The Story So Far...
The Story So Far…
Cruden Bay is fortunate to have dedicated local historians and authors who have documented our village’s rich heritage in deep detail—and if you’re looking for comprehensive historical accounts, their research and books are second to none.
Our focus on crudenbay.life is a little different. As we showcase the vibrant places, events, and attractions that make our village special today, the past naturally weaves its way into the narrative. Over time, we’ve shared these local moments as short, readable tales scattered across the site.
We’ve curated them all here into a single, easy-to-browse collection—a casual storytelling companion to the village, designed for locals and visitors alike to enjoy a good yarn about the place we call home.
Wishing Stones
Alan Croxford Does anyone possess a wishing rock or stone? There was one at Slains Castle in the days of The Earl of Erroll. At the Castle's deplenish sale the stone was bought by James Cruickshank owner of the Kilmarnock Arms Hotel, Cruden Bay. FaceBook link
Quintin Murray’s Caravan at Slains Castle
Alan Croxford This postcard of Slains Castle is from the 1960s. I know the date because Quintin Murray, one of the Business Men who bought and saved the Golf Course in the early 1950s, had a Caravan on the headland, seen to the right of the Castle. The Caravan which...
Future Of Slains Castle – 1925
Alan Croxford Slains Castle was purchased by Dundee Demolition Contractor Charles Brand in 1925. This Dundee Courier Newspaper article from 17/04/1925 suggests that there was still a chance that Slains Castle could be saved, even if on a reduced scale. Unfortunately...
The National – Article 28th March 2022
TRAVEL Slain's Castle: Exploring the Scottish inspiration for Dracula | Slains Castle By Robin McKelvieTravel writer @robinmckelvie THE ideas had long been brewing in Bram Stoker’s imagination but it was in Scotland that Dracula raged into the world,” explains Mike...
BBC Article November 2017
The Scottish fishing village that brought Dracula to life Magnus Bennett BBC Scotland News Many of us like nothing more than getting our teeth into a great novel. But in the case of Irish author Bram Stoker, it was to lead to one of fiction's most enduring characters...
A Familiar Sound Rings Out After 30 Years
30th March 2003 AT the beginning of March, what had been a familiar sound in Port Erroll on Sunday mornings was heard again for the first time in almost 30 years.The Cruden Bay Congregational Church bell has been restored and is once again ringing again to summon...
95 Not Out! Gordon trenches veteran heads for century
By ALISTAIR BEATON 8th May 1990John Brown, photographed in his Cruden Bay allotment as he approached his 96th birthday. A Gordon Highlander veteran of the First World War, he remained active in the garden every day, believing that fresh air, exercise and home-grown...
A Treasure Trove of North East History
A VERITABLE treasure trove of old photographs and documents showing life at Cruden Bay earlier this century has recently been uncovered. Hundreds of photographs, newspaper cuttings, postcards, post office records and old letters provide a unique glimpse into the...
BUCHAN’S TV FISHERMAN
Mr William Tait—his retort to Gilbert Harding startled the television studio audience.Cruden Bay Champion With a Shock for 'Delicate' Englishmen — By — DOUGLAS RAE THERE is an air of sadness about the little port of Cruden Bay. Looking down from the lip of a cliff you...
MBE for 25 years of dedicated service – Arthur Geddes
EX-fisherman Arthur Geddes didn't want to sever his links with the sea when he decided to look for a job ashore. So joining HM Coastguard was the perfect solution for him. And he has been rewarded for over a quarter of a century's dedication to the service by being...
Bowling Club Prize Giving from 1970’s
Alan Croxford A Cruden Bay Bowling Club Prize giving. How many can you name in this Photo thought to be from the 1970s. Richard Clark Back far right Jimmy Mathers,Stuart Mundie to his right,Second from left Johnny Aird 4 from left Jimmy Love next to Jimmy a young...
