Who Are We

Aboyne and Deeside Heritage Society has over 90 members, young and not so young, who are creating and sharing an interest in the heritage and culture of Aboyne and Deeside and the community’s relationship with the wider world.

Strachans Shop
An early outing of the society showing the committee enjoying the sunshine. Note the rather relaxed pose of the gentleman next to the van?
Where could this be?

NEWS – Cursor down to the bottom left of this page for details of an upcoming (non-ADHS) talk in Banchory

The historic stained-glass window in the Huntly Arms, Aboyne.
Photographed at the Aboyne Games in 1930, the Marquis of Aberdeen and the Marquis of Huntly are smiling , but it is not really clear that they completely get Sir Harry Lauder’s joke.

Meetings

Upcoming talk in Banchory by Douglas Ledingham is not an ADHS event, but may be of interest to the archeologists amongst our members.

 Douglas Cameron Riach
1946 – 2022
Chairman of Aboyne & Deeside Heritage Society
An Appreciation. 

The sudden passing of our Chairman Douglas Riach after a short illness has touched us all greatly.
 He gave his time generously to many causes and activities within the Aboyne community and beyond including the Aboyne Festival, Aboyne & Upper Deeside Rotary Club, Forget Me Not Alzheimer’s Society and the Aboyne Men’s Shed.
 
For the members of the Aboyne & Deeside Heritage Society he will be remembered most for his bonhomie, scholarship, wry good humour and tireless enthusiasm in fashioning  the society as it is today.

In 2016 Douglas and his fellow Society  committee members put  together the successful Aboyne Heritage Walk booklet, a task which had members researching the archives, interviewing local residents  and not sleeping for weeks on end!

In  2017 Douglas was instrumental in organising an Aboyne Heritage exhibition at the Victory Hall, showcasing Aboyne’s past with the help of many other groups within the village, more recently he assisted the Victory Hall centenary team in staging an exhibition of the Halls‘ history.

He was keenly interested in archaeology especially the Picts on which he was an acknowledged expert, having gathered artefacts from the period and arranging society outings to  archaeological digs as well as other sites of historical interest in the North East of Scotland.


Douglas, a respected historian of some note, appeared to know everyone who was anyone in the history departments of universities both here and in the United States. To this end and though various other contacts he put together the majority of speakers for each season whilst Chair of the Society. Such was the eclectic nature of the speakers that members were bound to learn something new from the evening. The speakers would always have a link, however tenuous at times, to Aboyne, Aberdeenshire or on occasion, to much general mirth, his home county of Fife which he tirelessly promoted as being twinned with Eden.
Douglas ensured a lively meeting and discussion following the presentations and would lead off with searching questions of the speakers to encourage questions from the floor.

Your committee will endeavour to maintain Douglas’ high standards and we owe it to him to continue to bring a varied programme for your interest and entertainment. His particular joy was the social gathering at the end of each talk over teas and home bakes where he made an effort to speak to as many members as possible, a tradition that you can be assured will continue.