What Price Heritage?
We had moved out of Aberdeen to a small house in Malcolm Road, Culter, to the southwest along the Old Deeside Road.
There was no garage for the car there and the winters were cold. I can remember first thing in the mornings my dad throwing a bucket of hot water over the door handle and grabbing it mighty quick to open it before the water refroze. We lived a little way up Malcolm Road, opposite what was then a “common” with a small general store at the side of it, run by a great lady called Fanny McAdam.
That common was where Cornyhaugh Rd is today. There were cows in the paddock over the fence – my first animal acquaintances – and an elderly lady in the house next door. Things are different now, but in those days our two small bungalows sat by themselves with a farmer’s paddock all around.
I can remember doing a lot of art in that house, as well as making balsa aeroplanes - I had several hanging from the ceiling of my bedroom: an interest fed by the Biggles stories and a stream of surplus aviation magazines thrown out from the University Training Corps.
My most striking memory of Culter itself was at the A93 bridge over the Culter (Leuchar) Burn as it descended through a rocky gut to join the River Dee. On the steep rocky cliffs above the burn and below Malcolm Road perched a commemorative statue of Rob Roy McGregor, his scarlet tartan and green jacket shining like jewels against the backdrop of rocks and foliage. According to legend, the 18th century Scottish folk hero was fleeing from English troops during the Rebellion, and leapt the chasm to escape from them. If true, it was a mighty feat, and I’m sure none of the pursuers was game to try it on.
Some time after I first came on the net 12 years ago I tried to find pictures of this statue. There was very little – one picture only of it draped in shrouds during a refurbishing paint job. Disappointing, I thought…
A lot has happened since then, above the Culter Burn, and it’s now well documented on a great site about Culter - with more pictures of the Rob Roy statues in the History section. The statue that I knew was the third of four Rob Roy statues, the first being fashioned around an old ship’s figurehead and erected on the site around 1850. This had to be replaced in 1865 when another figure was commissioned by public subscription.
The third Rob Roy, also funded by the public, was unveiled on the site in 1926. It had been carved out of a log of Quebec Yellow pine and was carefully maintained by R. Geddes a local painter, who at risk of life and limb kept the paintwork in good condition until his death. This was the version of the statue that I remember – though I never realised he was larger than lifesize! The reason the story is now so well documented is that when he was replaced by Rob Roy 4 in 1999, a home was found for him in the local Gordon Arms Hotel.
Alas, how often items of public heritage turn into private property! How often acts done in good faith for the public benefit go sour when money-grubbers come on the scene! I won’t go into the full details – you can read them HERE – but the people of Culter and their supporters ended up having to find £8360 to return Rob Roy 3 to ownership of the public, who funded him in the first place, and secure his future in the safety of the St Peter’s Heritage Centre, Howie Lane, Peterculter.
To be continued…..
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