OS1/1/85/67

List of names as written Various modes of spelling Authorities for spelling Situation Description remarks
RIVER YTHAN River Ythan Mr. John Norrie, Mill of Auchedly
Mr. James Wattie, Mill of Auchedly
Mr. John Davidson, Little Meldrum
038 The "Ythan - the Ituna of the ancients which bounds the district of Buchan on the South, takes its rise in the upper part of the Parish of Forgue, from three springs called the Wells of Ythan, which uniting their waters at about twenty or thirty yards below their source, from a very respectable rivulet.
Half a mile below, the Ythan receives its first tributary, a cleer bright stream from the Glen of Aldovie, at the western base of the Kirkhill of Logie, near the summit of which there are the remains of three Druidical circles. From this point the stream flows in a northerly direction, till it reaches the Mill of Knockleith, at which place it becomes the boundary of the upper district of Buchan. It then runs in a more easterly line till it reaches Towie Barclay; after which, it takes a southwesterly direction to the port of Newburgh; and a little below this last place it discharges its waters into the German Ocean, after a course of about thirty miles.
In former times the Ythan was famous for its pearl oysters. In the lists of unpublished Acts of Parliament of Charles I., there is one for repeating the paten[t] for the pearl-fishing in the Ythan, granted to Robert Buchan."
"This" says the New Statistical report "gives countenance to a prevalint tradition that the large pearl in the junction of the water Kelly and the Ythan, was presented to James VI. in 1620 by Sir Thomas Menzies of Cults and Skene, in his Succinct view of Aberdeen, speaks of it as being "for beauty and bigness, the best that was at anytime found in Scotland." The Ythan from the pearl oysters taken in it, has been called "The rich Rig of Scotland." They are still occasionally found in this river, though there is no longer a regular fishing for them. The stream abounds in trout; and near the mouth finnocks and Salmon are still taken, though less plentiful than in former times. There are also cockles [continued on next page]

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Parish of Tarves

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