Meldrum and Bourtie Heritage Society

20/02/2026

We’re delighted to share the first in our new series of online heritage articles associated with Meldrum & Bourtie and the surrounding areas.

Our opening feature tells the remarkable story of Lt-Col Alexander Seton of Mounie, whose leadership during the sinking of HMS Birkenhead in 1852 established the “Women and Children First” evacuation protocol recognised around the world.

The article has been written by MBHS committee member, Deborah O'Neil, and explores how a figure connected to Oldmeldrum and Daviot became part of global maritime history. You can read it here:

https://meldrumheritage.org/alexande-seton-women-and-children-first/

We are also pleased to launch our new MBHS website. It is still a work in progress and we are still working on content and links but it will continue to evolve over the coming months, but it is now live and available to view here:

https://meldrumheritage.org/

We hope you enjoy exploring it — we do welcome feedback on articles and website.

To take your chance in the thick of a rush, with firing all about, Is nothing so bad when you've cover to 'and, an' leave an' likin' to shout; But to stand an' be still to the Birken'ead drill is a damn tough bullet to chew, An' they done it, the Jollies -- 'Er Majesty's Jollies -- soldier an' sailo...

09/11/2025

27/10/2025

Have you ever seen the statue in front of the Canongate Kirk on the Canongate, part of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile? The statue is Robert Fergusson who had strong links to Meldrum.

This month we remember the two hundred and fifty-first anniversary of his early and tragic passing.

Fergusson - one of Scotland’s brightest literary talents and according to Robert Burns, his primary inspiration - spent time here in the summer of 1769, when he came north to visit his uncle John Forbes, the factor to the Laird of Meldrum. Forbes lived at Round Lightnot, at a time he was renovating the farm and mill at Foresterhill before moving there.

Forbes managed the Meldrum Estate at a time when the countryside around the town was changing fast - a world that would later echo in Fergusson’s sharp and lively verse about Scottish life.

A disagreement in the presence of the Earl of Findlater and the Laird of Meldrum caused Fergusson to leave abruptly back to Edinburgh, never to return.

The Oldmeldrum-born poet James Fraser wrote this sonnet about Fergusson around 1870

The day never dawns but something dies,
And nothing dies but something mourns.
Yearly, as October the sixteenth day returns,

All hearts instinctively agonise:
Down went at noon the son of Doric strains,
Whose genial ray lit up immortal verse,
Which young and old with pride rehearse,
Amid his native Scottish plains.

While rivers roll, and woods grow green,
His name and fame remain inviolate.
Let little minds grow big with hate,
And slander gaze with jaundiced een,

Annually as autumn sere proclaims the summer’s gone,
I’ll mind on hapless Robert Ferguson.

We’ll be sharing a fuller story about Fergusson’s fascinating connections to Meldrum soon on our new website currently being developed, along with more glimpses into the people and places that shaped our local heritage.

📖 Follow us here for updates — and keep an eye out for the articles launch when it goes live soon!

https://robert-fergusson.glasgow.ac.uk/

20/10/2025

Beautiful views over to Bennachie and Tap o Noth today from Den Wood

18/10/2025

We’re almost at 700 followers! Aiming to hit the target by the end of the month - and an (optimistic) 1000 before the end of the year.

If you enjoy our local stories and photos of Meldrum & Bourtie Parishes, please help us grow by inviting others who care about our heritage to follow our page.

18/10/2025

From our October 2011 MBHS Calendar - An early 1900's photo of Adam Duthie's General Merchant shop and staff, including a cat and a dog. Now Berry's of Oldmeldrum.

14/10/2025

We have good availability this week and next. Why not hire an ebike and take advantage of the lovely Autumn weather we're having. Just £25/week.
Ebike.oldmeldrum.org

13/10/2025

On this day 1857

The Meldrum Volunteers are lined up in the Square to greet Queen Victoria as she passed through Oldmeldrum on her way from Balmoral to Haddo House where she was to visit and stay with her ex-Prime Minister, George Hamilton-Gordon, the Earl of Aberdeen.

Wonder what they discussed? The Crimean War had ended the year before but the Indian Mutiny was ongoing. That same autumn, British troops were fighting in India during the infamous 'Siege and Relief of Lucknow'. One of the key figures was General Sir James Outram — and there’s a remarkable local link:

Outram's grandfather, Dr James Anderson, was the Scottish agriculturalist who married Margaret Seton, heiress of Mounie Castle, just outside Oldmeldrum, and managed a model farm at Monkshill as a tenant of the Laird of Udny. So, while the Queen journeyed through Meldrum, one of Mounie’s descendants was commanding forces in one of the defining conflicts of the British Empire.

The townhouse was later redesigned, but Morris's Hotel (opened 184 years before this photo) looks pretty much the same!

Wednesday, 14th October 1857

13/10/2025

Good Morning!

A revamped Meldrum & Bourtie Heritage Society Webpage will available soon. A more formal, searchable resource with regular articles and background stories and selections from our extensive photo archive.

Facebook will continue to be our community and conversation-based platform.

We are also now on BlueSky .bsky.social to provide additional visibility and connections to the wider regional and national heritage communities

25/01/2025

Take care when walking at Den Wood today. There’s a deceptively heavy tree branch precariously dangling over the path like the Sword of Damocles.

25/01/2025

We are currently revamping and updating this page. We are also revamping our sister Meldrum & Bourtie Heritage Society website which will be dedicated to preserving, promoting, and protecting the historical, cultural, and architectural heritage of Meldrum and Bourtie Parish. Regular, but more in depth, articles will be shared by members and other contributors with a blog page for conversation, sharing of insights and knowledge about posted articles and discussion themes.

We welcome any suggestions to help maintain and continue to improve the quality of both our page and future website.