Glenbuchat Heritage

1 Jonston Family of Glenbuchat

Johnston Family of Glenbuchat

The sections of this album are:

1 Gordon and Sadie Johnston

2 Gordon & Sadie’s Wedding photos 1

3 Gordon & Sadie’s Wedding photos 2

4 Gordon & Sadie’s Wedding photos 3

5 Johnston and Duncan Family history Links to pictures of the Johnston Family



1 Gordon and Sadie Johnston of the Smiddy Glenbuchat

Pictures above show:
1 Gordon Johnston 2024
2 & 3 glenbuchat Smiddy under rebuilding
4 Vans at Gordon’s of Alford
5 Dormobile and Caravan of Gordon’s of Alford

I am grateful to Gordon and Sadie Johnston for relating their experiences of Glenbuchat and Strathdon and to permit the use of their wedding photos showing residents of the Glen. I am also grateful to find the pictures from the Gordon’s of Alford site which is noted at the end of the article. Well worth a viewing.

In previous times when the population of Glenbuchat was nearly 600 and people rarely travelled beyond the Glen, intermarriage between the families was fairly common.

Now, with few young folks in the Glen it is very unlikely to happen. Perhaps one of the last ones in the Glen was between Gordon Johnston of the Milton and Margaret Jean Duncan (Sadie) whose father was a gamekeeper at the Edinglassie and grandparents lived at Belnaboth. Glenbuchat

Sadie’s grandparents, Alex and Maggie Duncan previously lived at the Upper Lodge in Glenbuchat and he was the Gamekeeper for the Glenbuchat estate. They retired to East Belnaboth, Glenbuchat. Sadie went to the School at Strathdon. She eventually worked for 18 months in the Craigton Shop run by James Davidson and Robert Davidson, her uncle, before it was sold and finally closed in the early 1970’s. She recalls that the shop was full of a wide range of items and that Robert Davidson took the van and went into Aberdeen once a week for supplies. If someone wanted something he did not have he would obtain it in his weekly run.

It is obvious that she would meet the young Gordon Johnston from the Milton, just a 1/4 miles from the shop. They married in 1966

The Johnston family, in the early 1900’s, lived in a croft at Beltimb in one of the last thatched cruck built cottages as shown in the following link: Click for Details of Cruck Built Cottages

Gordon’s father, John Johnston, was born there in 1900 and later moved to the Milton Croft in 1943 as it was a bigger farm. Gordon was one of four boys, John, George, William Alan, and himself. His father had been in the home Guard during WW2

Gordon went to the local Glenbuchat School where he was a fellow pupil with George and Willie Farquharson of the Mill of Glenbuchat.
Glenbuchat School 1960

From the age of 5 to 11 Gordon had one teacher, Miss Walker. After Glenbuchat he went to the Towie secondary school

Gordon recalls the many characters that lived around Craigton in Glenbuchat.

Gordon remembers Jean Farquharson of Badenyon Cottage. Apparently one night of snow she had gone outside the cottage and was found by the postman in the morning, dead in the snow.
Click for more about Jean Farquharson

In Maryfield Cottage was a Miss Clark and then Jimmy Bisset, a Keeper at the upper lodge.

In Craig cottage was Charles Fraser previously Grieve at the Kirkton Farm

In Bowiebank Cottage Right were Waldie and Jess Thomson. Their daughter Ellen married George, Johnston, Gordon’s brother

In West Broombrae lived John and Mary Sinclair and Robert Shepherd and family in East Broombrae.

In Woodside was his Aunt, Jean Davidson, married to Robert Davidson. Jean was Sadie’s father’s sister

In Rose Cottage lived Effie Leslie

In Weavers Cottage lived Postie Tait and later it was rented by Kenny Henderson.

In Braehead were Jessie and William Thom

In Balnagowan Craft were Isabella and Alexander Shand

In Craighead were Jock and Mary Davidson and George Hay. Occasionally they had a long-term lodger Gerald Addison

In Smiddyford were Jimmy Gant and Edith Grant

In Sunnybrae were John and Margaret Mackie

The Glenbuchat Hall was not used very much except for the annual Burns Supper.

After leaving School, Gordon went to Aberdeen Technical College and spent 6 months on a general building skills course. He then switched to joinery and worked with Messrs R and J Reid Limited, carpenters. Mr Bremner Joiner from Belnaboth Glenbuchat also worked with the firm and Gordon helped build the stage extension stage at the hall under the guidance of Eddie Coutts, Glenkindie.

Sadie recalls at a Burns supper 1958 seeing the angels painted in the hall. The three Angels were apparently painted on the left-hand slope looking from the stage from stage (Sunnyside farm side) and were painted in pastel colours.

After their marriage in 1966, Gordon and Sadie moved to a number of different homes along with Gordon’s employment. Including, Murcar, Dunecht Estate, and Alford. In Alford he worked for a while Gordons of Alford. During that time, he drove the furniture van delivering carpets and furniture. Twice a year they toured the west coast for two weeks with a car towing a caravan, a lorry and a bus. The bus had sides that opened up to create an accessible display area. The group would take over a local hall and set out displays of carpets and furniture in the style of a room and take orders from the local visitors.

Click for video of Gordons of Alford

James Gordon opened his first store in Alford in Aberdeenshire in 1923 and from modest beginnings the business expanded, proving highly successful and attracting not only locals but enticing people out from the city of Aberdeen and everywhere round and about – for it sold nearly everything at one time.

It was back in the 1930s that Gordon’s first drapery van took the shop out to farms in outlying areas in this agricultural part of the world. Twice a year Gordon’s made the run over the west and north, in April and October – providing the west’s first fashion show with professional models from Aberdeen. Women, not only in the Vale but right across the west came to rely on Gordon’s for their annual replacement corsets.

In 1978 Gordon and Sadie moved back to Strathdon.

In the past few years, since about 2016, Gordon and Sadie have been doing up the Old Smiddy at Culstriffen Glenbuchat, to make a family home.

The Smiddy was built about 1860 and was unusual in that it had a forge at both ends a small one and a large one. Apparently, it was last used by Jock Riddel from Glenkindie in the 1950’s. After that it was used as a Joiner’s workshop by Willie Gordon who worked for the Glenbuchat Estate. George, Gordon’s brother bought the Milton, Drumnagarrow Tombreck and the smiddy about 1974.

The Smiddy was empty and unused from the 1970’s.

Gordon and Sadie have transformed the derelict unloved Smiddy into a well-appointed modern home but have kept the outside appearance of a local cottage.

Gordon’s of Alford

Notes from video of Gordons of Alford

James Gordon opened his first store in Alford in Aberdeenshire in 1923 and from modest beginnings the business expanded, proving highly successful and attracting not only locals but enticing people out from the city of Aberdeen and everywhere round and about – for it sold nearly everything at one time.

It was back in the 1930s that Gordon’s first drapery van took the shop out to farms in outlying areas in this agricultural part of the world. Twice a year Gordon’s made the run over the west and north, in April and October – providing the west’s first fashion show with professional models from Aberdeen. Women, not only in the Vale but right across the west came to rely on Gordon’s for their annual replacement corsets.