The Family History Society of Buchan

Registered Scottish Charity SC035593

Featured Village

The purpose of this page is too highlight a village within the Buchan Area. This will change periodically when members supply details about a village/town in the area. All submissions should try to refer to information that a genealogist would find useful.

CRUDEN BAY

Submitted by Margie Davidson

A very early settlement possibly called Invercruden and a later one on Ward Hill both used the inlet below Slains Castle as a natural harbour. Bram Stoker a frequent visitor to the area from 1893 described the village as he first saw it as “a few rows of fishermen’s cottages, two or three great red tiled drying sheds nestled in the sand heap behind the fisher houses.” For the rest of the place…. A little lookout beside a tall flagstaff on the northern cliff, a few scattered farms…. And one little hotel down on the western bank of the Water of Cruden with its fringe of willows protecting its sunk garden which was always full of fruits and flowers”

Stoker returned to the village or nearby Whinnyfold annually for the next seventeen years and many contend that Slains Castle was the model on which he based Count Dracula’s castle. With dates verified from his diaries to which his son Noel gave his biographer access, it appears that Stoker conceived his novel and its plot while holidaying in Cruden Bay. Whatever the truth, Cruden Bay was Stoker’s favourite place and it was there he wanted to die.

Many locals in the 1960s could remember the red bearded Irishman striding along the cliff tops near the castle or sitting for hours on a rock” like some great sea bird” with a note book on his knee.

In 1798 the Earl of Erroll acted on a suggestion first made in the Statistical Account of 1791 that a very safe landing place for boats and larger vessels could be made by diverting the Water of Cruden to enter the sea at the end of the beach next to the Ward by means of a cut. The cut was made but not the harbour. Later a new planned village was laid out in an unusual design as it consisted of a single row of “cottages and substantial villas” facing the sea and the Earl advertised for fishermen to come and settle. Ten fishermen came to the village in the 1830s from Inverallochy and Cairnbulg, five of them Symmers. One of the Symmers families was Alexander Symmers and his wife Elizabeth Carle with their family and a servant girl Eliza Stephen. Although the new village grew steadily it was not until 1870s that a small harbour was built at the Earl’s expense to promote the profitable herring fishery. In his honour the village was renamed Port Erroll.

The memorial board in the Congregational Church near the car park where Port Erroll gives way to Cruden Bay lists the names of those from the village who served in the Great War. This little known resource is invaluable to family historians listing the home address as well as the regiment.

At the end of the 19^th century the Cruden Bay Hotel built by the Great North of Scotland Railway Company opened on the 1^st March. Among the amenities advertised were sea bathing, boating, fishing, a bowling green, tennis courts and croquet lawns. The advert commended the splendid rock scenery, a fine sandy beach two miles long, a bracing air, healthy climate and a charming site overlooking the Bay of Cruden.

The main attraction however was the Tom Morris with assistance from Archie Simpson designed golf course. An Open Professional Tournament promoted by the GNSR attracted a number of leading players the most famous being Harry Vardon the reigning Open Champion at the time. 

Visitors to the hotel arriving by train were transported from Cruden Bay railway station by tram car. Two cars were built; a restored one can be seen today in the Alford Transport Museum. One car transported passengers and one the laundry. The laundry behind the hotel became the laundry for all LNER laundry when GNSR became part of the London and North Eastern Railway.

The hotel attracted many famous names from the leaders of industry and wealthy business men and chauffeur driven cars were often seen around the village. The postcard shows the chauffeur waiting while the ladies look at the goods displayed in the shop window. The shop is in now the Post Office and general store in the Main Street but the name above the door is now Edgars.

During the Second World War the hotel was used as a hospital by the army, not returning it to the railway company until 1945. However times had changed and a hotel of this grandeur was an anachronism and attempts by the owners to find a buyer were unsuccessful until 1947 when it was bought by a scrap merchant and by 1953 only the laundry remained standing.

In 1950 the course and remaining buildings were bought by local businessmen and became Cruden Bay Golf and Country Club. A new housing development was built on land belonging to the club to finance the new club house. The laundry that had remained standing was demolished to make way for the development however the granite stones from the laundry were used to form the entrance feature thus preserving a link with the past.

Copyright (c) 2008 Family History Society of Buchan

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