Tell me your tales of the supernatural
I wonder if I could ask Leopard readers to assist me with the research for a forthcoming book on the supernatural and strange. I am particularly interested in hearing readers’ personal encounters or experiences.
The book features: witchcraft, folk magic and historical and contemporary magical practices; unusual weather and extremes or superlatives of nature; hauntings, apparitions and related phenomena; fairies; holy wells, miracles and saintly visions; monsters of all hues; sightings of big cats and other out-of-place animals; flying objects of an apparently unidentified nature; ritual, magical and funerary objects and practices; ‘cursed’ objects or places; psychic phenomena such as precognition, telepathy, telekinesis, clairaudience and premonitory dreams; coincidences and synchronicities; hoaxes, urban legends, modern folklore, fakes and fantasies; and literary or filmic associations (typically, but not exclusively, folklore, horror, science fiction, fantasy or Gothic).
Of course, the boundaries of the bizarre are impossible to set, so anything else odd and strange is also welcome.
Please include as much detail of the event as possible – dates, places, names and so on. As my works are fully referenced my preference is to include correspondents’ real names; however if you, or the people you mention, would prefer to be anonymous in the book, I am happy to respect that wish.
Please let me know. All correspondence will be acknowledged, though I cannot guarantee that a particular anecdote will make it to the book.
Geoff Holder,
Perthshire, geoffholder1@mac.com
Longhope lifeboat still on view
Having read Ronald Neil’s article (Leopard, February) about the sad loss of the crew of the Longhope lifeboat TGB in 1969, I wondered if readers were aware that the TGB survives in the Scottish Maritime Museum at Irvine.
Though Irvine is on the opposite side of Scotland from Leopard’s home patch, the museum is well worth a visit.
Down here, south of the border, short-sighted politicians who know the price of everything and the value of nothing are hell-bent on closing our museums. Don’t let the Scottish Maritime Museum go the same way.
Elain White,
Market Street, Hoylake.
The secret o knotty tams rolled on wifies’ thighs
Norman Harper’s article on food (Leopard, March) took me back to holidays spent on a farm in Longside before the war. My recollection differs a little from what he writes. I remember there were three kinds of brose: plain, peas and neep.
Knotty-tams were different. They were made by dropping a tight ball of meal into a pot of simmering milk. The trick was to do this without the meal dispersing as soon as it hit the milk. (A trick I never mastered.)
I visualised the wifies in the farm rolling the ball of meal up and down their thighs like the ladies in Cuba making cigars. But the farm wifies back then kept their thighs ower weel happit for that.
Thinking back to supping knotty-tams still brings a lump to my throat.
Bob Adams,
Shore Road, Aberdour, Fife
Your excellent article about brose reminded me of staying at Glenmore Lodge when I was a student, 60 years ago. Most of our company were Scottish, but on one occasion we had with us a charming, neat little girl from London.
We stayed overnight in Bynock Lodge and in the morning we were all supplied with oatmeal and told to make our own brose. Most of us got on with it, and settled down to enjoy our breakfast. But, the girl from London was at a loss, and didn’t know what to do. So she asked her friends.
“Add salt,” said one. “Add sugar,” said another. “Add butter,” “Add jam”. “Add marmalade.” and so on…
The London girl added everything that was suggested to her, and the result did not look anything any of us had seen before. Even the most hardened stomach refused the offered chance of eating any of it. The girl quietly slid out of the door and deposited the mess on a family of innocent earwigs that lived under a nearby stone.
Before we had left Glenmore Lodge, that morning, she was heard to say that she was not sure that her mother would be happy knowing that she was going to spend the night in a brothy.
Gordon S. Kinloch,
Edinburgh EH10 5HP
Menzies of Pitfodel and burial at the Snow Kirk
Jim Fiddes suggests (Leopard, February 2009) that, around 1715, the family of Menzies of Pitfodels abandoned St Nicholas for their burials and decamped to the Snow Kirk, taking their tombstone with them. My researches at the City Archives and in Old Aberdeen suggest a different sequence of events.
