St Drostan's Kirkyard, New Aberdour

Grey Granite has made several visits to St Drostan's Kirkyard and the shore at at Aberdour recently. This is a particularly historic and interesting kirkyard; like every kirkyard it is unique, reflecting the character and inter relationships across place and time of the communities it served. There is a sense of continuity and connectedness here, coupled with an awareness of the ultimate insignificance of the individual.

Rufus intent on watching something in the den below the kirkyard, with great enthusiasm he wisely lives for the moment. The boats in the bay were sheltering from recent gales.

Jervise in his classic guide to North East graveyards 'Epitaphs and Inscriptions', says that, 'The ruins of the old church of Aberdour are picturesquely situated within the burial ground, which overlooks the  romantic den and Bay of Aberdour. 

'Aberdour is regarded as being one of earliest Christian settlements in Scotland. Christianity is thought to have been introduced to the area by St Ninnian around 400 AD and to have been revived by the arrival of Columba and his follower  Drostan in the 6th century AD. Drostan's remains were said to have been contained in  a stone kist here for several centuries after his death.

Until the founding of New Aberdour village the Kirktown of Aberdour with the kirk, manse, farm and mills was the hub of the community.

The manse, now a private house, is adjacent to the kirk yard was built around 1822-23 and is a typical Regency Buchan manse with a projecting semi circular stair tower to the rear.

The unusual dookit,  partly attractively swathed in cotoneaster  in the corner of the manse garden was probably built from sandstone plundered from the kirk.

 

The oldest part of the kirk, the nave runs from east to west and dates from the 16th century, the roofed aisle was rebuilt around 1760 and became the burial place of the Gordon's of Aberdour. Most of the memorials are aligned east - west with the corpse positioned so as to  be ready to rise facing east on the day of judgement.

Until Auchmedden Kirk was built in 1884, Pennan folk worshipped at New Aberdour walking the three miles along this track to reach the kirk. The  track was once the main route to Banff from Fraserburgh and the first edition of the OS map shows the positions of mile posts along it.

There is no burial ground at Pennan so corpses were carried along the road for burial at St Drostan's. These are two of several Pennan  graves clustered along the dyke overlooking the den on the side of the graveyard nearest Pennan. They are from the 1830s  and are of families with typical Pennan names -West and Gatt

This sandstone slab commemorates ' AD son to WD an indweller in Aberdour who departed out of this life in the year of God 1649' Mortality symbols including crossed long bones beneath a skull can just be made out in the bottom right, slightly above and to the left of the skull there is an animal which looks like a deer but which  probably represents the lamb of God. 

During the Victorian period the nave was used for burials, the imposing stones are typical of the time and reflect the perceived status of the departed. A complete contrast to AD whose very name was not considered to be that significant.

The east end of the nave, the chancel has been partitioned off to form the burial aisle of the Baird's of Auchmedden. The font on the right is thought to have come from  a chapel in Chapel Den which pre dated St Drostan's.
The aisle contains very worn tombstones commemorating various members of the Baird family including George who died in May 1593

 Thomas the Rhymer prophesied that "As long as eagles nested on the cliffs of Pennan, there would be Bairds in Auchmedden." The prophecy was fulfilled right up until 1750, when as is indicated on this tablet commemorating William Baird who took part in the Jacobite rising of 1745, indicate the estate passed out of the possession of the family. Up to that time eagles had nested regularly in the cliffs of Pennan. They did return to Pennan when Lord Haddo, whose family had obtained the lands, married a Miss Christian Baird, but when the estate was later sold  the eagles departed. The old story was revived as recently as the late 19th  century, when a member of the family of Baird of Gartsherrie, the Lanarkshire coal and iron masters, bought the Auchmedden estate. Once again the eagles reappeared on the cliffs of Pennan, but this time the coastguards in the area repeatedly shot at them, and eventually the eagles deserted Pennan apparently for the last time.

A splendid granite memorial to blacksmith William Bruce of Sauchentree who died in 1884 this bears the badge of the Hammermen, one of the 7 Incorporated Trades of Aberdeen.

The 7 Incorporated Trades are an ancient society of crafts men  (weavers, hammermen, glaziers, bakers, wrights, fleshers, shoemakers) .The  Hammermens' Guild was founded in 1519. Members are free Burgesses of Aberdeen who uphold the standards of craftsmanship with the common aim using their work for the good of the burgh. The badge includes an anvil and crowned hammer. Their motto  'finis coronat opus' translates as 'the end is the crown', i.e the end justifies the means.

A table stone inscribed with a splendid set of mortality symbols:
The hour glass, an ornate scroll inscribed MOMENTO MORI surrounding a skull, the book of life, sextons tools and died bell, crossed long bones and a coffin. Even in  a pre-literate age the meaning would be  inescapable. The ornate scroll round  a skull seems to be  a particular characteristic of this kirkyard.

Man that is born of  a woman hath but  a short time to live and is full of misery.

He cometh up and is cut down like a flower and ne’r continueth in one stay.

(The Book of Common Prayer)

St Drostan's kirk was replaced by  a new parish church on a very exposed site in the village of New Aberdour in 1818. The bell from St Drostan's was hung above the door.