St Combs is a small
fishing village in
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, immediately southwest of
Inverallochy
The villages of Inverallochy (Scottish Gaelic: ''Inbhir Aileachaidh'') and Cairnbulg (from the Gaelic ''càrn builg'' meaning 'gap cairn') lie some east of Fraserburgh, in North East Scotland. It formerly consisted of the three fishing villages ...
. It has existed since at least the 17th century, and takes its name from a church to St Colm (or Columba) that used to exist in the area and was abandoned in 1607. Only a fragment of it remains.
The remains of
Lonmay Castle
The remains of the Castle of Lonmay are found near Netherton of Lonmay, to the north of Loch Strathbeg in Buchan, Scotland. The remains are not located in the modern village of Lonmay which is approximately 6 km to the south-west. It was descr ...
are also in the area.
The village sits across
Loch Strathbeg
The Loch of Strathbeg (also known as Loch Strathbeg; ''historically "Strathbeg Water"; "Water of Strathbeg"; "Rattray Water" or "Water of Rattray"'') is a designated Special Protection Area for wildlife conservation purposes. It is located near ...
from
Rattray.
History
There is considerable evidence of local habitation by early man in and around St Combs. Somewhat to the southwest lies the
Catto Long Barrow and a number of
tumuli.
[C. M, Hogan, 2008]
The "new toon" of St Combs was laid out in 1784 by Charles Gordon of Cairness.
Houses were laid out in large garden plots, gable to the street, running downhill to the shore.
Lonmay Parish Church was established in 1787, and
Cairness House
Cairness House, south-east of Fraserburgh in Buchan in the county of Aberdeenshire, is a country house built in the Neoclassical style between 1791 and 1797 to designs by architect James Playfair. It replaced an earlier house of 1781 by Robe ...
(the work of
James Playfair) followed in the 1790s.
Charlestown, just across the Mill Water and closer to the shore, was founded by the Inverallochy Eastate in 1800. This was much to the chagrin of the St Combs inhabitants, who named it Sodom.
St Combs railway station
St. Combs railway station was a station on the Fraserburgh and St Combs Light Railway, Aberdeenshire. It was opened on 1 July 1903 and stood 5 1⁄8 miles (8.2 km) from Fraserburgh railway station, Fraserburgh.
History
The standard gauge ...
opened in 1903 and closed in 1965. It was the terminus of a short branch line from
Fraserburgh
Fraserburgh (; sco, The Broch or ; gd, A' Bhruaich) is a town in Aberdeenshire (unitary), Aberdeenshire, Scotland with a population recorded in the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census at 13,100. It lies at the far northeast corner of Aber ...
. In 1904
Kirkton Bridge Halt railway station
Kirkton Bridge Halt railway station or Kirkton Bridge Platform railway station was a request stop on the Fraserburgh and St Combs Light Railway, Aberdeenshire. It was opened in 1904 as Kirton Bridge Halt, later renamed as Kirkton Bridge Platfor ...
was opened on the line.
Line notes
Sources
Gazetteer for Scotland: St Combs (2008)
in the ''Gazetteer for Scotland
The ''Gazetteer for Scotland'' is a gazetteer covering the geography, history and people of Scotland. It was conceived in 1995 by Bruce Gittings of the University of Edinburgh and David Munro of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, and cont ...
''.
* C. Michael Hogan (2008
''Catto Long Barrow fieldnotes'', The Modern Antiquarian
Villages in Aberdeenshire
Tumuli in Scotland
{{Aberdeenshire-geo-stub