The Town Council of Aberdeen were patrons of the Mither Kirk, which allowed them to claim the income from burials at St Nicholas. In an uncertain world, this represented a reliable income-stream, so careful records were kept, in the Kirk and Bridge Work Accounts. The standard charge of £3 (for an adult) was supplemented by various optional extras: burial at the fashionable ‘West Dyke’, for example, immediately doubled the cost, and the luxury of a coffin attracted a surcharge of £10.
But the highest rates were levied on those citizens who chose, in defiance of the law, to be buried inside the church, and Menzies of Pitfodels figure as regular members of this exclusive club, right down to 4th April 1709, when the “Laird of Pitfoddells” was interred “in the Menzies Isle”, at a cost of £40. There is just one later Pitfodels entry, for 12 January 1723, when “sister of the Laird of Pitfoddells” was buried at the West Dyke, for a comparatively modest £6.
A typical 17th-century grave-slab
A full 50 years earlier, on 29th August 1669, there is an entry recording the fee of £20 “…for ringing the bells at Pitfoddells interment in the Snow Kirk”. And at the Snow Kirk is a typical 17th-century grave-slab commemorating “Gilbert Menzies of Pitfodles… together with his wife, Mary Forbes of Brux”, who are clearly stated to be “…lying beneath this marble …” The date of Mary’s decease is missing, but Sir Gilbert’s is quite clearly legible as 27th August, 1669, just two days before the St Nicholas bells were rung for his interment.
So the only Menzies stone at the Snow Kirk, and one which bears no other names, was clearly a new one, erected specifically to mark the place of his burial at the Snow Kirk, and was not brought there after 1715.
Gavin Bell,
54 Devonshire Road, Aberdeen AB10 6XQ
Two very different Aberdeenshires
Thanks to Fred Bull’s book, we know there are some 40 Aberdeens across the world. Thanks to Alan Campbell’s article (Leopard, March), we realise there must be two Aberdeenshire – the one he describes and the one I actually live in.
Without moving home I have lived in Kincardine, Grampian Region and Aberdeenshire. Without changing jobs, I have been employed by Aberdeen City, Grampian Regional Council and Aberdeen City again. Only a bureaucrat could find any pleasure in such situations.
The Aberdeenshire I know has severe problems with roads, traffic management, road accidents and road crime. There are housing problems, with or without controversial planning decisions. Educational provision and accommodation have frequently been found wanting. Many areas have significant problems with youth crime, drug addiction, alcohol abuse, vandalism and intimidation. Recreational facilities, if they exist, can be poorly maintained. (Should it be thought that those remarks are somewhat sweeping, I can, of course, give examples.‚
The old chestnut about Aberdeenshire being under-funded is a serious condemnation of our elected councillors and the salaried officials, in that they still have not managed to make a case for parity. Twenty years at £60million per annum – that is approaching RBS figures!
Let the oil industry finance the WPR
We have seen bad examples of democracy in action over the Menie decisions. Whether the now ostracised members were right or wrong is not the issue. They were entitled to vote as they did, and if the full council wasn’t happy with the decision, then something must be wrong with their own planning and briefing strategies. So, Liberal maybe, but Democratic – no longer.
Let us assume the idea of an iconic permanent reminder of the oil industry. Not much has ben provided in 40 years, so why expect anything as the industry declines?
Please don’t touch Union Terrace Gardens – planners don’t seem to be happy until everything is concreted over. As for Ury Estate, Blairs College and Trump International – one seems to have failed already and the economic climate does not favour the others. As Dr Campbell cycles past the existing courses, does he not know that waiting lists have disappeared, and several clubs are short of members?
