Aberlour A'bunadh Batch 59
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Aberlour () is a village in
Moray Moray ( ; or ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland. Its council is based in Elgin, the area' ...
, Scotland, south of
Elgin Elgin may refer to: Places Canada * Elgin County, Ontario * Elgin Settlement, a 19th-century community for freed slaves located in present-day North Buxton and South Buxton, Ontario * Elgin, a village in Rideau Lakes, Ontario * Elgin, Manit ...
on the road to Grantown. The Lour
burn A burn is an injury to skin, or other tissues, caused by heat, electricity, chemicals, friction, or ionizing radiation (such as sunburn, caused by ultraviolet radiation). Most burns are due to heat from hot fluids (called scalding), soli ...
is a tributary of the
River Spey The River Spey () is a river in the northeast of Scotland. At it is the ninth longest river in the United Kingdom and the third longest and fastest-flowing river in Scotland. It is an important location for the traditions of salmon fishing an ...
, and it and the surrounding
parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...
are both named Aberlour, but the name is more commonly used in reference to the village which straddles the stream and flanks the Spey – although the full name of the village is Charlestown of Aberlour.


Etymology

Aberlour, recorded in 1226 as ''Aberlower'', means 'confluence of the Lour burn'. The first element is the
Pictish Pictish is an extinct Brittonic Celtic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from late antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited number of geog ...
word ''aber'' 'river mouth, confluence'. The name of the Lour burn is from
Gaelic Gaelic (pronounced for Irish Gaelic and for Scots Gaelic) is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". It may refer to: Languages * Gaelic languages or Goidelic languages, a linguistic group that is one of the two branches of the Insul ...
''labhar'' 'loud, noisy'. This probably replaced an earlier Pictish
cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...
word. Charlestown refers to Charles Grant of Elchies.


