Former steading, Aden country park (geograph 6403363)

Aden Country Park is located in

Mintlaw Mintlaw ''(literally meaning a smooth, flat place)'' is a large village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland lying along the A952 road and is geographically a route centre. The 2001 UK census records a population of 2,647 people. As the largest settlem ...

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially differe ...

, Scotland, first mentioned in the 10th-century ''

Book of Deer The ''Book of Deer'' (''Leabhar Dhèir'' in Gaelic) (Cambridge University Library, MS. Ii.6.32) is a 10th-century Latin Gospel Book with early 12th-century additions in Latin, Old Irish and Scottish Gaelic. It contains the earliest survivin ...

''. The park has a caravan area with camping, a small shop, a small cafe near the agricultural museum, a play area, the maintained ruins of Aden House, landscaped gardens, and a barbecue area. Aden Park can be accessed from Mintlaw by Station Road or Nether Aden Road. It is home to the Aberdeenshire Farming Museum, forest walks and a ruined country house. Every year it hosts a pipe band contest which attracts bagpipe bands from around Scotland.

Aberdeenshire Farming Museum

The Aberdeenshire Farming Museum comprises two main features. The early 19th-century semicircular Home Farm steading features interpretations of the 20th century Aden Estate through costumed guides, and the "Weel Vrocht Grun" (well-worked ground) contains displays about regional farming history and innovations in agriculture over the last two centuries. The Hareshowe Working Farm was moved to Aden Country Park in the early 1990s. The farmhouse has been restored to a 1950s appearance and guided tours provide demonstrations of cooking and farm activities.

Aden House

The mansion house was originally granted to the Keith family in 1324, from whom it passed to the Russells of Montcoffer. It was said to have been beautiful before it was ruined. Alexander Russell of Montcoffer (1723–98) bought the Aden estate in 1758 from James Ferguson of Kinmundy. John Smith reconstructed the mansion in 1832 with "a magnificent

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

d west wing and Doric-columned, domed, projecting west bow". Alexander Russell's great-great-grandson, Sidney Russell (1895-1965), was the last Russell laird to live at Aden. He sold the estate in 1937 and moved to Dorset. The

Barony Barony may refer to: * Barony, the peerage, office of, or territory held by a baron * Barony, the title and land held in fealty by a feudal baron * Barony (county division), a type of administrative or geographical division in parts of the British ...

of Aden is still held by the Russell family. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, it was used as an army barracks and it is said that the inside decoration was damaged and had lost its lustre once the army were finished with it. After the war the house was left to fall into ruin. As of 1990, only its outside walls remained standing. The house is made of grey

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

References

Bibliography

External links

Aden Country Park Website

Aberdeenshire Council Website - Aden Country Park

Aberdeenshire Farming Museum Website

Aberdeenshire Council Website - Aberdeenshire Farming Museum

Country parks in Scotland Parks in Aberdeenshire {{Aberdeenshire-geo-stub