Stonehaven (Scots: Steenhive;
Scottish Gaelic: Cala na
Creige) is a town in Aberdeenshire
, Scotland. It lies on Scotland's northeast
coast and had a population of 9,577 in 2001 census.
Stonehave,
county town of Kincardineshire
, grew around an Iron Age
fishing village, now the "Auld Toon" ("old town"), and expanded
inland from the Seaside. As late as the 16th century, old
maps indicate the town was called
Stonehyve or
Stonehive.
The town
is served by Stonehaven railway station
.
History
Stonehaven
is the site of prehistoric events as witnessed by finds at Fetteresso
Castle
and neolithic pottery excavations from the Spurryhillock
area. The town lies at the southern origin of the
ancient Causey Mounth trackway, which was built on high ground to make
passable this only available medieval route
from coastal points south to Aberdeen
.
This
ancient passage specifically connected the Bridge of Dee
to Cowie
Castle
via the Portlethen Moss
and the Stonehaven central plaza. The route
was that taken by the
Earl Marischal and
Marquess of
Montrose when they led a
Covenanter
army of over 9000 men in the first battle of the
Civil War in 1639.Originally the
settlement of Stonehaven grew and prospered and was known as
Kilwhang. With ‘Kil’ meaning hill and ‘whang’ the name, or sound of
a whip, possibly, the name is derived from the cliffs above the
original settlement and the sound of wind whistling around their
meagre shelters.
The
Covenanters were imprisoned in Dunnottar Castle
, where many died. A memorial to them can be
found in
Dunnottar Church.
Other
castles in the vicinity are Fetteresso Castle and Muchalls Castle
, both of which are in private ownership and not
open to the public. The oldest surviving structure in Stonehaven
is the Stonehaven
Tolbooth
at the harbour, used as an
early prison and now a museum.
Dunnottar
Castle, perched atop a rocky outcrop, was home to the Keith family, and during
the Scottish Wars of
Independence, the Scottish Crown
Jewels were hidden there. In 1296 King
Edward I of England took the
castle only for
William
Wallace to reclaim it in 1297, burning down the
church in the process with the entire
English garrison still in it. In 1650,
Oliver Cromwell sacked the castle to find
the Crown Jewels following an eight month siege (having previously
destroyed the English Crown Jewels). However, just before the
castle fell, the Crown Jewels were smuggled out by some ladies who
took them by boat to a small church just down the coast in the
village of Kinneff, where they remained undetected for eleven
years.
Near the
Cowie
Bridge
, at the north of Stonehaven. was a prior historic fishing village known as Cowie
, which area has now been subsumed into
Stonehaven. Somewhat further north are the ruins of
Cowie
Castle. Slightly to the west of Stonehaven is the
ruined Ury
House
, originally a property of the Frasers.
The
fossil of what is said to be the oldest
air-breathing invertebrate discovered was found at Stonehaven's
Cowie Beach.
Geography
Stonehaven from the air
Stonehaven is 15 miles (24 km) south of
Aberdeen in a sheltered position on Stonehaven
Bay
between the Carron Water and the Cowie Water
. Stonehaven lies adjacent to a deeply
indented bay surrounded on three sides by higher land between
Downie
Point
and Garron
Point. The harbour, consisting of two basins, was
improved in the 1820s by the engineer Robert Stevenson
(grandfather of the author Robert
Louis Stevenson) and became an important centre of the 19th
century herring trade; the harbour is
bordered on the north by Bellman's
Head and at the south by Downie Point. At the western edge of Stonehaven west of
the A90
road
lies the village of Kirkton of
Fetteresso
. Stonehaven is also the site of one of
Europe's largest permanent and purpose built outdoor radio
controlled car circuits (www.sdrcc.co.uk).
Stonehaven has grown rapidly since the
oil
boom in Aberdeen. The increasing demand for new, middle-class
housing has seen four new estates being appended to the town,
creating an expanse of
suburbs.
Landmarks
Commerce and culture
Historically the chief commerce of Stonehaven lay in
fishing. Led by the
herring
fishery, the catch peaked around the year 1894 with a peak catch of
about 15 million fish per annum and an employment in the fishing
industry of 1280 people. Due to
overfishing to serve the
expanding regional population, the fishing
industry declined with diminishing catches, such that by 1939 only
a remnant of the earlier fishing fleet continued to exist, and the
catch mostly supported the local population from that point
onward.
At
present day the town's primary industries are marine services and
tourism, with Dunnottar Castle, a local landmark, bringing in a large number of
tourists every year. Dunnottar Castle is regularly used in
promotional material by the Scottish tourism industry; in addition,
it was used in the 1990 movie
Hamlet, and appeared as a featured
desktop background in the UK edition of
Micorosoft Windows 7.
