The Aberdeenshire Canal

Previous: Aberdeen - Woodside

As we enter the village of Bucksburn, we can once more pick up on bits of the Aberdeenshire canal, but most of them are pretty oblique compared to the Woodside bridge.

The first evidence of the canal can best be observed in the car park of Ferguson Court, a 1980s deveolpment of flats built on the old goods yard at Bucksburn Station. At the south end of this land, a very old wall retains land between the old goods yard and the A96/old A947 (the old turnpike to Banff, built after the canal opened). This now runs immediately behind various shops on the junction, but is believed to have had a role with the canal as well, with the canal running on top of it. After crossing Bucksburn's Station Road, the canal ran through the Staging Post pub, crossing a culvert over the Buck's Burn on its way.

Looking towards Aberdeen. The canal would have run along the low wall to the bottom right. The middle height wall may also be associated with the canal, as a similar one exists on the line north of Kittybrewster.

Looking towards Port Elphinstone - note how the canal disappears under the Staging Post pub on the right of the picture.

The canal would have run on top of the high wall in the centre of the picture. The light grey building marks the site of the crossing of the Buck's Burn.

This culvert has apparently be reappropriated for the section of Station Road that curves under the railway viaduct, but this is puzzling, as a) this section of Station Road is a lot lower that the line of the canal seems to be, and b) the route of the canal seems to run further south, adjacent to the main road and on top of a large retaining wall.

The culvert crossing the canal, which is very inaccessable today. The road (Station Road) is at a lower level than the canal which ran on top of the wall in the background.

North of this, the canal passes through No.36 Oldmeldrum Road, and then through the Churchyard of St. Machar's Church. The southwest side of the land appears to have a low embankment running through it, adjacent to Oldmeldrum Road (the Banff turnpike), which seems to be a fragment of the canal, which would have then run immediately south of the church and No.42, both of which were built after the canal had closed, but immediately north of its route so that their foundations would not be affected by the old bed.

looking southwest, the low embankment on the right appears to be the remains of the canal. The house in the centre of the picture is No. 36 Oldmeldrum Road (the old turnpike); the cars are parked on this.

North of this, the surrounding area has been remodelled considerably since the railway replaced the canal, with the construction of the Bankhead bypass in the 1970s, and the rerouting of the junction of the Banff and Inverness roads in the late 1990s. But one other artefact survives in the area. Just after Mugiemoss Road leaves the old route of Oldmeldrum Road, there is a track that leads to a disused car park on the north side. To one side at its entrance stands a canal milestone - distinctive as it is the stone for 4½ miles - tunpike stones only marked 'whole' miles. It has certainly moved from its original position, which is now impossible to guess at.

The canal milestone for 4½ miles, the first surviving milestone out of Aberdeen.

Next: Bankhead and Stoneywood