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Alford, Aberdeenshire

Village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Field	Value
country	Scotland
coordinates
static_image_name	Main Street, Alford - geograph.org.uk - 288309.jpg
official_name	Alford
scots_name	Aaford, Awfort
gaelic_name	Athfort
population
population_ref	()
unitary_scotland	Aberdeenshire
constituency_westminster	West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine
constituency_scottish_parliament	Aberdeenshire West
post_town	Alford
postcode_district	AB33
postcode_area	AB
os_grid_reference	NJ5716
edinburgh_distance	90 mi
london_distance_mi	409

Alford (pronounced or Awfort, ) is a large village in Aberdeenshire, north-east Scotland, lying just south of the River Don. It lies within the Howe of Alford (also called the Vale of Alford) which occupies the middle reaches of the River Don.

The "L" sound in the place-name has, over time, been dropped, and is silent. Alford gave its name to a battle of the Battle of Alford (1645). It is also the home of the Aberdeen Angus cattle breed, which is celebrated by a life-sized model of a bull on the edge of the village, which the Queen Mother inaugurated in 2001. It is believed that the original breeding ground of the cattle was Buffal, located between Tough (Tulloch) and Craigievar nearby Alford.

The Alford Valley Railway, Grampian Transport Museum, Alford Heritage Museum and Craigievar Castle are visitor attractions, with a range of other archaeological sites, stone circles, and castles (including Balfluig Castle, Castle Fraser and Drum Castle) also nearby. One stone circle, originally believed to be prehistoric, turned out to be a 20-year-old replica.

Sport

Alford Golf Club opened on 15 May 1981. Initially a nine-hole course, it reopened as an eighteen-hole course in May 1992.

Public transport

Alford railway station was the former terminus of the closed Alford Valley Railway branch line.

There is a bus service connecting with Aberdeen, approximately 26 mi away. There is much new housebuilding going on in Alford to cater for a workforce who mainly commute in Aberdeen to work in the oil industry. Bus services are operated by Stagecoach, with dial-a-bus services being operated by Aberdeenshire Council. Bus services connecting Alford to Aberdeen go by two different routes:

the 218 goes via Westhill
the X20 goes via Kintore and Kemnay.

Notable residents

Alford is the birthplace of the renowned poet, Charles Murray
Stewart Milne, chairman of both the Stewart Milne Group and Aberdeen Football Club was born nearby and attended school in Alford
John Forbes, minister exiled by James VI
Lord Forbes, of Forbes Castle
William McCombie, pioneer Aberdeen Angus breeder
Laura Main, actress in Call the Midwife
Emeli Sandé, award-winning singer/songwriter.
Dougie Gray, Rangers F.C. fullback
William Minto, critic and novelist

References

[http://www.scotslanguage.com/books/view/1/823/Names%20in%20Scots%20-%20Places%20in%20Scotland Scots Language Centre: Scottish Place Names in Scots]
[https://archive.today/20130415182632/http://www.scots-online.org/dictionary/read.asp?letter=A&CurPage=32 The Online Scots Dictionary].
(2010-11-10). "Rannsaich an Stòr-dàta Briathrachais Gàidhlig". .smo.uhi.ac.uk.
{{Scottish settlement population citation
"Aberdour - Anderston A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland.". S Lewis, London 1846.
Davies, Caroline. (2001-10-11). "Queen Mother helps to unveil statue of a bull". The Daily Telegraph.
(21 January 2019). "'Ancient' Stone Circle Actually Built in 1990s by Scottish Farmer".
Third, Paul. (2022-05-05). "Alford Golf Club's 40th anniversary: Steward who has been there since day one reflects on club's journey".
Beattie, Kieran. (13 October 2015). "Pensioner hit in head by golf ball as he walked down Aberdeenshire street".
Wyllie, James. (27 November 2020). "Alford Golf Club manager 'succumbed to temptation' by embezzling £12,000".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

villages-in-aberdeenshire

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