Cowie Village


Winter Scene-----Photo by Martin Sim


The original Cowie Village had been situated on the eastern slope of Megray Hill but it was destroyed by fire by the orders of the Marquis of Montrose in 1645. Down below was the roadway, still visible behind Cowie House, the inn and other buildings, e.g. the smithy nearby, the farmhouse where Cowie House now stands and beside the sea the chapel of St. Nathalan and the castle on the rock. It seems likely at this time the Cowie Burn flowed along the foot of the brae through what is now the Cowie village, for the small creek which later formed Cowie Harbour seems to be the place where the burn would have joined the sea.
In Mr Longmuir’s account the mouth had changed and the burn had gone out at the “Hole Moue” or the gap between the two groups of houses at the south end of the village. Twice the burn has flooded and burst its banks in 1862 and in 1930 and on both occasions it has made its way out at the “Hole Mou.” In 1862 it carried a millstone with it and in the 1930 flood the millstone was seen, after the flood receded, buried in the sand.
The modern village of Cowie is largely as it was when the village was moved down to the shore, except for the fact that a seaward row of houses has been demolished, and a new council house scheme has been added behind the original high street of the village.
The main street was parallel to the shore and was bordered by houses on both sides. To the south there was an open square and on the south side of it stood a small inn. Another row of houses facing the sea and on the north side of the “Hole Mou” was for a time connected by a bridge to the most southerly row, the Links. The bridge crossed the “Saut Peel” or “The Peelies” which were large pools left by the course of the burn. Latterly a road was built between the Peelies and the bridge disappeared. That piece of road is still known by the natives of the village as “Between the Peelies.”
At the end of the Links nearest Stonehaven was the little school, which was run by a Miss Riddell who, though not educated in the modern sense of the word, did wonderful work among the children ion the village.
The rows of cottages received names in the Rev. Disney Innes’s time: the one beside the caravan park being Helen Row; that facing the caravan park is Amy Row. Helen, Amy Burnett of Monboddo was the wife of the Rev. Disney Innes.
Amy Row was known by the older folk as the Stripside because of the small open stripe, which took the surface from the main road.
The Coastguard Station and houses were built in 1926 and in 1953 the new housing scheme cane into being. Several individual houses have been added, two in Willow Row in the thirties and four council houses in the sixties as well as the house attached to the salmon station which used to be at Skatie Shore and is now at Cowie.
The little harbour is a sorry sight now but at one time there were two piers one of which had a small jetty. The fishermen themselves built these piers. They received some assistance from the laird in the shape of supplies of cement. The lower one was built first but probably it had been too low to be of much use. The other one was higher and as late as 1940 was in good repair.
Unfortunately two old men put their heads together and persuaded the powers at be that if the end of the pier was broken, the high tides would not dash up on the road. The result has been disastrous. What used to be a lovely little shore has been scoured out and the pier itself has disintegrated.
In the early days the green above the shore was known as the Boat Haugh and there in winter the boats were pulled up out of “sea-jag.”
In the 1980’s there was a marine station where the present salmon station is. It was attached to Aberdeen University Zoological Department. The men made researches on the fish brought in by the fishermen and any unusual catch they made. The weatherglass used by the students was presented to the oldest fisherman when the research station closed. It still hangs in one of the cottages.
There had been a great deal of erosion during this century. Behind the row of houses near the sea was a green bank stretching along between the village and the Beach, as far as the swimming pool. This was known as the Hillocks and a path twinkled to and fro between the tussocks
In 1940 the last of the ruins of the houses nearest the sea were demolished and a row of “Hitler’s Tombstones” was arrayed along front. Later after a fatal accident involving a boy, the cement blocks were laid on their sides to make a sort of wall, which did protect the village a little from the inroads of the sea. But in the fifties it was agreed to build a protecting wall and now except in exceptionally high Spring Tides or storms, the houses are reasonably safe from flooding.

This is an extract from the book “The Empty Shore” by Elizabeth Christie