Fordoun

Fordoun (Scottish Gaelic: Fordun) (Pronounced "For-Dun") is a parish and village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Fothirdun (possibly "the lower place"), as it was historically known, was an important area in the Howe of the Mearns. Fordoun and Auchenblae, together with their immediate districts form the Parish of Fordoun with the Parish Church [1] in the vicinity of the original settlement, now absorbed by Auchenblae.

Fordoun Scottish Gaelic: Fordun
Fordoun Location within Aberdeenshire
OS grid reference	NO750758
Council area	Aberdeenshire
Country	Scotland
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Postcode district	AB30
Dialling code	01561
Police	Scotland
Fire	Scottish
Ambulance	Scottish

St Palladius Fordoun

In the 19th Century a railway station was opened approximately 3 miles to the South East of Fordoun Church and the original settlement. A village grew at the site of the railway named Fordoun Station (opened in November 1849 and closed in June 1956)[2] where there were also a number of shops, but only a seasonal farm shop remains.[3] In the time since the founding of the railway station the village formerly known as Fordoun Station has come to be known simply as Fordoun and the site of original settlement has been absorbed by Auchenblae.

People from Fordoun

• John of Fordun (d. c. 1384), Scottish Chronicler was born in the Parish of Fordoun.
• James Burnett, Lord Monboddo (1714–99), judge on the Court of Session lived at Monboddo House, a 17th-century house in the parish. He was author of The Origin and Progress of Man and Language, a study of evolution that predated the work of Charles Darwin.
• James Beattie (1735–1803), Scottish scholar and writer was born in Laurencekirk and first worked as schoolmaster in Fordoun. He became Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logic at Marischal College and is noted for his Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth (1770) and poem The Minstrel.[4]
• Alexander Hamilton (1739-1802) co-founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, one of the first doctors to recognise the infectious nature of puerperal fever.[5]

History

Pictish stone at Fordoun.

There is a Pictish symbol stone, the Fordoun Stone (also known as St. Palladius' Stone), in the parish church on the outskirts of Auchenblae at NO726784[6]

In his 1819 Geography, James Playfair notes that[7]

Fordoun is a mean town, and the seat of a presbytery, noted for being the birthplace or temporary residence of John Fordoun, author of the Scotichronicon; and of Palladius, who was sent by Pope Celestine into Scotland, in the 5th century, to oppose the Pelagian heresy. The chapel of Palladius, adjacent to the church, is 40 by 18 feet; at the corner of the minister's garden there is a well still called Paldy's well; and an Annual fair in the neighbourhood is styled Paldy-fair.

North of the village is a disused airfield that was active during World War II. A two-runway satellite for Peterhead airfield, Fordoun Aerodrome operated from 1942 to 1944.[8]

Notes

1. "Fordoun and Auchenblae". Archived from the original on 9 August 2007. Retrieved 29 April 2007.
2. "Aberdeen Railway". Retrieved 29 April 2007.
3. Mearn Community website. "Fordoun and Auchenblae". Retrieved 29 April 2007.
4. Julie Watt. "James Beattie Biography". Retrieved 29 April 2007.
5. Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
6. "Fourdoun Stone". Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 29 April 2007.
7. Playfair, James (1819). "A Geographical and Statistical Description of Scotland". II. Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co.: 37. Retrieved 3 August 2008. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
8. "Disused WWII Airfields in N.E. Scotland". Archived from the original on 11 February 2005. Retrieved 29 April 2007.