This is my suggestion. Let the oil industry finance the whole of the WPR, complete with cycle tracks for the handful of cyclists, bus-lanes for the infrequent buses, and stopping-places for Travelling People, to alleviate the Council’s embarrassment. Otherwise, the scars of abandoned pipe-yards will be the legacy.
I’d like to finish on an encouraging note. At least Aberdeenshire achieved the fortnightly rubbish collection well before Aberdeen.
Michael Plowman,
The Glebe House, Portlethen
John Fyfe’s inspiration for the Blondin
Fyfe (inset) found inspiration from the simple ropeway system which carried the mail to Abergeldie Castle.
I was interested to read Mr Donaldson’s article in the December/January 2008 edition of Leopard commenting on the building of Aberdeen Town House and Municipal Buildings (1867-1871), designed in the Scottish Baronial style by Edinburgh architects, Peddie & Kinnear.
Peddie & Kinnear originally specified that sandstone should be used in their Aberdeen project, in the mistaken belief that sufficient granite could not be obtained locally, nor cost-effectively, for the massive structure which they envisaged.
Although the specification caused local uproar, the architects and the Aberdeen City Fathers refused to give way until John Fyfe of Kemnay Quarries personally guaranteed to supply every ton of granite required – at a preferential rate.
Such was his standing in the community at that time that the specification was changed and it is said that John Fyfe then set to work immediately ‘with characteristic enterprise and energy to remedy the state of affairs’.
This was a defining moment for the future use of John Fyfe’s silver-grey Kemnay granite, as it then went on to be more widely used in the construction of other prestigious buildings across the city, including the Citadel, Art Gallery, St Mary’s Cathedral, Northern Assurance Company offices, HM Theatre, Palace and Grand Hotels and the exquisitively carved granite stonework facade of Marischal College, not to mention the Thames Embankment, piers, docks, viaducts, lighthouses, sea defences, and bridges. Indeed, John Fyfe played a major part in giving Aberdeen its Silver City title.
In the Aberdeen Art Gallery hangs a portrait of quarrymaster John Fyfe by John Singer Sargent who, at the turn of the 20th century, was one of the country’s finest portrait painters. This portrait was commissioned for Mr Fyfe in 1902 by his business friends, colleagues and Aberdeen council members.
It was presented to him by his life-time friend and rival Mr Manuelle. Lord Provost Mearns and former Lord Provost Fleming also paid tribute to Mr Fyfe’s worth, dwelling upon his generosity to the city, his pioneer work in the granite industry and the devotion of his whole life and energy to its development.
Steam Derrick Crane inventor
Not only was he an exceptional quarry-master, but he was also recognised as being at the technological forefront of the stone industry. He invented both the Steam Derrick Crane and the Blondin (a suspension cableway with a travelling carrier able to lift up to 20 tons of stone from the quarry’s floor to the quarry’s edge). These two inventions revolutionised the nation’s quarrying industry.
He found the inspiration for the Blondin from his observation of a simple ropeway system slung across the River Dee, which carried the mail to Abergeldie Castle.
His aerial cableway got its name from Charles Blondin, the famous tightrope walker who crossed Niagra Falls on a ‘quivering rope’. Blondin, later, gave a demonstration of his ‘aerial prowess’, in Aberdeen, on a lofty rope stretched across Golden Square!
It is said that ‘John Fyfe took occasion by the hand and skilfully developed his undertakings with an energy and determination which in the end brought their own and due reward’.
An ‘in memoriam’ in The Aberdeen Free Press of 1905 stated: ‘Aberdeen itself owes Mr Fyfe a lasting debt of gratitude, not only for the distinct lead he has consistently given in fostering the artistic development of architecture in granite-work, but in making it possible, on more than one occasion, to retain inviolate the most striking aspects of Aberdeen as The Granite City.”
Granite is his enduring monument and legacy.
Sandy Argo,
Woodhall House, Inchley Terrace, Torphins AB31 4GJ.
