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3 Mackie Place
42 This photograph shows No. 3 Mackie Place, Aberdeen, in around 1870.
The street was named after Robert Mackie, a skinner who was Convener of the Incorporated Trades.
At No. 6 Mackie Place there was a haunted house known as the 'The Castle' or 'The White House'. It was located to the south west of Nos. 4 and 5 next to the Denburn. It was the home of the Forbes family who printed the Castle Spectre magazine.
No. 6 Mackie Place was in time demolished to make way for Esslemont Avenue. Due to the demolition, the Forbes family moved across the Denburn to the property off Skene Street known as 'the Galleries' in around 1882. It stood in the ground to the rear of No. 1 Mackie Place and has also subsequently been demolished.
No. 3 Mackie Place is located to the east of Nos. 4 and 5, on the north side of the Denburn, and still stands today. Pennan
2955 A photograph of Pennan by James Porter taken from Buchan Illustrated (1904). The book was one of a number of pictorial albums of Aberdeenshire published by the offices of the Aberdeen Daily Journal and the Evening Express. The book was bound for the publishers by W. J. Middleton, Adelphi Works.
All its 80 photographs were taken by James Porter, then based at 6 Schoolhill. He was a well-known and prominent photographer, considered to be one of the first in the City to work with newspapers.
Porter died aged 63 on 31st May 1937 at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. His obituary can be read in the next day's Press and Journal.
Buchan Illustrated accompanies the photograph of Pennan with the following text:
"The beautiful bay of Pennan is the haunt of artists; its village stretches along the margin of the sea under the shadow of rugged cliffs which rise abruptly above the houses to the height of 200 feet. In storms the houses are occasionally flooded at high water. The view from the Red Head of Pennan (562 feet) is a notable one - to the westward, Troup Head; to the eastward, a long line of indented coast; across the Moray Firth, many of the great mountains of Ross, Sutherland, and Caithness." Aberdeen Theatres: The Maid of the Mountains
3361 The colourful front cover of the theatre flyer for a run of the popular musical. The show started on 10th December 1935 and ran for 5 days. The programme was created by publishing a firm from London called S. C. Allen & Company. The Maid of the Mountains
251 The colourful front cover of the theatre flyer for a run of the popular musical at His Majesty's Theatre on Rosemount Viaduct. The show started on 10th December 1935 and ran for 5 days. The programme was created by publishing a firm from London called S. C. Allen & Company. Treasure 77: The Castle Spectre, 1876 - 1888
288 One of our treasures this month is a rare periodical known as The Castle Spectre. It is unusual as it was printed and published by a Victorian family from their home at 'The Castle', 6 Mackie Place, and later from 'The Galleries' on Skene Street West, and offers an insight into the lives of a middle-class family in Victorian Aberdeen. The copy on display was gifted to the library by the editor, Alexander D Forbes in 1888, and includes a handwritten letter to the City Librarian at the time.
It not only contains amateur poetry, literature, and social and religious commentary, but also sheds a light on a forgotten and mysterious dwelling place in the heart of the city. The area in question is the land behind Skene Street, encompassing Mackie Place, and the grounds of three old houses long since demolished by the Denburn - Cherry Vale, 'The Galleries', and the White House, also known as 'The Castle'.
As long as 'The Castle' at 6 Mackie Place existed (it was built towards the end of the 18th or beginning of the 19th century, according to various reports) it was described as being haunted. No accounts mention a specific ghost, but the eccentricities of the occupant and his young family helped to fuel the reputation for the Castle's hauntings. The first issue of The Castle Spectre (October 21, 1876) states:
"We are the dwellers in that house in the neighbourhood of Skene Street known to the "oldest inhabitants" as the Haunted House, to younger inhabitants as the Castle, and to the Post Office as No.6 Mackie Place. In former days we were "desp'rate wicked". We dressed ourselves in white sheets, and popped out upon passers by, frightening them into fits. We used to scoop out the largest turnips?and having cut out slices to represent eyes, nose, and mouth, light candles in them, and stick them on poles in hedges?We used to lie behind low walls and growl like bears, or caterwaul like cats, whenever any weakly-looking person was passing?In short, we were the terror of the neighbourhood."
View the Treasures from our Collections interactive exhibition on the touchscreens in Central, Airyhall, Tillydrone and Mastrick libraries to find out more about the spooky publication and mysterious Mackie Place. Treasure 123: George Washington Wilson in the Highlands and Islands
346 In July 1860, Wilson, accompanied by his friend George Walker, set off on a photographic tour of the west coast of Scotland. They travelled to Inverness, then through the Caledonian Canal. Walker expressed his delight at these new experiences "as we proceeded the scenery got always grander, the mountains loftier and more magnificent". The lack of suitable transport and accommodation had ensured that this wild and mountainous terrain was still largely unexplored by the mid-1800s and had not yet been exploited as a tourist destination. When Wilson began to visit these more remote areas they were still well off the main tourist track but his photographs which captured the grandeur of the landscape brought them to more general attention and increased their popularity for visitors. Although Wilson's views of the spectacular Highland scenery are impressive, his skilful portraits of the people and their way of life provide a valuable record of these remote areas in the late 1800s.
See more of these fascinating photographs in the Treasures from our Collections interactive exhibition on the touchscreen. |