JUST PUBLISHED

The Limekilns of Upper Donside - A Forgotten Heritage

by Ken Cruickshank, John Nisbet and Moira Greig

71 pages, A4 size, with 68 illustrations (55 in colour) and 8 maps (2 from 1864)

This is a unique record of the ancient limekilns in the glens of Upper Donside, in Strathdon, Corgarff, Glenbuchat and Towie. The authors located 106 of these kilns from old maps and field exploration. This book gives an illustrated list of all 106 sites, with precise locations, colour photographs and reports on their present condition.

Badenyon, Glenbuchat

These kilns are the neglected survivors of a past age in farming in North-East Scotland. The first 30 pages, based on hitherto unpublished records, tell how the kilns came to be built in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, how they were used and their part in ‘improved agriculture’ in the glens. Though part of our agricultural heritage, they are not protected from demolition or decay. No historical or archaeological organisation is responsible for their preservation. The authors' aim in presenting this record is to highlight this neglect, in the hope that some formal body may take them under its wing to ensure the preservation of the best of them, identified in this survey.

There is an interesting appendix giving excerpts from estate records now in Aberdeen University Library, the Duff House/Montcoffer papers, written between 1757 and 1821. They deal with proposals for improved management of the farms, problems of non-payment of rent because of poor harvests, and controversies over the quarrying and sale of lime.

Ken Cruickshank works in the School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen; John Nisbet is Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Aberdeen; and Moira Greig is an archaeologist with the county of Aberdeenshire.