Peterculter

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

Etymology
The latter part of the name has been variously written, Coulter, Culture. In the oldest parish register, which begins in the year 1674, it is uniformly written Cultur, which is probably the nearest to the original Gaelic compound word, Cul-tir--Cul, "the back," and tir, "the country," the back part of the country. As to the prefix Peter, when Popery became the established religion, chapels had been built on the opposite sides of the river, and dedicated to their respective saints, Mary and Peter; and to the name of these saints the ancient name of the place had been added. "Near by the church there is Peter's Well, and on the banks of the Dee there is Peter's Heugh."

Boundaries
It is bounded on the north by the parishes of Skene and Newhills; on the east by the parish of Banchory-Devenick; on the south by Mary Culter; and on the west by the parishes of Drumoak and Echt.

Extent
From the old fords in the Dee to the moss of Cairnhillock on the boundary with Newhills, the distance, in a direct line, is 4¾ miles; and from Moir's parks, on the east of Countesswells, to the lands of Cullerlie in Echt, the distance, also in a direct line, is nearly six miles. The whole area of the parish is computed to be 10,288¼ acres, and the common lands 359 acres.

Topography
The northern division of the parish presents a rather hilly appearance, and the surface of the southern a rugged and undulatory. On the march with Banchory-Devenick and Newhills, on the Countesswells road, the height above sea level is 402 feet; and the Kingshill wood on Countesswells, the highest land in the parish, which is all planted, is 706 feet. The bridge on the Alford road, at Bishopdams, is 379 feet; and the bridge between Easter Ord and Mill of Brotherfield, is 315 feet. The church is 8l feet; the Weather Craig, or Beanshill, is 430 feet; the Linn of Culter is 230 feet; and the hill of Eddiestone, in the north-west division, is 322 feet above sea level. All over the parish there are many marshy flats and peat bogs, traversed by rivulets and small streams; and on the higher ground there are some rocky eminences which are unfit for cultivation. On the Leuchar burn, above its junction with the Gormack, there is the Linn of Culter, which dams back the water into an extensive flat, rendering the land above, for a considerable distance, almost unfit fur cultivation, except, in very dry seasons; and on the burn of Ord, and its small tributary, the Silver burn, there are the mosses of Brotherfield and Rotten of Gairn, with many others in the northern division of the parish, almost worn out and partly brought into cultivation. Along the valley of the Dee there are the extensive haughs of Culter, bordered by steep banks of gravel and boulder rock; and with the steep banks of Murtle and of Peter's Heugh, and the rugged rocks above the paper works on the burn of Culter, rising into the higher finely wooded grounds of Culter House, Murtle, Bieldside, and Binghill, which are overtopped by the Weather Craig, and the woods of Countesswells, the scenery is varied and interesting.

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