PORTLETHEN HISTORY

Estate and Village of Portlethen

"This estate, which embraces the village of Portlethen, comprises 720 acres, and was formerly comprehended in the Barony of Findon. It is situated on the coast, south of Findon, from which it is divided by a deep ravine and small rivulet. According to "an old writer", cited in the Book of Bon-Accord, Portlethen is more correctly "Port - Leviathan," so called, by reason of certain whales that came ashore there."

There are stories told that an old Roman settlement existed in Portlethen. Records begin later however. In the middle of the fifteenth century the lands where Portlethen is now situated were owned by the burgess of Aberdeen. In the mid 17th century the estate passed to Robert Buchan, who built the house of Portlethen. In 1751 the estate was owned by James Thomson, advocate in Aberdeen. The estate was afterwards broken up. The history of Portlethen church dates from the year 1649. The Roman Catholic Chapel of Portlethen, which had been erected by Robert Buchan, proprietor of the estate, about 1635, having fallen into disuse, gradually came to be utilised as a Presbyterian place of worship.

Findon (pronounced Finnan) is a fishing-hamlet near Portlethen, about six miles south of Aberdeen. It stands on an exposed hillside looking out to the North Sea and a rocky coastline. Here the now widely renowned Finnan haddie originated. The fishwives cured their husbands' catches of inshore fish, some for home consumption and some to be packed and despatched by stage-coach to Edinburgh. In the eighteenth century, the hard, salty, peat-cured haddock were known as Findrums. In the early nineteenth century they were modified to the Finnans we know today.
The Mill of Findon was built about 300 years ago.The Mill was particularly important during the 1914/1918 war years and up until 1956 because it had a huge capacity for producing flour for the surrounding areas delivering by horse and cart.

The village of Downies, two miles south of Findon, is one of the few villages that still retain a flavour of the past.Downies is a typical 'heugh-heid' village. Its main street ends in a grassy track which seems to plunge over the edge of the cliff into the sea. Its harbour, like so many others, is incredibly small. The names of two other tiny fishing villages have been pushed into the background over the years. One is Skateraw, which hangs on to its own identity by the thinnest of threads, for in reality Newtonhill has gobbled it up. The other village is Stranathro, which has been absorbed by Muchalls.