotland |
| Fire | Scottish |
| Ambulance | Scottish |
| UK Parliament | |
| Scottish Parliament | |
| 57°04′30″N2°46′52″W / 57.075°N 2.781°W /57.075; -2.781 | |
Aboyne (Scots:Abyne,Scottish Gaelic:Abèidh) is a village on the edge of theHighlands inAberdeenshire, Scotland, on theRiver Dee, approximately 30 miles (48 km) west ofAberdeen. It has aswimming pool at Aboyne Academy, all-weathertennis courts, abowling green and is home to the oldest 18 holegolf course on Royal Deeside.Aboyne Castle and theLoch of Aboyne are nearby.
Aboyne has many businesses, including aCo-Op supermarket,[5] several hairdressers, a butcher, a newsagent, anIndian restaurant and a post office. Originally, there was arailway station in the village, but it was closed on 18 June 1966. The station now contains some shops and the tunnel running under the village is now home to a firearms club. The market-day in Aboyne was known asFèill Mhìcheil (Scottish Gaelic for "Michael's Fair").
The name "Aboyne" is derived from "Oboyne", first recorded in 1260, in turn derived from the Gaelic words "abh", "bo", and "fionn", meaning "[place by] white cow river".[6]
The village of Aboyne was founded byCharles Gordon, 1st Earl of Aboyne in 1671, who, in the same year, rebuilt the west wing of Aboyne Castle.[7] The siting of the castle itself is related to the limited number of the crossings of theMounth of theGrampian Mountains to the south.[8] In 1715 Aboyne was the scene of a tinchal, or great hunt, organised by John Erskine, sixth Earl of Mar, on 3 September, as a cover for the gathering of Jacobite nobles and lairds to discuss a plannedJacobite rising. The uprising began three days later inBraemar.[9]
The former Aboyne Public School was used as a secondary school to the local area, but was notably used during WWII as an evacuee station for those coming from Glasgow. Local Aboyne children were educated in the morning and the evacuee children were educated in the afternoon. Any overflow evacuees were passed on to the nearby church hall, and as many as 1,250 were evacuated to the Deeside area in 1939.[10]
An eighth-centuryChristian presence in Aboyne is attested by aPictish stone cross called the Formaston Stone. The slab is inscribed withOgham characters which have been transliterated as “MAQQOoiTALLUORRH | NxHHTVROBBACCxNNEVV.”[11] These are the Pictish names Talorc (TALLUORRH) and Nehht (NxHHT), both of which were names of kings.[12] In fact, the Pictish kingNechtan (d. 732) was said by Bede to have accepted the Christian faith in response to the teachings ofAdamnan, abbot ofIona, eventually bringing his people to Christianity as well.[13] Aboyne's first church was dedicated to Adamnan, and it was at the burial ground of this church where the Formaston Stone was first discovered. The stone was eventually removed to Aboyne Castle and is currently exhibited in theInverurie Museum.[14]
In 1237, Alexander II granted theKnights Templar acharter of liberty to acquire lands in Scotland, andWalter Byset, Lord of Aboyne, gave the Templarpreceptory the church of Aboyne.[15] Then, between 1239 and 1249, the church was conveyed to the Templarsadproprier usus byRalph, Bishop of Aberdeen. According to the terms of the charter, the Templars would take charge of the temporalities of the church and maintain avicar there, while thebishop retained authority in spiritual matters.King Alexander II confirmed the donation on 15 April 1242, and Pope Alexander IV, in 1277, the same year that John of Annan, chaplain to Alexander III, was appointed vicar. Aboyne, along with other Templar possessions in Scotland, was held by theTorphichen Preceptory in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and remained so until the Reformation.[16]
In 1761, a new parish church was constructed in Aboyne, under the patronage of theMarquess of Huntly; then, in 1842, another church was built on the site of the eighteenth-century structure, and in 1929 at the Union of theEstablished Church, it was formally dedicated to St. Machar. In 1936, St. Machar's was joined with the United Free Church, and fifty years later, was linked with the parish church of Dinnet, a linkage which led to the 1993 union between the two, which is now known as the Aboyne-Dinnet Parish Church. In 2006, Aboyne-Dinnet was linked with the parish church at Cromar.[17]
