Laurencekirk

Laurencekirk railway station is a railway station serving the communities of Laurencekirk and The Mearns in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The station was reopened on 18 May 2009 at a cost of £3 million. It is sited 210 miles 44 chains (338.8 km) from Carlisle, and is between Montrose and Stonehaven, on the Dundee to Aberdeen line. There is a crossover at the north end of the station, which can be used to facilitate trains turning back if the line south to Montrose is blocked.

Marykirk railway station served the village of Marykirk, Kincardineshire, Scotland from 1849 to 1956 on the Aberdeen Railway.

Fordoun (Scottish Gaelic: Fordun) (Pronounced "For-Dun") is a parish and village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Fothirdun (possibly "the lower place"), as it was historically known, was an important area in the Howe of the Mearns. Fordoun and Auchenblae, together with their immediate districts form the Parish of Fordoun with the Parish Church in the vicinity of the original settlement, now absorbed by Auchenblae. In the 19th Century Fordoun railway station was opened approximately 3 miles to the South East of Fordoun Church and the original settlement. A village grew at the site of the station (opened in November 1849 and closed in June 1956), where there was also a number of shops, but only a seasonal farm shop remains. In the time since the founding of the railway station the village formerly known as Fordoun Station has come to be known simply as Fordoun and the site of the original settlement has been absorbed by Auchenblae.

Fordoun railway station served the village of Fordoun, Aberdeenshire, Scotland from 1849 to 1956 on the Aberdeen Railway.

St Cyrus or Saint Cyrus (Scots: Saunt Ceerus), formerly Ecclesgreig (from Scottish Gaelic: Eaglais Chiric) is a village in the far south of Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

St Cyrus railway station served the village of St Cyrus, Aberdeenshire, Scotland from 1865 to 1951.

Marykirk (Scottish Gaelic: Obar Luathnait) is a village in the Kincardine and Mearns area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, next to the border with Angus at the River North Esk. The village is approximately 6 miles ENE of Montrose at the southern end of the Howe of the Mearns. The road bridge carrying the A937 over the River North Esk is a substantial structure with four arches. It was designed by Robert Stevenson and completed in 1815 at the cost of £1,000 replacing the previous route to the village, an ancient ford. There is a rail bridge across the same river some 600 m north of the road bridge and the village once had a rail station to the north east. The present parish church was rebuilt in 1806 replacing the previous church, the remains of which can be found in the adjacent kirkyard. The older church was dedicated to St Mary and consecrated in 1242 by the Bishop de Bernham. The settlement and parish were called Aberluthnot before being renamed after the church. The village was made a burgh of barony in 1540 in favour of David Barclay of Mathers by Cardinal David Beaton in 1540, confirmed in 1543 by Queen Mary. The centre of the village has an ancient market cross. The grand gates to the now demolished mansion Kirktonhill House, built in 1799 for the Taylor family, once the home of oil merchant R W Adamson, can be found still in position. Once boasting many small businesses supporting the surrounding agricultural lands, including a part time post office and newsagents the village now has no shops and only the hotel. The nearest shop is a short drive to Montrose or Laurencekirk in the other direction. The village also has a small primary school of three teachers with between 30 and 40 pupils. as well as a hotel, the 19th-century coaching house, the Marykirk Hotel.A rare example of a morthouse is located in the churchyard, built to frustrate the activities of bodysnatchers in the 19th century.From 1996-2002, and then 2009-2019 the village has held an annual raft race in the River North Esk. It could not restart after some preventative work was done on the railway bridge, making it too dangerous for the raft race to proceed. Marykirk was also the site of the world's first electricity-generating wind turbine, built by James Blyth in 1887 to light his summer residence in the village.Up until the end of July 2010, the village also had its own amateur weather station.

The Mill of Morphie is a historic waterwheel in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The Mill of Morphie is situated nearby to the Stone of Morphie, an unshaped extant standing stone.

