Old Strichen, New Leeds & Pitsligo by Donna M Donald

This book features the 18th century planned villages of New Pitsligo (where our shop is located!), Strichen and New Leeds. 

These villages in the ancient kingdom of Buchan in the north east of Scotland are prime examples of planned communities, laid out in straight rows by forward-looking land owners when the cottage industries of weaving and dying cloth were booming. Lacemaking was also a big industry in New Pitsligo - which still has a lace making club today. 

Nowadays, they are peaceful villages and thriving communities connected to the nearby towns of Fraserburgh & Peterhead, as well as the city of Aberdeen.

This book is filled with photographs of a bygone age, though if you visit, you'll see many of the buildings featured in this book are still in existence today, though many have been repurposed.

For those interested in more ancient landmarks there are many stone-age relics, standing stones and stone circles in the wooded areas around Strichen parish while the peatscrapes close to New Pitsligo are impressive in their scope.