The historic Aberdeenshire is traditionally divided into five districts: •
Mar, mostly between the Dee and Don, which nearly covers the southern half of the county and contains Aberdeen. It is mountainous, especially
Braemar, which contains the greatest mass of elevated land in the
British Isles. The Dee valley has sandy soil, the
Don valley loamy. •
Formartine, between the lower Don and Ythan, has a sandy coast, which is succeeded inland by a clayey, fertile, tilled tract, and then by low hills, moors, mosses and tilled land. •
Buchan lies north of the Ythan, and comprising the north-east of the county, is next in size to Mar, parts of the coast being bold and rocky, the interior bare, low, flat, undulating and in places peaty. On the coast, six miles (10 km) south of
Peterhead, are the Bullers of Buchan – a basin in which the sea, entering by a natural arch, boils up violently in stormy weather.
Keith Inch is the
most easterly point of mainland Scotland. •
Garioch, in the centre of the shire, comprises an undulating, loamy, fertile valley, formerly called the granary of Aberdeen. •
Strathbogie, occupying a considerable area south of the Deveron, mostly consists of hills, moors and mosses. The interior mountains of the
Cairngorms provide the most striking of the physical features of the county.
Munros (peaks over 3000 feet) in the county include: •
Ben Macdhui, , the second highest mountain in the
United Kingdom (on the border with Banffshire) •
Braeriach •
Cairn Toul, •
Beinn a' Bhùird, •
Ben Avon, • "Dark"
Lochnagar, • Cairn Eas, , • Sgarsoch, •
Culardoch Farther north rise the Buck of Cabrach, on the Banffshire border,
Tap o' Noth, ,
Bennachie, , which from its central position is a landmark visible from many different parts of the county, and which is celebrated in
John Imlah's song,
O gin I war faur the Gadie rins, and Foudland, . in winter The chief rivers are the
Dee, long; the Don, ; the
Ythan, , with mussel-beds at its mouth; the
Ugie, , and the Deveron, , partly on the boundary of Banffshire. A pearl in the Scottish crown is said to be from the Ythan.
Loch Muick, the largest of the few lakes in the county, above the sea, long and broad, lies some southwest of
Ballater.
Loch Strathbeg, southeast of Fraserburgh, is only separated from the sea by a narrow strip of land. There are noted
chalybeate springs at Peterhead, Fraserburgh, and Pannanich near
Ballater. Other lochs of note are
Loch Kinord,
Loch Davan,
Dubh Loch,
Lochnagar,
Loch Callater,
Loch nan Eun and the
Loch of Skene.
Geology The greater part of the county is composed of crystalline
schists belonging to the
metamorphic rocks of the Eastern Highlands. In the upper parts of the valleys of the Dee and the Don they form well-marked groups, of which the most characteristic are: • the black schists and
phyllites, with flints, and a thin band of
tremolite limestone, • the main or
Blair Atholl limestone, • the
quartzite. These divisions are folded on highly inclined or vertical axes trending north-east and south-west, and hence the same zones are repeated over a considerable area. The quartzite is generally regarded as the highest member of the series. Excellent sections showing the component strata occur in
Glen Clunie and its tributary valleys above Braemar. Eastwards down the Dee and the Don and northwards across the plain of Buchan towards
Rattray Head and Fraserburgh there is a development of
biotite gneiss, partly of
sedimentary and perhaps partly of
igneous origin. A belt of slate which has been quarried for roofing purposes runs along the west border of the county from Turriff by Auchterless and the
Foudland Hills towards the Tap o' Noth near
Gartly. The metamorphic rocks have been invaded by igneous materials, some before, and by far the larger series after the folding of the strata. The basic types of the former are represented by the sills of
epidiorite and
hornblende gneiss in Glen Muick and
Glen Callater, which have been permeated by
granite and
pegmatite in
veins and
lenticles, often foliated. The later granites subsequent to the plication of the schists have a wide distribution on the Ben Macdhui and Ben Avon range, and on Lochnagar; they stretch eastwards from Ballater by Tarland to Aberdeen and north to Bennachie. Isolated masses appear at Peterhead and at Strichen. Though consisting mainly of biotite granite, these later intrusions pass by intermediate stages into
diorite, as in the area between Balmoral and the head-waters of the
River Gairn. The granites have been extensively quarried at
Rubislaw, Peterhead and
Kemnay.
Serpentinite and
troctolite, the precise age of which is uncertain, occur at the
Black Dog Rock north of Aberdeen, at Belhelvie and near
Oldmeldrum. Where the schists of sedimentary origin have been pierced by these igneous intrusions, they are charged with contact minerals such as
sillimanite,
cordierite,
kyanite and
andalusite. Cordierite-bearing rocks occur near Ellon, at the foot of Bennachie, and on the top of the Buck of Cabrach. A banded and mottled
calc-silicate hornfels occurring with the
limestone at Derry Falls, west-northwest of Braemar, has yielded
malacolite,
wollastonite, brown
idocrase,
garnet,
sphene and hornblende. A larger
list of minerals has been obtained from an exposure of limestone and associated beds in
Glen Gairn, about four miles (6 km) above the point where that river joins the Dee. Narrow belts of Old Red
Sandstone, resting unconformably on the old platform of
slates and schists, have been traced from the north coast at Peterhead by Turriff to
Fyvie, and also from Huntly by Gartly to
Kildrummy Castle. The strata consist mainly of
conglomerates and sandstones, which, at Gartly and at
Rhynie, are associated with lenticular bands of
andesite indicating contemporaneous
volcanic action. Small outliers of conglomerate and sandstone of this age have recently been found in the course of excavations in Aberdeen. The glacial deposits, especially in the belt bordering the coast between Aberdeen and Peterhead, furnish important evidence. The ice moved eastwards off the high ground at the head of the Dee and the Don, while the mass spreading outwards from the Moray Firth invaded the low plateau of
Buchan; but at a certain stage there was a marked defection northwards parallel with the coast, as proved by the deposit of red
clay north of Aberdeen. At a later date the local
glaciers laid down materials on top of the red clay. The committee appointed by the
British Association proved that the Greensand, which has yielded a large suite of
Cretaceous fossils at Moreseat in the parish of
Cruden, occurs in glacial drift, resting probably on granite. The strata from which the Moreseat fossils were derived are not now found in place in that part of
Scotland. Chalk flints are widely distributed in the drift between Fyvie and the east coast of Buchan. At Plaidy a patch of clay with Liassic fossils occurs. At several localities between Logie Coldstone and Dinnet a deposit of
diatomite (
Kieselguhr) occurs beneath the
peat.
Flora and fauna The tops of the highest mountains have an Arctic flora. At the royal lodge on
Loch Muick, above the sea, grow larches, vegetables, currants, laurels, roses, etc. Some ash-trees, 1 to 1.5 m (4 or 5 ft) in girth, grow at above the sea. Trees, especially Scotch fir and larch, grow well, and Braemar has plentiful natural timber, said to surpass any in the north of
Europe. Stumps of Scotch fir and oak found in peat sometimes far exceed any now growing in size. Moles occur at above the sea, and squirrels at . Grouse, partridges and hares abound, and rabbits are often numerous. Red deer abound in Braemar, which in 1911 had the most extensive deer forest in
Scotland. ==Economy==