Rothienorman is a village in Aberdeenshire in north east

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. The local economy is based primarily on

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peopl ...

, whilst services are provided by a mobile

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...

van, village shop, the Rothie Inn hotel and

barber A barber is a person whose occupation is mainly to cut, dress, groom, style and shave men's and boys' hair or beards. A barber's place of work is known as a "barbershop" or a "barber's". Barbershops are also places of social interaction and publi ...

, which has just recently closed down. A recent addition to the community was the high-performance automobile vendor Indy Car Sales, which has since closed. The garage was then bought by K G Autotech. It is now trading under TG (The Garage) Rothienorman, carrying out repairs and MOT testing.

Rothienorman House

Rothienorman Castle became Rothienorman House and then Rothie House. It was subjected to major rebuilding c.1800 and was baronialised 1862 (architect James Matthews). c.1912 it was owned by Reginald Crawford-Leslie whose family home it was until just after WW2. It belonged to the Crawford family and Henry Nigel Crawford was the last laird of Rothienorman succeeding his brother Jock who was killed in action. The estate consisted of , including the village of Rothienorman. The family name used to be Leslie, became Crawford-Leslie and was then shortened to Crawford. The Leslie family purchased Rothienorman in 1723. The Crawfords had to sell Rothie in 1951 because of death duties incurred during the war. The estate was broken up and the house was stripped by land agents for quick money. The surviving Crawfords now live in New Zealand. The house was still occupied in 1945 but the roof was removed; the house is now overgrown with ivy and is in a bad state of repair.

Railway

Rothienorman was on the Inveramsey - MacDuff Branch Railway which opened in 1857 and closed to passengers in 1951.

Twenty-first century developments

Recent changes (2009) see Indy Car Sales closing down, the

under threat of closure and the new primary school close to capacity. The Bowling Club has been rebuilt and a new community centre as well. There is a local dog park at the north end of the village and a new community garden at the south entrance. In recent years there has also been a restaurant called The Steadin that has opened. This addition to Rothienorman came almost at the same time as the building of the Scotia Homes which has been dubbed by the villagers as "The new houses." The primary school in Rothienorman features an astro turf football pitch which is frequently used by the youth of Rothienorman and surrounding areas. Rothie Rovers play at Forgue Road in the village and joined the North Region Junior Football Association in

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

. In 2021 The Steadin got turned into a Chinese takeaway

References

{{authority control Villages in Aberdeenshire