Aboyne has anoceanic climate (Köppen:Cfb), similar to most of theUnited Kingdom. Due to its high inland position in Scotland, Aboyne can record some very low temperatures and some high snowfall. Conversely, temperatures can reach exceptional values for the latitude, particularly during the winter months due to thefoehn effect; it holds the January and March record for the highest temperatures in Scotland, with 18.3 °C (64.9 °F) on 26 January 2003 and 23.6 °C (74.5 °F) on 27 March 2012. The former is also the UK's highest January temperature on record, which it shares with Inchmarlo, Kincardineshire and Aber, Gwynedd. The February record for Scotland was broken on 21 February 2019 at 18.3 °C.[18]
| Climate data for Aboyne (140 m or 459 ft asl, averages 1991–2020) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 18.3 (64.9) | 18.3 (64.9) | 23.6 (74.5) | 25.0 (77.0) | 28.4 (83.1) | 30.3 (86.5) | 31.6 (88.9) | 29.7 (85.5) | 28.5 (83.3) | 21.4 (70.5) | 19.0 (66.2) | 17.2 (63.0) | 31.6 (88.9) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 6.3 (43.3) | 7.1 (44.8) | 9.2 (48.6) | 11.9 (53.4) | 15.0 (59.0) | 17.3 (63.1) | 19.4 (66.9) | 18.8 (65.8) | 16.5 (61.7) | 12.5 (54.5) | 8.8 (47.8) | 6.3 (43.3) | 12.5 (54.5) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 2.7 (36.9) | 3.2 (37.8) | 4.8 (40.6) | 7.0 (44.6) | 9.6 (49.3) | 12.4 (54.3) | 14.4 (57.9) | 13.8 (56.8) | 11.8 (53.2) | 8.4 (47.1) | 5.0 (41.0) | 2.7 (36.9) | 8.0 (46.4) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −0.9 (30.4) | −0.7 (30.7) | 0.4 (32.7) | 2.1 (35.8) | 4.2 (39.6) | 7.6 (45.7) | 9.4 (48.9) | 8.8 (47.8) | 7.0 (44.6) | 4.2 (39.6) | 1.2 (34.2) | −1.0 (30.2) | 3.6 (38.5) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −23.2 (−9.8) | −21.4 (−6.5) | −16.7 (1.9) | −10.5 (13.1) | −6.3 (20.7) | −3.4 (25.9) | −1.3 (29.7) | −2.5 (27.5) | −4.3 (24.3) | −9.1 (15.6) | −18.3 (−0.9) | −22.2 (−8.0) | −23.2 (−9.8) |
| Average rainfall mm (inches) | 69.0 (2.72) | 50.4 (1.98) | 50.3 (1.98) | 57.5 (2.26) | 55.7 (2.19) | 64.0 (2.52) | 75.4 (2.97) | 68.1 (2.68) | 59.8 (2.35) | 95.4 (3.76) | 86.5 (3.41) | 68.4 (2.69) | 800.4 (31.51) |
| Average rainy days(≥ 1 mm) | 11.8 | 10.5 | 10.5 | 10.0 | 10.9 | 11.1 | 11.8 | 11.1 | 9.1 | 12.5 | 13.4 | 11.7 | 134.5 |
| Source:Met Office[19] | |||||||||||||
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In summer, when tourists visit, the number of people and vehicles increases dramatically. TheHighland Games on the Village Green features in August. The green includes facilities forrugby and football and a play park as well as Aboyne Canoe Clubs storage facility 'The Canoe Cathedral'.
TheBritishRoyal Family are residents in nearbyBalmoral Castle during the Summer.
Outdoor pursuits include golf, walking,cycling, mountain biking trails, kayaking, canoeing andgliding from the airfield just outside the village. Aboyne has become popular with gliding enthusiasts from Britain andEurope due to its suitableair currents (due to the surrounding terrain). The airfield has two paralleltarmac runways running east–west, awebcam[20] and small weather-monitoring centre[21] on its premises. Aboyne contains a mountain biking facility at Aboyne Bike Park located in the Bellwood.
The old Aboyne Curling Club had its own private railway station,Aboyne Curling Pond railway station, at theLoch of Aboyne.
The close by pass ofBallater is arock-climbing area. The village ofDinnet is a few miles west and is the first being located inside theCairngorms National Park. Walkers and cyclists can ascendMount Keen by cycling as far as they can fromGlen Tanar forest before walking to the summit.
There are two schools,Aboyne Academy and a primary school. The academy has around 650 pupils, about a quarter from Aboyne itself, with the remaining three quarters from surrounding villages. The primary school has around 240 children and also contains a nursery with around 30 children. The school has access to a full-sizeswimming pool and gym run by the adjacent Deeside Community Centre.
Belwade Farm, a horse sanctuary, is situated nearby.
A smallstone circle is situated in the village, with several other megaliths nearby, notably theTomnaverie stone circle, which is also the site of a disusedRoyal Observer Corps monitoring post.
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The village is served by the 201/202 bus service operated by Stagecoach which provides a regular bus service to Aberdeen, Banchory, Ballater and Braemar.
Settlements and places of interest inMarr, Aberdeenshire | ||
|---|---|---|
| Primary settlements |  | |
| Other settlements | ||
| Places of interest |
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Areas and primary settlements inAberdeenshire(see also:Aberdeen City) | ||
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| inBanff and Buchan |  | |
| inBuchan | ||
| inFormartine | ||
| inGarioch | ||
| inKincardine and Mearns | ||
| inMarr | ||
| International | |
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