Crosse & Blackwells – Poster
Alan Croxford I like this old fashioned advert for Crosse & Blackwells. My Dad Denis Croxford was a Transport Manager for the Firm in Peterhead from 1963 to 1987. My Step Mother Isobel Coutts was also one of the Industrial Nurses at the Factory. She left Crosse...
Sleeves Up At Cruden Bay
Mr Taylor (left) with some of his helpers (right) The house built by Mr Taylor in NigeriaAT the moment there's great activity going on, on the piece of land behind the Congregational Church at Cruden Bay. The reason — the Congregation are building themselves a church...
Cruden Bay Playing Cards
Alan Croxford Back in the days when the LNER owned the Cruden Bay Hotel, Cruden Bay apeared on sets of playing cards in the Beautiful Britain series. I remember back in the 1960s /1970s my parents Charlotte and Denis were in the Cruden Bay Whist Club. They stored the...
Old Co-op
Community spirit rises to meet Mr and Mrs Dawson CRUDEN BAY says tangible thanks to SCWS manager and his wife—Mr and Mrs Alfred Dawson, who are leaving for Aboyne—with a refrigerator and box of chocolates—with Mr Witham Burns doing the honours on behalf of the...
CRUDEN BAY FIRE – 21 HOMELESS
ALL THAT REMAINS OF FIVE FAMILIES’ POSSESSIONS Bedding, clothing, and furniture strewn over the braeside in the sunshine – the scene during yesterday’s fire at Cruden Bay, in which five families lost their homes. CRUDEN BAY FIRE – 21 HOMELESSFALLING SLATE STRIKES...
Prefabs
Bill Philips The occupants of Castle Road (Prefabs) in the early 1950s FaceBook link Cruden Bay Life Prefabricated Housing on Castle Road, Cruden Bay Post-war housing, local change, and what we actually know In the years following the Second World War, communities...
The 2 Cruden Bay Trams
CRUDEN BAY HOTEL To link hotel and station at Cruden Bay the Great North built and operated a short narrow gauge (3' 6½") electric tramway—a venture unique among Scottish railways. Two single-deck, four-wheeled tramcars worked the system along with several goods...
HMS Enchantress at Cruden Bay
Here we have HMS Enchantress at Cruden Bay. It is the Admiralty Yacht used by Winston Churchill, when he was First Lord Of The Admiralty. He liked sailing about on it, basically sight seeing when not on official business. He also often invited Prime Minister Herbert...
Edgars reaches the grand old age of 65 (1938 – 2003)
EDGARS in Cruden Bay reaches the ripe old age of 65 on Sunday. Current owner Aileen Ritchie and her husband Colin have absolutely no plans of retiring the ever-popular village shop - despite it reaching that age. But they took a trip down memory lane and came up with...
ABERDEEN PRESS AND JOURNAL, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1934
Members of the Agricultural Section of the British Association at the farm of the Misses Cruickshank, Cruden Bay. The party also visited Tillycairn and Collynie farms (Mr Duthie Webster) and Grandhome (Mr J. D. Paton). In the group are Lord Raglan, Dr Crowther, Mr...
Golfing Weekend – 1932
Elizabeth Oates Looking back at prices for a Golfing weekend in Cruden Bay 1932. Including a car to and from the station. FaceBook link42 A GOLFING WEEK-END AT CRUDEN BAY DURING MAY & JUNE including : FIRST OR THIRD CLASS RAIL TRAVEL FULL BOARD AT L.N.E.R. CRUDEN...
The Spark That Ended an Era: The Cruden Bay Station Fire
Fire at Cruden Bay station Following on from our recent old photograph of Cruden Bay station, Mr Alan Middleton, Roselea, Bridge Street, Cruden Bay, handed in this photograph of the fire at the station, taken around 1930. The fire was believed to have been started by...
BULLERS OF BUCHAN TRAGEDY
Gordon Findlay has kindly provided a copy of The Evening Gazette, published in Aberdeen on Friday, January 19th, 1912 (cost one halfpenny). It features the following graphic account of the loss of the Wistow Hall and its crew on page 5 of this broadsheet publication,...