Mair on Pitfodels and great houses on the Dee
I was interested to read Alison Cameron (Leopard, November) on the mystery tower at Pitfodels having puzzled over it myself. However Alison is quite a few years out when she says that John, the last Menzies Laird of Pitfodels, died in 1805. In fact he lived until 1843.
The Aberdeen Journal of November that year describes his elaborate funeral in Edinburgh. Robed clerics walked in front of the coffin which was mounted on a bier with a silver crucifix. Fifteen other carriages followed it in a torch lit parade along Princes Street and Lothian Road and people in crowds came to watch.
Pitfodels Lodging in the Castlegate
Of course the Menzies family were Catholic to the end and John, in 1827, had gifted his house and land at Blairs to the Catholic Church. As well as living at Blairs John had a “back hoose” behind the old 16th Century Pitfodels Lodging in the Castlegate, and then he moved to No. 37 Belmont Street. The “back hoose” survived until 1965. Down to 1715 the Pitfodels family were interred in St Nicholas Churchyard. Thereafter the family grave and gravestone was moved to the Snow Kirk in Old Aberdeen.
After John’s death the Pitfodels Land Company split up the estate, some of the trustees using their position to buy a section for themselves. This was from 1859 onwards, much later than Alison suggests, and the main part of the estate was south of the North Deeside Road.
Thus the great houses on the Dee were built on the old Pitfodels lands – Drumgarth , Norwood, Inchgarth and lastly Garthdee House. Just behind Norwood Hall, of course, can be seen the motte of Menzies or Pitfodels Castle. James and George Collie bought various parcels of land on the estate, both north and south of the North Deeside Road.
Jim Fiddes,
Dean Gardens, Westhill
As Granny used to say
My great-grandfather and his uncle worked on Pitfour Estate. My Granny used to say: “Guid nicht and guid nippins, when I get a new goon ye’ll get the clippins.” Granny never travelled very far, usually afternoon bus tours.
When she went down any street she had not been in before it was always, “We’ll just ging doon here an see fa’s fa and fa’s Jock’s faither”.
Her other sayings included: It’s better than a steen ahin the lug; There’s aye some watter far the stirkie droons; Ye can mak a kirk or a mill o’t; and at this time of year, A green Eel maks a fat kirkyard…
David Davidson
davidson366@btinternet.com
Aberdeen Angus – and a lot more bull
I was sitting in the Club Lounge of a Dubai Hotel when I couldn’t help but listen in to the conversation a couple were having with one of the waiters. By their accent they were from London, England; the waiter was from the Philippines.
They got on to talk about the quality of the meat in the hotel’s steak restaurant. The waiter asked if it was the best they had ever tasted. “No,” said the woman, “the best steaks in the world are Aberdeen Angus.”
The waiter hadn’t heard of it.
“It’s from Scotland,” she said.
He hadn’t heard of Scotland.
“It’s a little place in England,” she said, “and they love their Aberdeen Angus.
“You will have seen photos of the cows,” she states, “brown with a fringe and big horns.”
Colin Smith,
smith@leeways.freeserve.co.uk
Neighbours – the world over
My friend Derek Thomson bides in Carnoustie Lane in the same retirement complex in Howick, KwaZulu Natal as me. Derek and I used to live quite close to each other in Aberdeen – he lived in Richmondhill Road and we stayed at 130 King’s Gate (no 8 bus).
We are both 1930 babies and went to Gordons in or about 1936 and 1938 respectively. We both imigrated to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1954.
My family and I came to South Africa in 1979 and Derek migrated here in 2004. He and I now live about 200 metres away from each other.
The other day while shopping in the local supermarket, a lady who must have heard me speaking enquired where I came from.
When I informed her of my origins she said in the Doric, “Ye jist need tae shak a tree and they aa fa oot”.
Although she had been born in South Africa, it transpired that her father came from Lumphanan. He must have taught her well!
Jim Cormack,
Howick, KwaZulu, Natal