Lonmay

A New History of Aberdeenshire, Alexander Smith (Ed), 1875

Etymology
This parish has been named Longmey, Lonmey, and Lonmay, and may have been derived from the Gaelic Lon-magh, which signifies a long plain field, which is descriptive enough of the north-eastern, or sea-board half of the parish, and where the church stands. It also has been named St. Colm´s, from the name of the saint to whom the old church had been dedicated.

Boundaries
It is bounded on the north-west by the parish of Rathen; on the north-east by the German ocean, along which it has a sea-board of three miles, six furlongs; on the south by Crimond, a small corner with St. Fergus and Longside; and on the south south-west by Old Deer and Strichen parishes.

Extent
The greatest length of the parish from south to north, in a direct line, and including the interjecting portion of Crimond, is about 8½ miles from Cortiecram on the North Ugie to the fish town of St. Colm´s; and the greatest breadth, also in a direct line, from the mouth or outlet of the loch of Strathbeg; to near the Spillars-ford, at the Lonmay Station, is 4¾ miles. The whole area is computed to be 12,000 acres, 359 decs.

Topography
In the southern parts of the parish, the land rises from the burn of Newark, to a considerable elevation at the Cross or Causay of Kininmonth, thence descending westwards to the Strichen boundary, and the north branch of the Ugie at the Mills of Gaval, in Old Deer, and to Cortiecram, bordering with Longside. The central division is comparatively flat, rising in gentle slopes from the houses of Crimonmogate and Craigellie, Knowsie and Belfatten, to Park, 217 feet, which is near the western boundary of the parish. In the eastern, or Cairness division, the table land stretches from the loch of Strathbeg, by the north lodge of Cairness (119 feet), to Inverallochy in Rathen. The sea shore, between the mouth of the burn of Rattray, and the village of St. Colm´s is a sandy beach, bordered by low drifted sand-hills, covered with bent, having numerous green knolls on the landward side, but on that portion between the loch and the sea the sand hills are but a narrow broken ridge, of no great height.

[A New History of Aberdeenshire, Alexander Smith (Ed), 1875]