THE REGISTER. ADELAIDE. SATURDAY JANUARY 20 1912
Image created for creatative purposes by Cruden Bay Life An article from THE REGISTER, a newspaper published in Adelaide, Australia, on Saturday, 20th January 1912. WRECK OF WISTOW HALLTERRIBLE EXPERIENCES Further particulars have been received concerning the wreck of...
Accident Inquiry Report – Wistow Hall (SS)
(No. 7535.) “WISTOW HALL” (S.S.). The Merchant Shipping Act, 1894. In the matter of a Formal Investigation held at Liverpool on the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and 14th days of May, 1912, before STUART DEACON, Esquire, Stipendiary Magistrate, assisted by Vice-Admiral JOHN...
An Account of the Wistow Hall Shipwreck
Image created for creatative purposes by Cruden Bay Life Wistow Hall The Buchan coast between Slains Castle and Buchanness, with its towering cliffs and jagged rocks has always been an area dreaded by shipping in winter, particularly before the invention of wireless...
MYSTERY OF ABERDEEN STEAMER
Image created for creatative purposes by Cruden Bay Life Aberdeen Daily Journal of 19th January 1912: FREDERICK SNOWDON'S FATEFEARED LOSS WITH ALL HANDSWRECKAGE FOUND AT PETERHEAD The finding in Peterhead Harbour yesterday afternoon of a board bearing the name...
THE FREDERICK SNOWDON DISASTER
Image created for creatative purposes by Cruden Bay Life Dundee Evening Telegraph 2 February 1912: THE FREDERICK SNOWDON DISASTER. Another Body Washed Ashore. Still another body, supposed to be one of the victims of the Frederick Snowdon, was washed ashore at Sandford...
THE FREDERICK SNOWDON DISASTER. FUNERAL OF VICTIM.
Aberdeen Daily Journal 5th February 1912: THE FREDERICK SNOWDON DISASTER. FUNERAL OF VICTIM. The funeral of Charles Davidson, one of the unfortunate seamen off the Frederick Snowdon, took place from Peterhead mortuary to the railway station, en route for Aberdeen, on...
The Star of the Isles – Shipwreck
The Scaurs at the Whinnyfold end of Cruden Bay Beach have claimed many Ships and Boats in the past. Here is one such casualty on 18/01/1907, The Star of the Isles. The Crew were saved. At the time of loss it was valued at £5500 but it was only insured for £4800. The...
Josslyn Victor Hay (1901-1941)
Josslyn Victor Hay: The Exiled Earl The Architect of an African Babylon Josslyn Victor Hay, the 22nd Earl of Erroll, stands in the shadow of history not merely as the victim of a sensational, unsolved murder, but as a chilling avatar of the post-war aristocratic...
THE PINKY BRAES O’ NETHERMILL
Alan Croxford This poem about Nethermill is another from Sylvia Munro's book Lilts Frae Cruden Bay by James Ogston, published in 1911. FaceBook linkTHE PINKY BRAES O’ NETHERMILL.In leafy June when fields were gayI took a dander up the glen,Then crossed the bridge and...
Whinnyfold (poem)
Alan Croxford A poem by James Ogston about Whinneyfold, it mentions the shipwreck of the Xenia on the Scaurs in Feb 1903. Taken from Sylvia Munro's book Lilts Frae Cruden Bay. FaceBook linkWHINNYFOLD.Come a’ ye sturdy fisher chiels,And sonsie fishwives wi’ yer...
The Railway Rolls Royce
The Railway Station at Cruden Bay ceased its Passenger Service in 1932, the Tram was then only used for the Laundry. To continue a way of passengers getting from Aberdeen to The Cruden Bay Hotel this Rolls Royce was used by LNER to transport passengers back and forth...
