Buchan, a district of NE Aberdeenshire. It originally extended from the Don to the Deveron; it afterwards was curtailed by detaching from it the district of Formartine; and it now extends from the Ythan to the Deveron, or includes all the parts of Aberdeenshire N and NNE of the Ythan; but it is obscurely bounded over the few miles, in the NW, between the sources of the Ythan and the course of the Deveron. Its outline is almost circular, with a diameter of about 27½ miles. Its coast, particularly at what are called the Bullers of Buchan, shows interesting features; but its interior is mainly low and monotonous, and nowhere has a higher elevation than Mormond Hill, whose summit rises to an altitude 769 feet above sea-level. The prevailing rock is granite. The district is subdivided into Deer or Buchan proper, comprising 13 parishes, and Ellon, comprising 8 parishes. The chief towns are Peterhead and Fraserburgh; and the chief villages are Ellon, Stewartfield, Mintlaw, Longside, Old Deer, New Deer, Strichen, New Pitsligo, Cuminestown, New Byth, Turriff, Crimond, St Combs, Rosehearty, and Aberdour. The district, in its original extent, was anciently an earldom, with feudal jurisdiction, vested in the Comyn family till their forfeiture in 1309; and also was a deanery in the diocese of Aberdeen. A modern earldom of Buchan was created in 1469 in favour of the Erskine family, and descended in 1857 to David Stuart Erskine, thirteenth Earl. Hislordship's seat is Amondell in Linlithgowshire. Twenty-six parishes-Aberdour, Auchterless, Crimond, Cruden, New Deer, Old Deer, Ellon, Forglen, Foveran, Fraserburgh, Fyvie, King-Edward, Logie - Buchan, Longside, Lonmay, Methlick, Monquhitter, Pitsligo, Rathen, St Fergus, Slains, Strichen, Tarves, Turriff, Tyrie, and Udny -constitute the Buchan poor-law combination. The poorhouse, on the brow of a knoll, a little S of Maud Junction, is a conspicuous edifice, with accommodation for 138 inmates. The U.P. synod has a presbytery of Buchan, with churches at Fraserburgh, New Deer, New Leeds, Peterhead, Rosehearty, Savoch of Deer, Stewartfield, and Whitehill. See J. P. Pratt's History of Buchan (Ab. 1859), and Peter's Peat-Mosses of Buchan (Ab. 1876).
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