The town
has a long beach facing the cold North Sea
, with large cliffs at either end sheltering small
rock pools and inlets. It is also famous for its
olympic-sized outdoor swimming
pool, which is heated and filled with a mixture of tap water
and filtered seawater. Another attraction is the
local harbour, which features the
Tolbooth, the town's tiny museum of local
heritage.
Stonehaven Fireballs Ceremony 2003
During
Hogmanay festivities, the
High Street comes alive with crowds watching the
annual fireballs ceremony, in which volunteers walking down the
High Street swing huge balls of fire around and around at the ends
of chains. The Fireball Festival was part of the content of
stv's
Hogmanay coverage. The fireballs are finally thrown into
the harbour.
Every July Stonehaven holds a
Highland
Games. All those competing in the heavy events (which include
the Hammer, the Heavy Stone and
Tossing the Caber) must wear full
Highland dress. Other events include the
Stonehaven Folk Festival regularly attended by famous Glaswegian
comedian
Billy Connolly. On the first
Saturday in June the Feein' Market recreates a 19th Century
agricultural hiring fair. The RW Thomson Classic Car Rally is an
annual celebration of the inventor of the pneumatic tryre and
attracts an impressive range of vintage and classic cars. There are
two harbour festivals each summer. A farmers market is now held
once a month in the market square where local food suppliers and
producers can sell fresh fruit, vegetables, poultry and other types
of meat.
The town's Haven Fish Bar was the likely origin of the
Deep-fried Mars Bar, a snack now
culturally associated with Scotland - and its health record - as a
whole. The premises are now the award-winning Carron fish and chip
shop.
Stonehaven, known informally to locals as
Stoney, has three primary schools (Dunnottar, Arduthie and
Mill O'Forest) and a large secondary school (Mackie
Academy
). Population expansion has led to the
expansion of primary schools and extra spaces built for classrooms
in the secondary school.The town supports a Rugby club - Mackie
Academy Former Pupils Rugby Football Club - which plays in the BT
National League Division 5. The town also has a junior football
club who play in the North Region SuperLeague at Glenury
Park.
Stonehaven's long established pipe band plays at events throughout
the year, including the folks festival and fireball ceremony. The
band has competed at various levels throughout its illustrious
history including several years at the prestigious Grade 1.
Notable people
Stonehaven was the birthplace of
Robert William Thomson, inventor of
the
pneumatic tyre and the
fountain pen, of journalist
James Murdoch and
Lord Reith of
Stonehaven, first Director-General of the
BBC.
Stonehaven was a holiday retreat of the poet,
Robert Burns.
The
novelist Lewis Grassic Gibbon (James Leslie
Mitchell) attended school at what was the old Mackie
Academy (now Arduthie Primary). As a state secondary
school Mackie Academy now serves over-1000 pupils and they study
his work.
Famous historical visitors include
William Wallace and
Mary Queen of Scots.
Local Radio
Alongside the commercial enterprise of the local newspaper, The
Mearns Leader, Stonhaven has a Local Community Radio Staion in
Mearns FM.Broadcasting from Stonehaven Townhall to the town and
surrounding Mearns area, Mearns FM helps to keep Stonehaven up to
date with local and charity events, as well as playing a wee bit of
music. Staffed completly by volunteers, Mearns FM is run as a not
for profit organisation, broadcasting under a Community Radio
licence, with a remit to provide local focus news events and
programming. Jointly funded by local adverts and local and national
grants. Mearns FM has one of the largest listening areas of any
Community Radio Station owing to the Mearns' distributed
population, Mearns FM was setup to try and bring these distant
communities together.
References
- Clarke, C M 1997 "Palaeoenvironmental results" in Alexander, D
'Excavation of pits containing decorated Neolithic pottery and early lithic material of possible
Mesolithic date at
Spurryhillock, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire',
PSAS 127, 17-27
- C.Michael Hogan, History of Muchalls Castle, Aberdeen
(2005)
- Archibald Watt, Highways and Biways around
Kincardineshire, Stonehaven Heritage Society (1985)
- United Kingdom Ordnance Survey Map Landranger 45, Stonehaven
and Banchory, 1:50,000 scale, 2004
- Archibald Watt, Highways and Biways around
Kincardineshire, Stonehaven Heritage Society (1985)
- '[1]' at Stonehaven
Fireball Association. Retrieved 31 December 2007.
- French batter Mars bars menu publisher:BBC B News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/654750.stm BBC News
- Mearns FM launch release
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