Sandend.

An early fishing settlement, Sandend is first noted in the Kirk Session minutes of Fordyce in 1624, when its fishers were rebuked for baiting their lines on the Sabbath! The inhabitants of Sandend in former days were fishermen-crofters.

The village grew up on lands of the ancient Barony of Findlater, later Seafield Estates. Record books from the estate shoe rent paid for houses, ground and ‘shore accommodation’ – the right to draw boats to fastenings on the shore. The Earl of Seafield also helped to provide boats for the fishers to rent. The small harbor seen today was built in 1883. Before the boats used to sheltered inlet called the Hythe.

By the 19th century, the fishery consisted mainly of line fishing from inshore boats, with a crew of four. Some of the catch was sold to local buyers, who re-sold smaller quantities to women to clean and smoke. These women then sold the processed fish round the district, often on foot, later by train. The women also had to bait the lines with mussels gathered from the scaups or mussel beds, on the east of Sandend bay. In spring and early summer, many fishermen using larger vessels left for the herring fishing, which started in the Northern Isles early in the season. The herring boats were kept at large harbours along the coast.

Local traditions say that the Mckays and the Sutherlands, two names common in the village, crossed the Moray Firth to Sandend during the troubles of the Highland Clearances.

Lime Kilns.

Through unspoilt and deserted today, the east side of Sandend Bay – known variously as Red/Reidhyth(e) or Reidhaven – once had its own settlement with a sheltered natural harbor. Some remains of lime kilns can be seen there today. This was once an mportant local resource and there are other old kilns in the area. Reidhaven lime was used during the building of the Caledonian Canal 1804-22.

The King’s Road.

This is the name given to the narrow road leading due west and steeply out of Sandend. It was formally the main road, before the building of the turnpike or toll road, today’s A98, in the early 19th century. The King’s Road was the ‘official’ highway. Other parts of the King’s Road survive running east of Sandend towards Portsoy. Thomas Pennant, Robert Burns, Smauel Johnson and James Boswell are just some of the famous travelers who passed along it.

Glenglassaugh Whisky.

The site of the former water mills on the Glassaugh Burn was sold to Highland Distilleries for the building of the original Glenglassaugh Distillery in 1875. It lasted till 1907, with malt production continuing till 1922. In 1959 a new distillery was built this ceased production in 1982. The bonded warehousing is still used for maturing whisky.

The Cup and Saucer.

The tower like structure near the Glassaugh Distillery is the remains of the windmill, built in the mid-eighteenth century by the local proprietor, General James Abercromby of Glassaugh. (By the 1760’s he was resident at Glassaugh, his military career having failed to recover after his humiliating defeat at Ticonderoga during the American Wars of Independence). His wife Mary Duff of Dipple, was the sister of the 1st Earl of Fife, who built Duff House in Banff.

Abercromby’s windmill was built on top of a Bronze age burial cairn, using much of its stonework. It ceased production during the first half of the 19th century. A now vanished track from the distillery formerly led to Glassaugh station (closed to passenger traffic 1951) via the windmill.