What are you doing?

Wandering down Holburn Street, the modernist eye is drawn to Trinity Hall, home to the Seven Incorporated Trades of Aberdeen.

They want us to call this "Trinity Corner". Does anyone?

The Seven Incorporated Trades of Aberdeen appears to be some sort of ancient society of craftsman guilds. So ancient, in fact, that they don't appear to have any sort of web-presence other than this treatise of 1887 by an insider. 

Previous location of the Trades Hall at the edge of Union Bridge.

Wikipedia tells us that the society comprises:

• Bakers
• Hammermen
• Shoemakers
• Weavers
• Fleshers 
• Tailors
• Wrights and Coopers

How relevant is this to today's post-industrial globalised world and the intellectual property economy? Where does it fit into today's new-economy workplace of information wranglers, knowledge workers and social media mavens? 

Well... we suppose that the definition of Hammermen could be expanded to include engineering which is probably the predominant value-adding profession in the city today. However, while we're certain that there are a few bakers and butchers (fleshers) left in the city, we're pretty sure there are no shoemakers, coopers or wheelwrights (although, we would be happy to be corrected). The textile industry left the city recently, and shut the door behind it with a klang. However, there are plenty tailors these days in Aberdeen. We wonder how many of the refugee Kurds who've set up their splendid invisible mending and alteration shops towards the west end of the city centre are members of our secretive ancient society of trades guilds. Perhaps to ask the question is to answer it.

Angles 

Anyway, the Trinity Hall itself is an interesting-enough modernist building, quite modest and mannered, yet striking and angular with butresses and cantilevers, canopies and brutalist gables, periscopic skylights and brutalist dormers. Commercial premises leased out on ground floor units and a broad semi-public semi-plaza ensure that the building contributes to the mix of uses which has always characterised the urban environment of Holburn Street. 

Mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly, greenery. Splendid.

As I was doing the David Bailey bit on the front porch - bobbing about, looking for the best composition of the thrilling juxtaposition: "modernist cantilevered canopy versus salvaged gas standard" - a white middle aged middle class man of middling build and middling height emerged from the vestibule:

He: What are you doing?

Me: You can see what I'm doing. You can see me operating my camera. What do you think I'm doing?

He: This is private property.

Me: Yes. It is also in plain view from the street and pavement.

He: Yes but this is private property.

Me: I'm not arguing with that, but you seem to be suggesting that I don't have a right to photograph what I can see with my eyes from a publicly accessible space. Is that what you're suggesting?

With that, he went back inside, mumbling darkly to himself. And I regret that I missed the chance to properly ask the function of the Seven Incorporated Trades. My answer to his question "What are you doing?" should itself have been a question: "What is it that you do? Here, in your splendid modernist hall?" We expect they do a lodda work for charidee. But as always with such organisations, we expect that this charity work is a front - a fig-leaf, and that the true reason for preserving the medieval guilds is to provide a private place where capital and power might mingle, away from the prying eyes and scrutiny of the elecorate/proletariat. Unminuted, unminded, opaque. Indeed, where once the guilds were the pre-enlightenment analogue of the labour unions (albeit with elements of a secret society and a cartel rolled in), today, it seems from the type of folk we see attending (and their motors, which benefit from special paveparking privileges), that the secret society and cartel elements have come to the fore - it's like a local mini-CBI, but with extra invitation-only blackballing exclusivity.

So maybe it's time to call time on Aberdeen's Seven Incorporated Trades. Or time for reform. We've been thinking about it here in Other Aberdeen's splendid, extensive, upscale studios in the heart of prosperous downtown Pitmuxton and we've come up with some suggestions. We propose the new Post Industrial Incorporated Perceived-Value-Adding Activities of Aberdeen:

• Tanning Booth Franchise Operators and Aesthetic Surgery Consultants
• Life Coaching and Other Therapeutic Practitioners
• Property Service Deliverers
• Public Relations Gurus
• Celebrities and their Wannabes 
• Citizen Journalists
• Fashionistas
• Baristas
• Dead People on Facebook

This will need refined - suggestions are welcome.

Sundogs!

