Echt, Aberdeenshire

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Echt
Echt church.jpg
Echt church, built 1804
Aberdeenshire UK location map.svg
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Echt
Location within Aberdeenshire
Population300 
OS grid reference NJ739055
Council area
Lieutenancy area
  • Aberdeenshire
Country Scotland
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town WESTHILL
Postcode district AB32
Police Scotland
Fire Scottish
Ambulance Scottish
UK Parliament
Scottish Parliament
List of places
UK
Scotland
57°08′26″N2°26′04″W / 57.14054°N 2.43455°W / 57.14054; -2.43455

Echt (Scottish Gaelic : Eicht) is an Aberdeenshire crossroads village in northeast Scotland with a population of approximately 300 people. Echt has a number of prehistoric remains, including the Barmekin of Echt [1] which is on a hill to the northwest. There is also the Cullerlie stone circle near Sunhoney Farm, which may date from the Bronze Age. [2]

Contents

Echt contains a church, village shop/post office, restaurant (Echt Tandoori) and pleasure park with a designated area of children's play equipment and local football matches are held. The annual Echt Show, a farmers' show, is held on the 2nd Saturday in July.

It is centred on the junction of the B977 DunechtBanchory road and the B9119 Kingsford—Ordie road. It is some 12+12 miles (20.1 km) from the city of Aberdeen.

Literary associations

Echt was the birthplace, in 1896, of Chris Guthrie, the fictional heroine of Lewis Grassic Gibbon's trilogy A Scots Quair . [3] In the 1890s, Jean Baxter, author of the collection of poems in Scots A' Ae 'Oo (1928), spent part of her childhood in the village, while her family kept the Balcarres Arms Hotel. [4]

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References

  1. Historic Environment Scotland. "Barmekin Of Echt (18522)". Canmore . Retrieved 9 April 2021.
  2. Historic Environment Scotland. "Cullerlie (18548)". Canmore . Retrieved 9 April 2021.
  3. Gibbon, Lewis Grassic (2015), Sunset Song , Polygon, Edinburgh, p. 28, ISBN   9781846973574,
  4. Baxter, Alison (2024), Another Song at Sunset: Jean Baxter; Scots poet and friend of Lewis Grassic Gibbon, ISBN   9798340910509,

Further reading