An Introduction to our History

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Portlethen History
Stone Age
Pre 12th Century
13th - 16th Century
17th - 20th Century
The Villages

The biggest and most difficult challenge in developing these pages was attempting to put together a sequential timeline in respect to the history of Portlethen and the surrounding lands. In the early days there wasn’t much in the way of people staying in the area and even less in the way of literature explaining land development and the role of the early landowners in respect to that land. Once the lands began to be parcelled into Baronies and Estates the picture became a little clearer however even then there were gaps in time where it was impossible to give a true and accurate account, even with the onset of written records becoming available. 

At times it was difficult to interpret these early accounts because of inaccuracies in records, slight differences in dates, transcripts written in Latin, and large gaps in time for which there doesn’t seem to be any written account at all. As we moved into more recent times, the task didn’t become any easier in deciphering who was who and who owned what, and the fact that there were many landowners from the same family or of the same or similar names, often century’s apart, caused much confusion. At times, rocket science or advanced brain surgery seemed a more attractive prospect for me to research.

In this section I have leaned heavily on the book “History of the Parish of Banchory Devenick” by John A. Henderson which was written in 1890. This gave me a basic grounding and understanding of the Estates of Findon and Portlethen from approximately the 13th century onwards and from there I have fleshed things out as much as I could using other sources of literature, visits to the library and university, looking at estate drawings from years gone by and I’ve even gone as far as looking at the title deeds of some of the more recent properties in our area to glean some additional insights. 

I would love to guarantee 100% accuracy in this section however there is a possibility that I may have an odd name out of place or in the wrong sequence, maybe I may have omitted a landowner who played a key role in the development of the area or perhaps I’ve made an assumption that is not quite true. For any mistakes, anomalies or anything I have omitted in this section, I apologise. I will correct and update anything should fresh information become available.