Solar atmospheric phenomenon viewed from Granitehill about 2.30pm today.

The two rainbow-tinted patches of light flanking the sun on both left and right are called sundogs. Caused by floating ice crystals drifting high in the atmosphere and more usually seen when the sun is almost at the horizon in early morning or late evening, sundogs are a rare-enough phenomenon to observe from a city location in the mid-afternoon.

Watch the skies!
http://atmospherical.blogspot.com/

Save the Unicorn!

Saved! This unicorn by famed Aberdeen monumental mason Jack Ruddiman of Merkland Road has been saved twice. First with the demolition of Holburn St. School where he sat on the apex of the street-facing gable.

The unicorn then took pride of place on the Holburn St. frontage of the modernist slab and block building occupied by the College of Commerce which was built on the site of the former school. After that building was condemned, for about a decade the unicorn was ignominously protected by a plywood box mounted on the gable end.

Talisman House now occupies the site, but that après-post modern edifice could not find space for our mythical herald. So now he sits quietly in a corner of the reception area of ACC's Broad Street offices, seen only by those who know he's there.

We think that's a shame. It's time he was outside again.

The A to Z of Aberdeen - F

F is for Farms. And Farriers. And Footpaths.

All it takes is a few minutes leafing through a book like Diane Morgan's Lost Aberdeen or Winram Cluer's Walkin' The Mat to set us off imagining the psychogeography of Aberdeen before the modern era; mentally stripping away the buildings of the last century or more to reveal the vistas of hills and glens and watercourses and woods which they obscure. We find ourselves notionally erasing the newer roads and streets leaving the more ancient highways and footpaths which connected places of economic, spiritual or civic meaning to the people who inhabited the more natural topography of the times.

Of course, such imaginings themselves are part of the process of psychogeography, a process aided by the buildings which have survived longer than they might have and byways which have been bypassed, but vestigially remain for us to explore.

Old Mill Road. An ancient byway linking The Green
to the Justice Mills. Bypassed by the Hardgate!

It's surprising how much of the rural agricultural centres of the settlements which preceded Aberdeen's 19th and 20th century development remain.

Outseats Farm - at the southernmost end of the Hardgate.

Balmoral Terrace, off Broomhill Road

Cottage Brae - off Nellfield Place

Friendship Farmhouse - Ashley Road

Friendship Farm workers' cottages. Friendship Terrace

Newlands Mill - much altered.
Off the line and below the level of Newlands Crescent

The semi- or pre-industrial infrastructure which supported the rural economy is often still legible in the urban environment today, as we see above, some mills survive, but the past is most notable in the steadings, stables and farriers which have survived by morphing into motor-trade infrastructure and enterprises. We can imagine it happening - early 20th Century, as the horse is being shod, the farrier is asked by the footman: "Can you get some of that petroleum essence for the master's new-fangled horseless carriage - we've no idea who else to ask." Over time, more and more of the farriers' business was looking after motorcars: fewer horses, more cars. At some point, the day came when there were no horses left in the city at all, but the farriers' business continued on the same site.

The function of this stable has remained, um, stable. 

Bruce Motors, Hardgate.

Salisbury Terrace - this farrier's premises is still doing the same job as ever;
looking after your transport.

Blenheim Lane - former steading

Blenheim Lane - early 20th century garage infrastructure
tacked onto front of steading. We can imagine a hand-pumped
petrol dispenser having pride-of-place beneath the canopy.

Blenheim Lane steading - scrap metal dealing in the yard.
 A modern day knacker's yard?

No change, really.

Gairnhill Hooverville.

Over the summer we couldn't help but notice the proliferation of rough shelters in the woods around Aberdeen. Back in the spring we first noticed a young couple gathering switches in the West Woods of Craibstone - further along, we came across their nearly-complete drum-shaped wickiup complete with food supplies and sleeping bags. We didn't really think very much about it at the time - if anything, we thought it was quite romantic. We didn't photograph it, as it was clearly inhabited.

However, throughout the summer, we've seen more and more evidence of people actually living in the woods. These rough shelters are springing up in Clinterty Woods, Tollohill and most notably Gairnhill and Countesswells Wood, where we've noticed about a dozen in various stages of construction and habitation.

