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Continued entries/extra info

[Page] 87
Parish of Old Machar

[Continued from previous page] Brig o' Balgownie or Bridge of Don - Extract from a description of bothe Touns of Aberdeene.
by James Gordon, Parson of Rothemay

"It remayns onlie now
for to Speake concerning the Bridge of Done, distant about four or 500 passes
from Old Aberdeene northerlie. It consists bot of one arche, bot that verie large and high, scarcelie to be equalled, most
pairt of it builded of ashler, the two pyks thereoff foundit so upon two rocks as that they easilie breake the Streame of the river,
one of them receiving it in a bosome, befor it meet with the bridge. Such as see it would think that nature hade shaped
that place for a bridge. From the bridge, Done runs now straight Eastward towards the sea. Yit it is recorded that of
old the river of Done did enter into the Sea under the broad hill of the Lynks, takeing a great turne that way; and it
is affirmed that the long loch called Cannonsweets Pott, which lyeth along a pairt of the Lynks, was a pairt of the Channell
of Done, which did run along that way. Lykewayes the oldest mappes of Scotland descryve the river of Done fetching
Such a compas as is spoken of. No man can certainly tell who builded the Bridge of Done. The commone and most
probable reporte is that the renowned Prince Robert Bruisse, King of Scotland, at such time as he banished B. [Bishop] Henrie Cheyne
from his sea, and drave him out of Scotland besyde, did command for to sequester the bishopes yeerlie revenue to
be imployed towards pious uses, and that this bridge ( which is lyke to be true) was builded with a pairt of that revenue."
Extracted from "Antiquarians Gleanings from Aberdeenshire Records. pages 117 and 118. Compiled by Gavin Turreff.

[signed] James Sloan Sapper R.E. [Royal Engineers]

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