Bairds of Auchmedden and Strichen, Aberdeenshire

ON THE BAIRDS OF AUCHMEDDEN AND STRICHEN.
till about 1810, while Aberdour was sold in 1814 by William Gordon for
£65,000 to the Dingwalls of Brucklay. I described the Aberdour
Gordons in detail in "The Gordons of Aberdour" (Peterhead, 1913, pp.
25). The estate of Aberdour was sold in 1934 by Mr A. Dingwall
Fordyce to Mr Thomas Place, Northallerton.
Although Auchmedden was sold in 1750 to the Earl of Aberdeen,
the Bairds established a roundabout connection with the estate, for
Aberdeen's heir, Lord Haddo, married in 1782 Sir David Baird's
youngest sister, Charlotte, sometimes called Christian. The marriage
was followed by a curious fact. Thomas the Khymer had prophesied
that there would be an eagle in the crags of Pennan while there was a
Baird in Auchmedden. William Baird, the laird, in his account of
Aberdour, written in 1724, had said: "It is pretty remarkable that
there is an eagle's nest upon the high rocks at Pennan where Auch-
medden's milnstone quarry is. The pair who breed there have con-
tinued in that place, time out of mind, and send away their young ones
every year, so that there is never more stays but the old pair."
According to Pratt's "Buchan" (1858, ed., p. 181), the Bairds were
"not free from the thraldom of this legend." Believing that the
fortunes of the family were in some inevitable way connected with the
presence of these eagles, "they sedulously protected them, and had
them regularly fed by causing a daily supply of food to be placed on the
ledge of the rocks." The story then goes on to tell that when the estate
was sold in 1750 to the 2nd Earl of Aberdeen, the birds disappeared.
But they returned in 1782 when Lord Haddo took his Baird bride there.
Haddo was killed by a fall from his horse at Gight in 1791 — thereby
fulfilling another Thomas the Rhymer prophecy. Lady Haddo died in
1795. According to the new "Statistical Account" (1843) — it is not
touched on in the old "Statistical" (1794)— the eagles remained in the
rocks until the estate passed into the hands of the Hon. William
Gordon, who was either Lord Haddo's brother, the laird of Ellon (d.
1845) or his brother, the laird of Fyvie (d. 1816). When William
Gordon got Auchmedden the eagles again fled, and "have never (1843)
since been seen in the country. These facts," continued the "Statis-
tical Account," "marvellous as they may appear, are attested by a
crowd of living witnesses." The same story is also told in the "Anti-
quities of Aberdeen and Banff," which was also published in 1843.
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