This one's unfinished

This put us in mind of the "Counteswells Hermit" as documented by the Aberdeen Tramps and Ither Weel Kent Fowk blog. We've not noticed this fella in a while - we did often see him in the past - from time to time he would walk past the front window of our studio in fabulous downtown upscale Pitmuxton but we can't remember having seen him any time in the last few years. We naturally worry that his outdoors lifestyle has led to his natural demise.

Are these wigwams, tepees and lean-to's a conscious artistic homage to the memory of the Counteswells Hermit? Are they trysting-hideouts for romantic young couples who lack a private space of their own, being priced out of property to buy or even lease? Or are they the first foundations of our own Aberdeen Hooverville? We know that the non-oil and gas economy's bad - but it's surely not that bad. Or is it?

Mark Chalmers blog on Urban Realm

All good stuff on our favourite architecture site Urban Realm - we've had correspondence with one of their bloggers, another psychogeographer of Aberdeen, Mark Chalmers.

His blog is recommended. We like his angle of attack.

Here he is:

Mark Chalmers blog

Public Art - Elrick Hill and Tyrebagger Woods - More.

Lots of public art to find as you explore this Forestry Commission site. Here's just a few examples:

March Stones 26 and 27 ABD - Brotherfield

In common with other cities, notably Washington DC, the historic borders of Aberdeen are marked with boundary stones - The March Stones. ("March" being mid-Scots for "boundary" or "border").

The March Stones are said to mark the boundary of lands granted to the Burgh of Aberdeen by Robert the Bruce.

The westernmost of the March Stones are at Brotherfield.

Click for a bigger version.

Stone 26 ABD is at the confluence of the Ord Burn and Silverburn. 

Stone 27 ABD is one of the more recently-made stones, its predecessor presumably having been swept away by the Ord Burn which it borders. There had been a fair bit of rain in the few days before we visited, and the burn was roaring in spate. Aside from the style of the carving, one aspect of the newer stones is that they do not follow the convention of facing inwards, towards the burgh. That is, in order to read the inscription on the older stones, one must be standing within the border. 

In order to see the inscription on Stone 27 ABD, one must be standing outwith the border. Not that it really matters.

Stone 27 ABD used to mark an artifact known as 'The Ringing Stone'. The origin of the name has been lost in time, along with the stone itself, but stones which 'ring' with a tone when struck are not uncommon - there are 'rock-gong' sites all round the world. Indeed, the recumbent stone at the Tyrebagger stone circle is a 'ringing stone'. There's an article in this week's New Scientist about the importance of acoustics and sound design to our prehistoric ancestors. The article touches on 'rock gongs', so it's worth a read in this context.

While we were in the area, we took the opportunity to re-visit the site of Stone 21 ABD and got a proper photo of it. Cattle-saliva and bird-lime smeared though it is...

Then, as you can see, the weather closed in on us...

Click for a bigger version.

From Beans Hill, you can see all the way to Lochnagar. Weather permitting.

Public Art on Elrick Hill - The Truth Is Out There

Looking for March Stones in the fold between the north slope of Brimmond Hill and the south slope of Elrick Hill, we caught sight of this collection of artifacts from a distance.

The dish-shapes immediately put us in mind of the dishes on the mast-structure on the summit of Brimmond Hill which they look across the valley of the Green Burn towards. The mast atop Brimmond Hill is part of the microwave relay network.

Getting closer, we were struck by the drama of this sculpture on its hillside location.

The saucer-shapes made us think of other 'out-there' stuff we've seen around here:

Public Art at Tyrebagger Woods.

We're ashamed to admit that we hadn't even heard of this place until the other day when we read that our favourite quango Aberdeen Greenspace had done some work on path consolidation there - so off we went and  we were delighted to 'discover' this installation (among many others).

When we came across it, we were first reminded of the sort of palisades built by British settlers in places like Virginia and Newfoundland during the 17th century. 

Then, as we explored the concentric structure we were reminded of other concentric defensive structures, like the pre-historic forts and earthworks around Aberdeenshire. Places like Bruce's Camp, and Hill of Christ's Kirk. There are many others.