History

A site noted as Abirlaur is shown in this location on maps in
Joan Blaeu Joan Blaeu (; 23 September 1596 – 21 December 1673), also called Johannes Blaeu, was a Dutch cartographer and the official cartographer of the Dutch East India Company. Blaeu is most notable for his map published in 1648, which was the fir ...
's Atlas of Scotland, from 1654. The current village, Charlestown of Aberlour, was "founded by Charles Grant of Elchies in 1812 – with the name of Charlestown of Aberlour after his son Charles." It is commonly referred to simply as Aberlour. A grant of land from Charles Grant senior feued 100 plots along the south bank of the river and saw the start of the High Street (formerly Main Street) and parish church. The three locations are close enough in definition for there to be little distinction between them. The village was granted its feu charter in 1814 and began to operate its own markets. Whisky was a major industry even then and once the 1823 Excise Act was passed and a longer warehousing process introduced it began to take on the more mature characteristics that are familiar today. The first Aberlour distillery was established shortly after the Act became law, by the owner of a gentleman's estate where Aberlour House is situated. Soon after the property changed hands, that distillery was demolished. In 1879, local resident James Fleming (1830-1895, built a new Aberlour distillery alongside the Lour Burn; which is now owned and operated by the Pernod Ricard group of companies. Fleming was also a bank agent and became a significant resident and generous benefactor in the village, providing its first purpose-built meeting place, The Fleming Hall (1889), followed by The Fleming Cottage Hospital (1900), and - as a safe pedestrian crossing over the fast-flowing river Spey - The Victoria Bridge, completed in 1902 and known locally as the Penny Bridge. According to the 1846 ''A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland'', "This parish, formerly called Skirdustan, signifying, in the Gaelic tongue, 'the division of Dustan', its tutelary saint, derived its present name from its situation at the mouth of a noisy burn, which discharges itself into the river Spey." Aberlour once was the site of an
orphanage An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or abusi ...
which was founded in 1875 by
Margaret Macpherson Grant Margaret Macpherson Grant (27 April 183414 April 1877) was a Scottish heiress and philanthropist. Born in Aberlour parish to a local surgeon, she was educated in Hampshire, and was left an only child when her elder brother died in India in 1852 ...
and a minister called Charles Jupp. His
tomb A tomb ( ''tumbos'') or sepulchre () is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called '' immurement'', alth ...
lies in St Margaret's Episcopal Church which was the church used by the children of the orphanage. The orphanage was split into two separate units – one for the girls and the other for the boys. Between the two buildings was the school where the children were taught. The
horror Horror may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres *Horror fiction, a genre of fiction **Psychological horror, a subgenre of horror fiction **Christmas horror, a subgenre of horror fiction **Analog horror, a subgenre of horror fiction * ...
author Dorothy K. Haynes and her twin brother Leonard spent four years, from 1929 to 1933, in Aberlour Orphanage; her experiences are recounted in her 1973 memoir ''Haste Ye Back''. Aberlour Child Care Trust is now one of Scotland's main children's charities with services throughout Scotland. The Trust was also found to be a child care institution where children suffered physical, emotional and sexual abuse at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry in 2021. Aberlour is also the place where the famous Walkers
shortbread Shortbread or shortie is a traditional Scottish biscuit usually made from one part sugar, white sugar, two parts butter and three to four parts plain flour, plain wheat flour. Shortbread does not contain leavening, such as baking powder or bakin ...
is made. Walkers own the woods behind the factory – Fisherton woods. Until 2004, Aberlour House was the site of a school, a prep school for
Gordonstoun Gordonstoun School ( ) is an elite co-educational Private school (United Kingdom), private school for boarding and day pupils in Moray, Scotland. Two generations of British royalty were educated at Gordonstoun, including Prince Philip, Duke of Ed ...
; it is now offices for Walkers. Aberlour Golf Club (now defunct) first appeared in 1905 and continued until the late 1930s.
Thomas Telford Thomas Telford (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scotland, as well ...
, the renowned
civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...
designed
Craigellachie Bridge Craigellachie Bridge is a cast iron arch bridge across the River Spey at Craigellachie, near to the village of Aberlour in Moray, Scotland. It was designed by the renowned civil engineer Thomas Telford and built from 1812 to 1814. It is a Cate ...
spanning the
River Spey The River Spey () is a river in the northeast of Scotland. At it is the ninth longest river in the United Kingdom and the third longest and fastest-flowing river in Scotland. It is an important location for the traditions of salmon fishing an ...
about to the north of the village. It was built after the Great Spate in the 19th century destroyed an earlier bridge.
Alexander Cameron Sim Alexander Cameron Sim (28 August 1840 – 28 November 1900) was a Scottish-born pharmacist and entrepreneur active in Japan during the Meiji period. He developed the ''Ramune'' soft drink and founded the Kobe Regatta & Athletic Club. Biograph ...
, a
pharmacist A pharmacist, also known as a chemist in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English, is a healthcare professional who is knowledgeable about preparation, mechanism of action, clinical usage and legislation of medications in ...
who introduced lemonade (locally called
ramune () is a carbonated soft drink served in a Codd-neck bottle. It was introduced in 1884 in Kobe as a carbonated lemonade by the Scottish pharmacist Alexander Cameron Sim. The name is derived from the English word '' lemonade''. History In 1 ...
) to Japan, was born in the village. The area was once served by Aberlour railway station, but this closed on 18 October 1965 as a result of the
Beeching Axe The Beeching cuts, also colloquially referred to as the Beeching Axe, were a major series of route closures and service changes made as part of the restructuring of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain in the 1960s. They are named ...
.


Notable residents

*Rev James Sellar, minister of the parish church, was
Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland The moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is the minister or elder chosen to moderate (chair) the annual General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which is held for a week in Edinburgh every year. After chairing the Ass ...
in 1875. *James Fleming, founder of Aberlour distillery in 1880; village bank agent; philanthropist.


See also

* Aberlour Distillery * Glenallachie distillery


References


External links


The History of Aberlour

Scotland Census 2011

Visit Aberlour

Things to do in Aberlour
* {{Authority control Towns in Moray River Spey