Cassies Howff

Old Machar, Aberdeen City

Address: Cassies Howff, Whitestripes Road, Aberdeen

Latitude: 57.198745

Longitude: -2.136865

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Description: Situated on the farm of Whitestripes, in the parish of Old Machar, now only a stone’s throw from the nearest houses, the burial ground of “Cassie’s Howff” is an unusual survival. It is a circular dry-stone enclosure, about 7.5 metres in diameter, and about 1 meter high. It may be that the enclosure has been used as a dumping ground for stones cleared off the surrounding field, but whatever the reason, the interior is level with the top of the dyke, and a small spinney of trees grows out of the top of it. Volume III of “Aberdeen Journal Notes and Queries” includes an article on it, dated March 16, 1910, written by one of my more careful graveyarding predecessors, Mr R. Murdoch-Lawrence, and the site is also included in the CANMORE database of the Royal Commission for the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland. Of the two, Mr Murdoch-Lawrence’s is the more accurate and complete account: CANMORE states that “A single red sandstone marker of 18th century date, which has broken into at least seven pieces, lies on top of the mound”, but the stone is clearly of 17th century design and date, and Murdoch-Lawrence includes a clear sketch of it, which, paired with a recent image, will be found in the colour section. While it follows a fairly common pattern for 17th century grave-slabs, the stone is only about half the usual size of most such stones, being at most 1 metre long. Most of the inscription can still be made out. I can find no other references to the burial ground, nor any indication that anyone else was ever buried there.