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GLENKINDIE
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Glenkindie is situated virtually as far west as one can travel in the county of Aberdeenshire. It is situated in the scenic Strathdon area on the borders of the Cairngorm National Park. The glen has variously been part of Strathdon, Towie and Alford. It
can be divided into two parts, the 'lower' glen and the 'upper', or higher
glen. The lower part is situated along the A97 Alford to Strathdon
road, this road hugs the River Don as it meanders through the valley. It
is a fairly flourishing community, with a busy local inn, garage with
shop and Glenkindie
House. The same cannot be said for the upper part. Once ' upper' Glenkindie was a thriving community of at least 500 souls, as supported by the 1696 list of Pollable Persons, with 295 males, 232 females and 12 indeterminate. Now it is a tragically depopulated glen, with the topmost farms derelict and forlorn, and the desolation gradually creeping down. Its isolation and gradients would not have made farming easy. The farmers would have reclaimed as much land as possible from heather, broom and whins and drained land from bog and rough moss, which they converted into barley or corn growing fields. In the old days the fields were separated by wooden fences, wire was not used until much later. |
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Along this 'upper' glen are, or were, more than 12 farms. They were all built to the same format probably around the late seventeenth/early eighteenth centuries . One enters the house at the middle into a small passageway with a room to the left, one to the right and one in front. Also in this small hallway is a cupboard and a cupboard staircase. The room to the left is the main living area combined with kitchen, this has a large open fireplace and sway. Off this room was a scullery. The other room to the right is the 'best room' or parlour, this also has a large open fire. Upstairs (there are no spindles to the stairs) is an open landing, off of which on either side are two bedrooms with limited ceiling height.
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Other than the eldest son, who would normally inherit the farm providing he lived long enough, work had to be found for the others, therefore many children of the glen emigrated to Australia, Canada or the USA. In my grandfather William's generation alone, three of his siblings emigrated to the States and one to Australia. All, bar one, of the previous generation of Reids from Tollafraike emigrated to Massachusetts, as in the 1880s, did the Glennie family from Lochrie. Illicit distilling at one time seemed to have been a regular industry in the glen. It is rumoured that an illicit still was piped down to Lochrie, one of the topmost farms. The glen did not get electricity from the grid until 1981/82, until then it had to be generated individually. There is much inter-marrying of the families in these houses and I believe that Reids married in to the majority, if not all the families. It was here they worked, loved, married, procreated, played, learned, worshipped, cried, laughed, dreamed, walked, farmed, ate, slept and died from at least the 17th century until the time of the First World War.
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Rinmore (the name derives from Gaelic - 'rinn' meaning point or sharp edge and 'mor' meaning big, great or important) is about 2 miles north off the A97 and situated in 'upper Glenkindie . This road hugs the River Don as it meanders through the valley, from Mossat, through Kildrummy until it reaches Glenkindie. Just after leaving the village look for a turning on the right (signposted Rinmore) which leads up the glen. Here the Kindie Burn tumbles gently down through the glen on its way to join the River Don at Inverkindie. The drive to Rinmore is a picturesque one, passing the farms of Pitcandlich, Rinnavoan, Tornahatnach, Ardler, Chapelton and Glencue, before East Rinmore appears high on a ridge on the right hand side, overlooking the deep valley of the Kindie. This is the highest of the farms still inhabited, a little further on the same side, the ruins of West Rinmore now appear. Soon after this point the road becomes a track more suited to a four-wheel drive vehicle. The track now splits, on the right can be seen the empty shell of Largue Farm, whilst high on the hill to the left are the ruins of Tollafraike. It is best to travel on foot from now onwards, taking the track up the hill to the left of Tollafraike, it is a steep climb of probably a further mile, to the very last of the 'upper' glen farms and the ruins of Lochrie. For fuller details on the above dwellings, please go to the houses of the glen page. |
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THE POLL TAX In the 17th century, the Scottish Government had no regular method of raising money (needed to pay arrears due to the country and the army) so introduced the Poll Tax. This was a tax on the ‘head’ of everyone over the age of 16. In order to determine who these people were, a census had to be taken. The first one, that there is still a record of, is “The Aberdeenshire Poll Book of 1696”. In the part that refers to the Laird of Glenkindie, and the dwellings therein, Rinmore and Tollafraike are not mentioned, but Leochrie, Larige and Ardlare (spellings of the time) along with others further down are, but they do appear on the map of the same date. At Lochrie is a ‘James Reid, tenant, and his wyfe…’, at Tornahatnach – ‘Patrick Reid, tennant, and his wyfe…’, at Fermtoun - ‘James Reid, cottar (no trade) and his wyfe…’ and at Cottertoun – ‘Alexander Reid, cottar (no trade), and his wyfe…’.
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an unusually coloured pheasant spotted near Largue |
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MORE VIEWS OF 'UPPER' GLENKINDIE
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