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| Old Deer Episcopal Church dedicated to Saint Drostan |
The small village of Old Deer is located in the Buchan District near Mintlaw and about 40 miles north of Aberdeen. This rural, flat area of Scotland offers farmers a modest income and due to its proximity to the coast fisherman cast their nets from places like Fraserburgh and Peterhead. In times gone by people in this part of Scotland earned a good living because of their rich trade, but its relative remote location and the lack of tourists has made the towns mentioned above poorer each decade.
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| Remnants of the 1218 Deer Abbey north of Old Deer |
Old Deer shares a rich history since a famous Cistercian abbey influenced daily live here between the early 13th century until Henry VIII. Before this abbey was founded in 1218, a legend tells us that the enigmatic Saint Columba and his disciple Drostan had already established an abbey in these surroundings in the 7th century. In the so-called
Book of Deer (possibly the oldest book in Scotland dating from the 9th century) this story tells us that Drostan received the site of Deir from the local Pictish ruler to found an abbey. Eventually though Drostan's abbey fell into decay until the Cistercian monks 'refounded' it in 1218.
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| Old Deer 525 cds on an Edward VII halfpenny |
The name of Deer (or Deir) comes from the Gaelic Deur which means 'tear'. Allegedly Columba shed some tears when he parted from his friend Drostan, hence its name. Nowadays only c. 150 people inhabit the small village, making it look small when compared to the bigger village of Mintlaw to the east.
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| Edward VII halfpenny green tied by an Old Deer 525 Twin Arc cds. The date reads D JY 28 06, which implies this post card has been sent on the 28th of July 1906 |
The reverse of our post card doesn't share something exceptional with us. A certain 'L.' makes a little but bad joke when he writes that 'I sent you one at last,
old dear'. Miss Lewis resided at Petfour House at the time. Of course it was inevitable to do some research on this location. And yes, the result was worth my additional effort.
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| Colorized photograph of Pitfour House in the early 1900s |
Miss Lewis lived on an estate: Pitfour Estate to be precise. The first Laird of Pitfour, purchased the ancient barony in 1700 and renovated the estate, improved its infrastructure and planned modern villages on it. His descendants rebuild, enlarged and refurbished the grand Pitfour House in the following two centuries, but after WWI the Fergusons were bankrupt and couldn't afford to upkeep the large estate (50 square miles at its height) and in 1909 the estate was put on the market. Unfortunately the House itself was destroyed in the latter half of the 1920s and only a chapel, stables, observatory and a small temple survive (some of them in bad condition though).
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| Colorized photograph of Pitfour House in the early 1900s |
Where should we place Miss Lewis in all this? In 1906 the lands and the big mansion were still in possesion of the Ferguson family, so she could have been a maid to the family when they resided there. The 6th laird and his wife (Nina Maria Hood) had a reputation of being habitual gamblers and entertaining an extravagant lifestyle. On of the numerous reasons the estate fell into decay.
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| Ordance Survey 6 inch to the mile map of Old Deer and Pitfour Estate. This area was surveyed between 1843 and 1882. |
