Botriphnie & Drummuir

Botriphnie Parish and Drummuir Estate more or less overlay each other and that tends to cause some confusion.

Botriphnie: The Parish of Botriphnie is mentioned in the Banffshire Chronicles of 1880 as a Parish belonging to the Cathedral of Moray in 1226. The name then was Buttruthin or Botrochyn which, it was suggested, might have come from the Celtic words, Bo-traigh-an, i.e..., the river holm or strath of the cow. Now we have Botriphnie Parish, Botriphnie Kirk, Botriphnie School and Botriphnie Post Office.

Drummuir: It is not known what the name 'Drummuir' means but it has been in use since the 1500s at least. The spelling has varied a bit over the years and in the Statistical Account of 1841 it is shown as Drummure. Now we have Drummuir Estate, Drummuir Village, Drummuir Hall, Drummuir Railway Station and numerous other farms and businesses whose names start with Drummuir.

Strictly speaking, all addresses in the area should place the dwelling in Botriphnie rather than Drummuir but, since many of the dwellings were built as part of Drummuir Estate, and since the village itself is called Drummuir, that is not always the case. Never mind, treat the two as more or less synonymous and you won't go far wrong.

Questions: There are a lot of odds and ends of information about the area, mostly from the Banffshire Chronicles and the like, but there are a lot of gaps and question marks. Some talk about an inn "near the bridge". Which bridge? The current one over the Isla, perhaps. Could the Inn referred to be the White Ship?

There are Toll Houses at the top of Midthird Brae, and at Auchindachy. It is said they were to charge a toll on cattle being driven through. Their location is more or less at the extremities of Drummuir Estate so were they there to charge a toll to charge cattle drovers for their passage through the Estate. It is said that the "Soor Bough" (from the Castle lodge house to Breezy Brae) was on the droving trail and a place where the herds were bedded for the night. The current main road from Drummuir Village to Auchindachy is said to be of fairly recent construction. Prior to that the road ran from Midthird Brae, across the Isla, up the Manse Brae to the Lodge, along the Soor Bough to Breezy Brae, down to the top of Towiebeg Brae and then straight on down the Bruntlin to the cross the Towie Burn at the old Quarry. Then up past the quarry and along the top of the fields to Tambrack and thence to Auchindachy. It is also said that there was a road from Drywells/Gateside across the flank of Towie Hill to meet with the old road above the Quarry. This road was used by children from the Drywells/Gateside area to go to Auchinnie School on the back road between Tambrack and Isla Neuk. (Why would the children have gone there instead of Botriphnie or Mulben?) It would be interesting to trace out the old road networks in the area.

The present Kirk was built about 1820 but its predecessor in the middle of the Kirk Yard dates from long before that. St. Fumack set up a mission there about 572 and there are all sorts of mysteries there as well. For example, he is said to have crawled round the parish on his hands and knees. But what was a parish in those days? When did parishes come into existence and how has Botriphnie Parish changed over the years? There was a Free Kirk here, too, and it was in use within living memory. Its original Manse was allegedly Davieburn House, which seems a long way away from the kirk. Later Hazlewood was built as the Manse, and then the kirk was shut down in the reintegration of ???? and Hazlewwod was sold.