Publication Info
Publication Details
Introduction
Doune Kirkyard, Macduff Although technically in the parish of Gamrie, the former fishing village of Doune was a long way from the parish kirk of St John’s, near Gardenstown. The MIs for St John’s (published as AA181) do not mention many placenames from the western part of the parish, and it is likely that the inhabitants of Doune used the much closer kirk and kirkyard of Banff for baptisms, marriages and burials. But after the area came into the possession of the Duff family, who were Earls (and later Dukes) of Fife, a programme of expansion started: a new harbour was built, ground was feued for housing, in 1783 the place was re-named “Macduff”, and in 1805 a new kirk was erected on the Hill of Doune. This remained in theory a “chapel of ease” under the parish kirk, but from the outset, it seems to have operated more or less independently, with its own Registers of Baptism and Marriage, and soon after the kirk was erected, burials commenced. In his “Epitaphs and Inscriptions”, Jervise claims that stone 772 commemorates “ ... the first person who was buried in the cemetery at Macduff.” The date of death is 1808. Doune is an extensive burial ground, with over 900 stones. The huge task of transcribing these was initially undertaken by Lynne Forsyth but shortly after completing her first draft of the MIs, she was sadly killed in a road accident. Her family having generously passed her uncompleted work to ANESFHS, Doune was chosen as the venue for the 2004 “Graveyard Outing”, and a group of around 20 members spent a busy day checking. The results of this were typed up – but there, for over 4 years, matters rested. In September 2008, the files were passed to me, and a series of visits were made to Doune by small teams of seasoned graveyarders, with the intention of at last bringing the kirkyard to publication. The first task was to overhaul the plan of the burial ground, which had numerous errors: some stones were shown in the wrong rows, and 2 complete rows were entirely missing from the plan, so that some 20 stones had not been transcribed at all. In addition (perhaps we were lucky with the lighting?) it proved possible to decipher part or all of numerous stones which had previously been marked “unreadable”. It is just possible there is the odd stone which, with just the right angle of sunshine, might reveal a few more details, but I do not think this possibility justifies any further delay. The original draft, and the inscriptions as corrected at the Graveyard Outing, were recorded using a series of conventional abbreviations; the “new” stones added more recently have been recorded literally. All personal names are shown in bold text, and all comments or other editorial text are in italics. Gavin Bell October 2008
Comments
Doune Kirk, Macduff (parish of Gamrie), naming 2981 individuals between 1808 and 2018
