Oldmeldrum

OLDMELDRUM. Clustered tightly on its little hill (from Gaelic, 'meall-droma', hill of the ridge), looking south and west over the Garioch to Bennachie, the town was once the real megalopolis of the Garioch: in the 1690s there were 16 merchants

here against four in Inverurie and one each in Insch and Kintore. It received its charter as a burgh of barony in 1672 but had been running since at least 1634. In those days you entered from the south by Mill Road or from the north by Cowgate (the sweeping highway to Banff is a late-20th-century implant). The nucleus of the 18th-century town can still be found in the network of little streets and lanes debouching on the Market Square (itself truncated in the 19th century by the row of houses and shops built on its north side). Oldmeldrum was superseded by Inverurie in the early 19th

century following the construction of the canal and the turnpike. This decline was confirmed by its branch-line status, 1856.

Taken from "Aberdeenshire: Donside and Strathbogie - An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Ian Shepherd, 2006. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk

NJ82NW 48 80 27

Erected burgh of barony, 1671.

G S Pryde 1965.