“Lilts Frae Cruden Bay”
Thanks to Sylvia Munro for the loan of James Ogston's 1911 Poetry Book "Lilts Frae Cruden Bay". The book has poems of local interest as well as poems from further afield, such as Rothiemay, Huntly and Hill of Fare, Banchory. The book has a number of Cruden Bay photo...
Railway Poster
A RAILWAY POSTER EXHIBITION A delightful poster of Cruden Bay by Frank H. Mason. This was one of the exhibits at the L.N.E.R.’s recent exhibition of Railway Poster Art at the Burlington Galleries, Burlington Gardens, Piccadilly. This was the first exhibition of its...
Sunday School Picnic – early 1900’s
Bill Phillips I've no info on this one at all, it was among some Cruden Bay photos that were given to me a few years ago. The building behind them looks very much like the village hall. Martha Wells I have this photograph. That's my mother, second row from the front,...
Cruden Bay – By Alex. Inkson McConnochie.
Alan Croxford Cruden Bay. By Alex. Inkson McConnochie. CRUDEN Bay! How strangely the name sounds to one who knew it when, in a manner, it did not exist. True, there has been, of course, “time immemorial” a bay at Cruden, but the Cruden Bay of holiday resort is a...
Isobel Gregory Illustrations
Elizabeth Oates I have been looking back at some watercolours by my friend Isobel Gregory. We sold all the original paintings then produced the first Cruden Bay Calendar 2009. FaceBook Link [Best_Wordpress_Gallery id="42" gal_title="Isobel Gregory...
The importance of Lascar Sailors in the early 1900’s
Image created for creatative purposes by Cruden Bay Life This article explores how early-20th-century British newspapers, including the Daily Mirror, portrayed Lascar seamen—sailors from South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Africa—as visibly out of place in Britain. A...
A Royal Visit to Cruden Bay
This is Princess Beatrice (Youngest of Queen Victoria's Children) and her Husband Prince Henry of Battenberg. Their wedding day was 23rd July 1885. On the 18th September 1885 they came and stayed for two nights with Lord Erroll at Slains Castle, Cruden Bay. They...
Charles Gore Hay (1852 to 1927)
The Last Lord of Slains: Charles Gore Hay and the Tragic Twilight of a Highland CastleStanding upon the jagged, salt-sprayed cliffs of Aberdeenshire, the gaunt ruins of Slains Castle dominate the skyline like a stone ghost. For over three centuries, this was the seat...
William George Hay and Elizabeth FitzClarence (1801 – 1856)
Royal Scandal, Grand Illusions, and Pink Granite: The Lives of William George Hay and Lady Elizabeth FitzClarence The nineteenth-century British aristocracy was a world defined by ancient lineages, rigid social structures, and high-society standing. Yet, few...
James Hay, 15th Earl of Erroll (1726-1778)
A Royalist Giant with a Rebel Heart: The Life of James Hay, 15th Earl of Erroll The history of 18th-century Scotland is often written in the stark colors of political division—Jacobite versus Hanoverian, rebel versus loyalist. Yet, few individuals embody the complex,...
Mary Hay -14th Countess of Erroll (1685-1758)
The High Constable’s Secret War: The Life and Legacy of Mary Hay, 14th Countess of Erroll The Crucible of Lineage: Heritage and the Drummond Influence The strategic significance of Mary Hay’s birth resided in the formidable confluence of the Houses of Hay and...
Lady Anne Drummond (1656–1719)
The Naturalist Spymaster of New Slains Castle Lady Anne Drummond (1656–1719): The Naturalist Countess who Masterminded Scotland's Jacobite Espionage Lady Anne Drummond, Countess of Erroll, was one of the most remarkable figures of early eighteenth-century Scotland,...
Francis Hay (1564–1631), 9th Earl of Erroll
Francis Hay, 9th Earl of Erroll: A Life of Faith, Rebellion, and Reconstruction Among the turbulent nobility of late sixteenth and early seventeenth-century Scotland, few figures epitomise the high-stakes intersection of religious conviction, treasonous intrigue, and...