As the concentric structure drew us in, we were delighted to find the catwalk/plank/ramp which provides access to the inside. 

This catwalk access reminded us of those other prehistoric forts, the Crannogs. 

Bench seating inside gives a relaxed haven, open to the sky, to sit, relax and listen to the sounds of the forest.

March Stones 21 to 25 ABD - Beans Hill and Silver Burn - The Bypass Lands

Continuing our exploration of the border of the medieval burgh of Aberdeen "The Marches" (march=border) we find ourselves at Beans Hill, between Countesswells and Peterculter. The border is marked by 67 'March Stones'

There's plenty information available online about the March Stones. Aberdeen City Council have a leaflet which details a couple of walking trails. You can download a PDF here. (Health warning - there are a couple of errors on the leaflet).

The Leopard mag has an excellent article about the history of the March Stones which we recommend.

Anyhow; Beans Hill. It's a picturesque and serene area, but won't stay that way for long as this where the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route will skirt the city on its way from Peterculter to Kingswells.

We recommend a visit if you can, before the character of the area is changed forever. Bone up on the Scottish Outdoor Access Code (PDF), get some old clothes and sturdy shoes on and off you go!

We left off last time with Stone 20 near Westfield Lodge, which is a very strange place.

Stone 21 is in the middle of a field, which, unfortunately on the day we visited was hosting an herd of bullocks. As we were, ahem, quite brightly dressed in our mountain bike gear, we didn't fancy our chances intruding on their space, so we'll have to make do with this telephoto and digitally zoomed image of the back of the stone. Let's say that this is a placeholder image, and we'll return for a proper photologging of the stone when we can. A bit disappointing.

Edit:

Here it is - no bullocks in the way this time:

Stone 22 is actually in the same field, but the bullocks were a couple of hundred metres away, over a rise and out of line-of-sight, so we vaulted the dry stane dyke for this shot. You can see that the bullocks have been licking the stone. As they do.

From there, it's a bit of a trudge up Beans Hill. Looking back to the south-west down the route of the march-line:

That photo was taken from a site which will become the western embankment of the AWPR - where it intersects the greenery in the centre of this drawing.

Stone 23 is at the summit of Beans Hill. Unfortunately you have to negotiate this labyrinth of barbed wire and gorse to get there. Gloves are a really good idea.

We were looking forward to finding stone 23, as it is described as having a 'saucer-marked' stone next to it. These ancient stones are part of the natural geography of the landscape and are prominent features, so it was natural for those setting land borders to use them, along with water-courses and other features, as markers which helped define the border. The 'saucers' are depressions carved or ground into the natural stone. No-one's really sure what their function was, but some speculate that they were filled with molten lead into which the city's coat-of-arms was impressed.

Here's Stone 23 at the summit. It looks like that's the more ancient 'saucer-marked' stone beneath the ABD marked stone. A previous visitor has peeled back some moss to reveal more of the stone, but we can't see a saucer mark here.

Hold on, what's this?

The saucer-mark is about four feet from the ABD stone. It's covered with a thick coat of moss, which is beginning to form a topsoil layer which grass has colonised.

The saucer stone is really quite large. The biggest we've come across so far. It came as a surprise to discover that we'd been standing on it for some time.

Stone 24 is over the summit of Beans Hill and down the slope towards the Silver Burn. It's close by North Westfield house. The couple who live there were delighted to chat.

Stone 25 is accessed from East Brotherfield farm. Again, the farmer was delighted to chat and pass the time discussing the stones and the dreaded coming of the bypass. It really is a delightful area, and we can't help but feel for the residents who's tranquility will be shattered and life changed forever by the building of the new road.

Stone 25 is on a hillock in a field of cows. Young heifers this time, so nothing to fear. But if you go there - please be sure to speak with the farmer first. Very important.

Unlike at stone 23, where it's covered in moss and not at first apparent, the saucer stone at 25 is prominent and rather obvious.

Can you see the saucer-hole?

Behind the saucer stone, we find a poignant memorial to an earlier march-tramper.