Mintlaw ''(literally meaning a smooth, flat place)'' is a large village in
Aberdeenshire, Scotland lying along the
A952 road A95 or A-95 may refer to:
* A95 road (Great Britain), a major road in the United Kingdom
* A 95 motorway (Germany)
* Canon PowerShot A95, a digital camera
* Dutch Defence
The Dutch Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:
:1. d4 ...
and is geographically a route centre. The 2001 UK census records a population of 2,647 people.
As the largest settlement within , it supports a number of shops and local amenities such as a police station, library, dental surgery and group doctors' practice.
Aberdeenshire Museums Service is based in a new purpose-built museum building housing Aberdeenshire's large reserve collections, a conservation laboratory and the Discovery Centre. The service also runs another three museums: the nearby Aberdeenshire Farming Museum at
Aden Country Park
Aden Country Park is located in Mintlaw, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, first mentioned in the 10th-century '' Book of Deer''. The park has a caravan area with camping, a small shop, a small cafe near the agricultural museum, a play area, the maintai ...
, home to the service nationally recognised agricultural collection, Arbuthnot Museum in
Peterhead
Peterhead (; gd, Ceann Phàdraig, sco, Peterheid ) is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is Aberdeenshire's biggest settlement (the city of Aberdeen itself not being a part of the district), with a population of 18,537 at the 2011 Census. ...
and
Banchory
Banchory (, sco, Banchry, gd, Beannchar) is a burgh or town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is about west of Aberdeen, near where the Feugh River meets the River Dee.
Prehistory and archaeology
In 2009, a farmer discovered a short cist bu ...
Museum. Aden Country Park also contains a ruined mansion house, forest walks and a theme park.
History
The local area is rich with prehistory and historical features. Somewhat to the south of Mintlaw are a number of
prehistoric monuments including
Catto Long Barrow
Cairn Catto is a Neolithic long cairn near the village of Longside, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Historic Environment Scotland established the site as a scheduled monument in 1973. Description
Cairn Catto is located southeast of Longside, in Aberde ...
,
Silver Cairn
Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...
and many tumuli. In that same vicinity of the
Laeca Burn watershed is the
point d'appui
A ''point d'appui'' (French fofulcrum, in military theory, is a location where troops are assembled prior to a battle. Often a monument is erected to commemorate the ''point d'appui'' for notable battles. In some battles there may be more than a si ...
of historic battles between invading
Danes and indigenous
Pict
The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland (north of the Firth of Forth) during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from ear ...
s.
Mintlaw was formed as a planned village around 1813 by
James Ferguson James Ferguson may refer to:
Entertainment
* Jim Ferguson (born 1948), American jazz and classical guitarist
* Jim Ferguson, American guitarist, past member of Lotion
* Jim Ferguson, American movie critic, Board of Directors member for the Broadca ...
the third Laird of Pitfour. Unlike many of the other planned villages of the time, trees lined the streets and instead of having a square at the centre of the village, it was diamond-shaped. It was later redesigned to become a roundabout on the main route between Aberdeen and Fraserburgh.
Victorian times saw the coming of the railway, the
Maud to Peterhead line being built in the 1860s. Mintlaw was a scheduled stop on this line. The station was built a little to the west of the village; perhaps because this was more convenient for the Ferguson family of
Pitfour and the
Russell family Russell family may refer to:
*Clan Russell of Scotland, with connections to the Dukes of Bedford
**Russell family, an English aristocratic family headed by the Duke of Bedford
**Russell family, British aristocracy, who were created baronets
*Russell ...
of Aden. More affluent homes were built on Station Road to house business and professional people. The Post Office moved to be closer to the railway and became a Crown Office. Mintlaw Station was the postal address for this whole district for many years. The Crown Post Office was combined with that in Peterhead with the closure of the railway in the 1960s, and the village post office moved back to South Street. Telephone numbers too were Mintlaw Station until the early 1970s when the word Station was dropped.
Although the date of the village's founding is not known for certain, 2013 was marked as its bicentenary year.
Schools
Mintlaw has two primary schools, Mintlaw Primary School and Pitfour Primary School.
It has a large secondary school,
Mintlaw Academy which takes pupils from the town itself and the surrounding area. Mintlaw Academy is situated on Station Road.
References
External links
General Information about Mintlaw
{{authority control
Villages in Aberdeenshire