St Combs is a small

fishing village A fishing village is a village, usually located near a fishing ground, with an economy based on catching fish and harvesting seafood. The continents and islands around the world have coastlines totalling around 356,000 kilometres (221,000 m ...

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 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 Aberdee ...

and a number of

tumuli A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones buil ...

.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