Auldearn
Encyclopedia
Auldearn is a village situated east of the River Nairn
River Nairn
The River Nairn is a river in the Scottish Highlands which rises in the Monadhliath Mountains and flows northeast through Strathnairn to enter the Moray Firth at Nairn. The headwaters of the Nairn, the Allt Mor and Cròm-allt Beag drop steeply down the western slopes of Carn Ghriogair, their...

, just outside Nairn
Nairn
Nairn is a town and former burgh in the Highland council area of Scotland. It is an ancient fishing port and market town around east of Inverness...

 in the Highland council area of Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. It takes its name from William the Lyon's castle of Eren (Old Eren), built there in the 12th century.

Auldearn is an expanding area, with much development in the last 10 years. It has a small garden in the centre of the village called the Rose Gardens where people, old and young, gather. From Castle Hill, there is a view all around for miles.

Auldearn has one hotel, a small primary school and a Post Office shop.

History

Auldearn was the site of a battle in May 1645 (Battle of Auldearn
Battle of Auldearn
The Battle of Auldearn was an engagement of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It took place on 9 May 1645, in and around the village of Auldearn in Nairn. It resulted in a victory for the royalists led by the Earl of Montrose and Alasdair MacColla over a Covenanter army under the command of Sir John...

), in which the MacLennans participated on the side of the Covenanters under their chief Ruaridh, as referred to in Sorley MacLean's poem "Heroes". The Royalists under Montrose
James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose
James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose was a Scottish nobleman and soldier, who initially joined the Covenanters in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, but subsequently supported King Charles I as the English Civil War developed...

 won the day - with Clan Donald
Clan Donald
Clan Donald is one of the largest Scottish clans. There are numerous branches to the clan. Several of these have chiefs recognised by the Lord Lyon King of Arms; these are: Clan Macdonald of Sleat, Clan Macdonald of Clanranald, Clan MacDonell of Glengarry, Clan MacDonald of Keppoch, and Clan...

 playing a major part in the battle, as is evidenced by the waulking song
Waulking song
Waulking songs are Scottish folk songs, traditionally sung in the Gaelic language by women while waulking cloth. This practice involved a group of people beating newly woven tweed rhythmically against a table or similar surface to soften it...

 Clann Domhnuill an Cogadh Righ Tearlach I.

There was a Post Office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...

 repeater station on the outskirts of the village which was one of only two in the Highland area classed as being of "key importance to national defence" and a "most important link in the A.D.G.B.
Air Defence of Great Britain
The Air Defence of Great Britain was a RAF command comprising substantial Army and RAF elements responsible for the air defence of the British Isles...

. It is incorrectly described as a radio station in the document and also now marked incorrectly as an "old telephone exchange". It is believed that it was a link from the RAF Sector Operations Centre at Raigmore.

Places Of Interest

  • The Rose Gardens: Auldearn has a small square at its centre named the Rose gardens, these were refurbished in 2003 and now have benches, flowerbeds and a small shelter.

  • The Doocot: On top of Castle hill, there is a 17th century pigeon loft named the Doocot or Dovecot. Inside it has hundreds of small recesses for pigeons to nest in. It was used to feed the Dunbar family of boath in the wintertime if food was scarce. It is now looked after by the National Trust of Scotland.

Farming controversy

In 2010 it was reported that meat from a bull grown from the embryo of a cow cloned
Cloning
Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...

 in the US and reared on a local farm had entered the food chain. Newmeadow farm, also known as Drumduan Farm, has the largest Holstein cattle herd in the Highlands
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...

.

External links

  • Map from the Ordnance Survey
    Ordnance Survey
    Ordnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...

  • Auldearn feature page at Undiscovered Scotland
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