1 - The Roman Well - Although a small hamlet existed around the Pictish fort it was not until the turn of the 19th century that Burghead was developed by a consortium of local business men as a fishing station. The names of the entrepreneurs remembered in the names of the gridiron streets that encompass the fishertoun "over the bridge". During the construction of the village (demolition of the fort) an underground chamber was discovered containing a great cistern. To the Georgian developers the only people capable of building such a well were the Romans, hence their interpretation of the fort as a Roman signal station and the cistern as its well. Although built as the water source for the Pictish fort, artifacts found around the tank indicate that it may also have been used as a baptistery:
A = [the product of the the number of days it takes the well to refill (Z) and the third numeral of the year in which the surrounding wall was built (Y)] - fourth digit of the year the wall was built.
2 - St Aethan's Chapel - N 57º 42.1Z1, W 003º29.ZY5 As you walk up Church Street from the Well you can see one of the remnants of the fort ramparts at the top of Dunbar Street. The stone structure on top of the small hill is part of the Clavie ritual carried out each year on the 11 January. Although this is claimed to have a continuous link going back to the supposed Druid priests of the Picts it is more probably a link with the Catholic folk religion of the Highlands from where most of the settlers of Burghead came as they were pushed off their traditional lands at the time of the clearances. The ritual is one associated with the eve of All Saint Day when all things corrupt (including old fire) where cleared from people's homes and then a burning barrel carried around the village and a new fire transfered to each home from the barrel (Clavie). In Burghead the transfer to 11 January represents the 10 days lost in Scotland when the Julian calendar was replaced by the Gregorian in 1600 (152 years earlier than England which lost 11 days), but as the Clavie is only documented from the mid 1700s it is probably one of many protests by radicals about either the results of the Union or the conditions of the common man; to get more flavour read some Burns, A Parcel of Rogues and Halloween would be good starting places.
B = XX - (Z÷2), where the year of Isobel Jonsten death is VXXU.
Notice how the gravestones in the kirkyard have a different alignment to the present gridiron street pattern. Nothing remains now of St Aethan's chapel and you can read why on the interpretive plaque. The building in the corner of the kirkyard is called the Loft and is one of the original buildings from 1809 which was a ships chandlers run by the Main family. As a child I can remember the last proprietor Miss Johan Main telling the story of how she had to have words with one of her customers the young Prince Philip of Greece,then a pupil at Gordonstoun School, because she thought he might be on the wag!
3 - Gaelic Inscription - N 57º 42.V2V, W 003º29.(Z-V)(Y+V)2 Most of the families in Burghead came from the area around the Inverness Firth, either Petty near Fort George or Avoch on the Black Isle. Today these are anglophone areas but as recently as the 1950s there were still some native Gaelic speakers alive. In villages like Burghead where there were only a few surnames (Main, More, Ralph & Young) many of the folk also shared common Christian names. To distinguish each other you were known by your byname, a nickname which reflected something of your character or ancestry, and these bynames typically have Gaelic roots; for instance my greatgrandfather Daniel Ralph shared that name with several contemporaries but he was known as Danicky Shores as he was from a line of Ralph who traced themselves to George Ralph (Seoras in Gaelic). Counting of the fishing catch too was done using the Gaelic numerals long after it was lost as a language of conversation:
C = the sum of the numerical values of the third and sixth letters
4 - Grant Street Churches - Apart from the Loft there are three other churches on Grant Street one of which now serves as the Community Hall. As you pass them you will need to count the windows and doors facing onto the main street. The first you pass is on the site of the original Church of Scotland although as a result of the various divisions and merges of the Scottish church it became the United Free Church and was sold to the Burgh Council in 1929 when the UF merged with the Church of Scotland. On the five way junction by the war memorial the former Secession/United Presbyterian church has stood here since 1822 and was rebuilt after 1906 when the Free Church, United Presbyterian and Church of Scotland merged, at which time it became the parish church. The last church building is the Free Church of Scotland,built in 1843 at the time of the Disruption when the majority of practicing Christians in Scotland (including in Burghead the minister)left the Church of Scotland over the issue of civil court interference amoungst other things.
D = the total number of arch topped windows, including fan lights and lancets, but ignoring sounding holes, on the front of the three churches. Only count windows with glass, wood or fibreglass.
T = the number of Norman arched doorways, on the front of the three churches.
5 - Graveyard- N 57º 41.(Z+T)Z(Y+V), W 003º28.(D/T)(Y+V)T Head southeastward past the site of the railway bridge which separated the fishertoun from the white city which was built after WWII to accommodate the workers at the new Maltings. Though unloved locally for its dominating presence, the Maltings produce a quarter of the malt consumed by Scotland's whisky distilleries. At the time it was felt that the investment and new families, as part of the Glasgow overspill programme, would help to sustain the life of the community as midwinter fishing was already in decline. Further along St Aethan's Road the former Outward Bound Sea School buildings are passed on the right and at N 57º 41.905, W 003º 28.650 there is a narrow metaled lane leading up the hill between the new housing. Follow this lane, which was built for the funeral cortege lead by the hearse, to the new cemetery on the hillside overlooking Burghead. Fishing is still one of the most hazardous professions and many of the graves tell abbreviated stories of families devastated by infant deaths and accidents at sea.
E = Margaret More lost two infants, her husband drowned at sea and then both her primary school aged son and daughter died too. Her husband, Donald Ross, was aged ES when he drowned.
Sum of A to E = 150
Turn eastward out of the cemetery gates and follow the B9040 passing Sigurd Street and then turn northward down the next road, Fraser Road, past the former White Craig Farm, just around the bend to where a footpath leads down to the shore. A past owner of the farm took exception to the people of Burghead following another right of way across his land and filled in St Aethan's Well. This rock cut spring is one of three wells (the Braemou in Hopeman and a an unnamed well in Cummingston) that are fed by mineralised water rising up the fault line that separates the pebbly Burghead sandstones from the Hopeman sandstones to the south. The fault itself can be see at Cove Bay Earthcache. The route back to the carpark follows the old Burghead to Hopeman railway line which opened in 1892 and closed 70 years latter. For many years it carried the Broch's scholars from Burghead to Duffus Junior Secondary School in Hopeman.
On your way you will pass the former Massonshaugh Quarry, this is where the stone to build Burghead was cut. From the Massonshaugh follow the Moray Coastal Trail along the old trackbed back towards the Maltings and the Green where you parked. On your way you can see the obstructed right of way footpath to St Aethan's well where the remains of the chain which secured an iron cup can just be made out.
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