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Aberlour ( gd, Obar Lobhair) is a village in Moray, Scotland, south of
Elgin Elgin may refer to: Places Canada * Elgin County, Ontario * Elgin Settlement, a 19th-century community for freed slaves located in present-day North Buxton and South Buxton, Chatham-Kent, Ontario * Elgin, a village in Rideau Lakes, Ontario ...
on the road to Grantown. The Lour
burn A burn is an injury to skin, or other tissues, caused by heat, cold, electricity, chemicals, friction, or ultraviolet radiation (like sunburn). Most burns are due to heat from hot liquids (called scalding), solids, or fire. Burns occur mainl ...
is a tributary of the River Spey, and it and the surrounding
parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...
are both named Aberlour, but the name is more commonly used in reference to the village which straddles the stream and flanks the Spey – although the full name of the village is Charlestown of Aberlour.


Etymology

Aberlour, recorded in 1226 as ''Aberlower'', means 'confluence of the Lour burn'. The first element is the Pictish word ''aber'' 'river mouth, confluence'. The name of the Lour burn is from Gaelic ''labhar'' 'loud, noisy'. This probably replaced an earlier Pictish
cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical e ...
word. Charlestown refers to Charles Grant of Elchies.


History

A site noted as Abirlaur is shown in this location on maps in Joan Blaeu's Atlas of Scotland, from 1654. The current village, Charlestown of Aberlour, was "founded by Charles Grant of Elchies in 1812 – with the name of Charlestown of Aberlour after his son Charles." It is commonly referred to simply as Aberlour. A grant of land from Charles Grant senior feued 100 plots along the south bank of the river and saw the start of the High Street (formerly Main Street) and parish church. The three locations are close enough in definition for there to be little distinction between them. The village was granted its feu charter in 1814 and began to operate its own markets. Whisky was a major industry even then and once the 1823 Excise Act was passed and a longer warehousing process introduced it began to take on the more mature characteristics that are familiar today. The first Aberlour distillery was established shortly after the Act became law, by the owner of a gentleman's estate where Aberlour House is situated. Soon after the property changed hands, that distillery was demolished. In 1879, local resident James Fleming (1830-1895, built a new Aberlour distillery alongside the Lour Burn; which is now owned and operated by the Pernod Ricard group of companies. Fleming was also a bank agent and became a significant resident and generous benefactor in the village, providing its first purpose-built meeting place, The Fleming Hall (1889), followed by The Fleming Cottage Hospital (1900), and - as a safe pedestrian crossing over the fast-flowing river Spey - The
Victoria Bridge Victoria Bridge may be a reference to: Bridges ;Australia * Victoria Bridge, Brisbane, a road bridge across the Brisbane River in Brisbane * Victoria Bridge, Devonport a road ridge across the Mersey River in Devonport, Tasmania * Victoria Bridge, M ...
, completed in 1902 and known locally as the Penny Bridge. According to the 1846 ''A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland'', "This parish, formerly called Skirdustan, signifying, in the Gaelic tongue, 'the division of Dustan', its tutelary saint, derived its present name from its situation at the mouth of a noisy burn, which discharges itself into the river Spey." Aberlour once was the site of an
orphanage An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or abu ...
which was founded in 1875 by
Margaret Macpherson Grant Margaret Macpherson Grant (27 April 183414 April 1877) was a Scottish heiress and philanthropist. Born in Aberlour parish to a local surgeon, she was educated in Hampshire, and was left an only child when her elder brother died in India in 1852 ...
and a minister called Charles Jupp. His
tomb A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immuremen ...
lies in St Margaret's Episcopal Church which was the church used by the children of the orphanage. The orphanage was split into two separate units – one for the girls and the other for the boys. Between the two buildings was the school where the children were taught. Aberlour Child Care Trust is now one of Scotland's main children's charities with services throughout Scotland. The Trust was also found to be a child care institution where children suffered physical, emotional and sexual abuse at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry in 2021. Aberlour also is the place where the famous Walkers
shortbread Shortbread or shortie is a traditional Scottish biscuit usually made from one part white sugar, two parts butter, and three to four parts plain wheat flour. Unlike many other biscuits and baked goods, shortbread does not contain any leaveni ...
is made. Walkers own the woods behind the factory – Fisherton woods. Until 2004, Aberlour House was the site of a school, a
prep school Preparatory school or prep school may refer to: Schools *Preparatory school (United Kingdom), an independent school preparing children aged 8–13 for entry into fee-charging independent schools, usually public schools *College-preparatory school, ...
for Gordonstoun; it is now offices for Walkers. Aberlour Golf Club (now defunct) first appeared in 1905 and continued until the late 1930s. Thomas Telford, the renowned
civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...
designed Craigellachie Bridge spanning the River Spey about to the north of the village. It was built after the Great Spate in the 19th century destroyed an earlier bridge. Alexander Cameron Sim, a pharmacist who introduced lemonade (locally called ramune) to Japan, was born in the village. The area was once served by
Aberlour railway station Aberlour railway station served the village of Aberlour, Scotland, from 1863 to 1965. History The station was opened by the Strathspey Railway when it opened the first section of its railway between and on 1 July 1863. It was the first s ...
, but this closed as a result of the
Beeching Axe The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Development of the ...
.


Notable residents

*Rev James Sellar, minister of the parish church, was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1875. *James Fleming, founder of Aberlour distillery in 1880; village bank agent; philanthropist.


See also

* Aberlour Distillery *
Glenallachie distillery GlenAllachie distillery is a Speyside single malt, Speyside, single malt whisky distillery at Aberlour founded in 1967, which sits at the foot of Ben Rinnes. Previously, the distillery mainly produced whisky for blends however has since been rela ...


References


External links


The History of Aberlour

Scotland Census 2011

Visit Aberlour

Things to do in Aberlour
* {{Authority control Towns in Moray River Spey