The Stone of Morphie (sometimes known as the Stone of Morphy) is a standing stone about 700 metres west of the Coast Highway (A92 road) bridge of the River North Esk and 400 metres east of the historic Mill of Morphie in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The stone is approximately 3.5 metres high and is unshaped and uninscripted; the base of this stone measures approximately 70 by 100 centimetres.The RCAHMS record number for the Stone of Morphie is NO76SW 6 7169 6273. According to RCAHMS, the stone is "Traditionally said to mark the grave of a son of Camus, killed in a battle between the Scots and the Danes". Local tradition claims the site as an alternative burial site for a leader of a Viking army that was decimated by the Scots army at the apocryphal Battle of Barry in 1010 AD. The date and mention of this battle rests with Boece.

Lauriston Castle stands on a clifftop site near the Aberdeenshire village of St Cyrus and just over a mile inland from the North Sea coast of Scotland. Once a royal fortress, it can claim to be one of the oldest privately owned and inhabited castles in the region. It is a Category C listed building.By tradition, it was the stronghold of Giric, Grig or Gregory the Great, one of the last of the Pictish kings (AD 878–889). The site of his church of Ecclesgreig (Eglise Grig) is nearby and he gave his Latin name, Ciricius, to St. Cyrus.Lauriston’s first charter is dated 1243 and it soon developed into a classic courtyard castle which was savagely fought over during Scotland's Wars of Independence and strengthened by King Edward III in 1336 as part of the chain of strongholds which he hoped would prevent a French landing in support of the Scots. One of the corner towers on the edge of the cliff was incorporated into a typical laird’s house in the 1500s. In turn, this house was absorbed into a very large Georgian mansion of Palladian design, dated 1765–89. For nearly 450 years Lauriston was held by the Stratons, whose arms of 1292 are among the earliest recorded in Scotland. The eloquent Declaration of Arbroath, the famous letter of 1320 to Pope John XXII, sealed by the nation’s earls and barons, has as its final signatory the name of Alexander Straton. Another Straton, the “noble knicht o’ Lauriston”, fell at the Battle of Harlaw in 1411, and shortly afterwards his son was involved in the affair of the Sheriff’s Kettle. The barons of the Mearns had been complaining about the high-handed behaviour of John Melville of Glenbervie, Sheriff of Kincardineshire, and King James’s Regent, the Duke of Albany, exclaimed in exasperation that he would not mind if they "biled the loon and suppit the bree". Taking this as royal licence, a group of barons lured Melville to a hunting party, tipped him into a cauldron or kettle of boiling water and, to seal the conspiracy, supped the broth.The Stratons continued, however, to prosper at Lauriston, even surviving the events of 1534, when David Straton fell out with the Church over payment of tithes on the salmon fishery. He objected to giving every tenth fish to the Abbot of Arbroath and told “his servants to cast the tenth fish into the sea againe", saying that God could catch his own. For this evasion of Church taxes he was taken to Edinburgh and condemned to death, thus becoming one of Scotland's first Protestant martyrs.In 1695, the Stratons were forced to sell Lauriston. Under the charter to the new owner, Court of Session Judge, Sir James Falconer of Phesdo, the estate became a burgh of barony, with a freeport at Miltonhaven. The name of the barony was also changed to Miltonhaven, but storms in the 1790s swept away both the port and village, leaving Lauriston to be known as “The Drown’d Barony”. Over the following century, the policies were developed in fashionable Picturesque style, with waterfalls, walks and a two-acre walled garden. Following its use as RAF barracks during World War II, part of the mansion was demolished, and according to Nigel Tranter, the castle had “fallen on evil days indeed”.Lauriston's Great Hall and Doocot Tower were rebuilt in the late 1980s by William and Dorothy Newlands of Lauriston to plans drawn up by architect Ian Begg. The doocot received a Glenfiddich Living Scotland Award in 1992.

North Water Bridge Halt railway station served the village of St Cyrus, Aberdeenshire, Scotland from 1866 to 1951 on the Montrose and Bervie Railway.

Craigo is a village in Angus, Scotland. It lies about 5 miles (8.0 km) northwest of Montrose, and 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Marykirk, which is across the River North Esk in Aberdeenshire. Craigo developed in the 19th century as a textile village.