Imperial gazeteer of Scotland, or, Dictionary of Scottish topography > Volume 1

basin, note, and magnitude, and resembles it also
in possessing much volume, and much fine scenery,
with very little commercial importance; yet differs
essentially from it in some great characters, and
even presents some striking contrasts. It rises on
the skirts of Ben Avon, 6 miles west of Curgarff,
amongst the mountains which bound Aberdeen-
shire on the south-west, at the head of Strath-Don,
and which divide it from the head of Strath-Deveron
in Banffshire. Its source is considerably lower
than that of the Dee: the altitude is 1,640 feet
above sea-level. A great part of its ran, though
somewhat parallel to the Dee, and at no great dis-
tance from it, is through districts much less moun-
tainous, and abounding far more in plains and
expanded meadows; so that, instead of the impet-
uosity and the fitfulness of the Dee, it displays a
prevailing current of gentleness, calmness, and
regularity. Running eastward in a very sinuous
career, through the whole breadth of the county, it
flows into the German ocean on the north side of
Aberdeen. Its whole length of course is about 62
miles; though, in a direct line from its source to its
termination, the distance is only 41 miles.
In its earliest stretches through the parish of
Strathdon, which it divides into two nearly equal
parts, it is joined on both sides by 7 or 8 bums, se-
parated from each other by considerable hills, and
most of them running through deep hallows and
glens. The principal are the Eman and the Noch-
tie. All these burns abound with excellent trout ;
and salmon is even here very frequently found in
the Don, at least towards the lower end of this par-
ish. Turning northward, and dividing for a short
distance the parish of Glenbucket from part of Mig-
vie, it receives from the latter the Deskry, and from
the former the Bucket. Then again flowing east-
ward, it passes through the parish of Towie ; and
winding northward, reinforced by other tributaries,
round Gorieshill, it at once becomes remarkably en-
larged near Westside ; after which it resumes its
eastern route, dividing various parishes, particular-
ly Forbes and Alford, from the latter of which, on
the south, it derives the waters of the Loehel, the
most considerable tributary it has yet received. In
passing hitherto through the high parts of the dis-
trict of Alford, the Don flows through a narrow gul-
let amongst the western mountains, while its banks
are now partly wooded. Perpetually changing its
course to the north and even the west, to the east
and then through Monymusk parish to the south,
the next considerable tributary which there en-
larges it is the Ton burn from the south ; when im-
mediately it turns to the north again between Kem-
nay and part of Chapel-Garioch parishes, and arrives
at a point a little to the south of the royal burgh of
Inverury, where, on its northern bank, stands the
building formerly occupied as the Roman Catholic
college of Aquhorties. This point is about 16 miles
from the mouth of the river, and its vicinity consti-
tutes, perhaps, the most interesting as well as im-
portant part of its whole course. Here, at the Bass,
a conical mount of considerable elevation standing
in the midst of the confluence, it is joined by its
principal tributary, the river Urie, from the district
of Strathbogie.
The Don, here very much increased by the water
of the Urie, notwithstanding the previous diversion
of a large portion of its waters into the Inverury
canal, flows southward from the Bass, between the
parish and the low lands of Kintore on the south,
and the mountainous part of Keithhall with Kinkell
on the north. It divides, for a short distance, into
two branches, which reunite, enclosing a river-island
to the north of the royal burgh of Kintore. Be-
tween Fintray and Dyce it is bordered by mountains
on both sides, with valuable plantations on the
northern or Fintray side. It then runs southward,
still dividing the parishes on its line, to Old Mnchar
parish in the freedom of the city of Aberdeen, whence
it turns to the east, by the city or old town, to its
confluence with the sea, little more than a mile to
the northward of the Dee, where it forms a kind of
harbour, into which small craft may enter in safety,
but where no trade of any importance can be carried
on. " About a century ago," says Mr. Kennedy in
his ' Annals of Aberdeen,' " the channel of the Don
near the town was altered, and the stream diverted
straight into the sea about a mile further northward
than its ancient efflux." In a note, he adds, " Pro-
bably at some very remote period, Don had con-
tinued its former course still further southward
down the hollow of the links, till it united with Dee
in the harbour, and both together would form one
stream into the ocean. Such conjecture is in some
measure confirmed by the works of Ptolemy and
Richard of Cirencester, there being no such river as
Don delineated in their maps, or even mentioned in
their tables, while Diva (Dee) and Ituna (Ythan) in
the district of the Taixali, are particularly noticed.
In the earlier records of the burgh, the river Don is
distinguished solely by the name of Aqua Borealis."
As this river runs with considerable rapidity dur-
ing the last 8 miles of its course, and as the rocks
at its mouth confine it to a narrow channel, and
give it there a gloomy aspect, the idea of its flow-
ing rapidly through a rugged and mountainous
country, where no space is left for forming even a
commodious road along its banks, is at first induced ;
but after passing upwards for about a mile beyond
the rocky chasm, where was built the spacious,
stately, and attractive Gothic arch, constituting the
celebrated Brig o' Balgownie, and up to whose lo-
cality alone the Don is navigable even for small
craft, the hiDs recede so far from the river as to
form spacious haughs or level valleys on either side,
through which it winds in a slow majestic course.
Nor is the prospect here uniform, but agreeably di-
versified. The hills above Inverury approach close
to the river, which seems to have forced its way
with difficulty through them ; but all at once it
opens into another spacious plain, from which the
hills recede on either hand to a great distance, and
then close again ; and, after another temporary con-
finement among rocks and hills and woods, the river
once more waters another plain of great extent.
Such is the general character of the Don, — nowhere
rapid, but in general flowing through level fields so
little elevated above its usual surface, that, when
violent rain falls, it bursts its bounds at once, and
covers a great extent of country, which then appears
to be an immense body of water interspersed with
islands, houses, trees, and other rural objects. Too
often on these occasions it commits extensive and
calamitous depredations, — sweeping off whole fields
of com, and leaving nothing behind but want and
desolation. The havoc it occasioned in August,
1829, mil not be soon forgotten. Yet still its vales
are so fertile, and the crops they yield so early and
so excellent, that the husbandman is again and
again tempted to risk his all on these precarious
fields.
" The first great flood on record," wrote the new
statist of the parish of Fintray in 1840, " happened
in the year 1768, which carried away the greater
part of the crop from the haughs and level lands, at
the period between reaping and stacking. A simi-
lar inundation took place in August, 1799, which
carried off considerable quantities of hay, and de-
stroyed in a great measure the grain crop, the whole
2 B