The Water of Cruden is a short broadly east-flowing river in
Buchan
Buchan is an area of north-east Scotland, historically one of the original provinces of the Kingdom of Alba. It is now one of the six committee areas and administrative areas of Aberdeenshire Council, Scotland. These areas were created by ...
in northeast Scotland. Its headwaters streams rise in the countryside north of
Ellon Ellon may refer to:
*Ellon, Aberdeenshire
Ellon ( gd, Eilean) is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, approximately north of Aberdeen, lying on the River Ythan, which has one of the few undeveloped river estuaries on the eastern coast of Scotla ...
and combine to flow through the village of
Hatton
Hatton may refer to:
Places Canada
* Hatton, Saskatchewan
England
* Hatton, Cheshire West and Chester, a former civil parish
* Hatton, Derbyshire
* Hatton, Lincolnshire
* Hatton, London, in the London Borough of Hounslow
* Hatton, Shropshire, a ...
and onward to the village of
Cruden Bay
Cruden Bay is a small village in Scotland, on the north coast of the Bay of Cruden in Aberdeenshire, north of Aberdeen.
Just west of Slains Castle, Cruden Bay is said to have been the site of a battle in which the Scots under King Malcolm II d ...
where it then enters the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...
at the north end of the Bay of Cruden. It is crossed at various points by the A952, A90 and A975 roads. The harbour of Port Erroll stands at the point that the tidal channel enters the sea. The name Cruden is said to derive from
Gaelic
Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...
'croch Dain' signifying the 'slaughter of the Danes. referencing the
Battle of Cruden.
The course of the lowest section of the river was diverted in the 19th-century; it is shown in John Thomson's ''Atlas of Scotland'', 1832, as reaching the sea at what is now termed Old Water Moo', a gorge inlet on a peninsula north of the Bay of Cruden. An 1872 Ordnance Survey map shows the river flowing into the Bay of Cruden. The OS name book for Aberdeenshire notes the diversion in its entry for Old Water Moo', a sea inlet into which the river once discharged.
References
External link
A missing burn- blog post exploring the probability that the Water of Cruden was diverted in the 19th-century
Rivers of Aberdeenshire
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