Derivation of the place name

Regional setting 13th to the 16th Century

St.Machar's Chapel

St.Machars Chapel - The miracle story

Was there ever a bailey at Corryhoul ?

Edom of Gordon - Corriehoul ?

Other Mentions

One of many such piles of stones cleared from the fields at the edge of the Corryhoul Burn

At p126. CORRIEHOUL (Corgarff) Coire ghobhail, "Corrie of the fork". There are several small farms bearing this name, borrowed from the neighbouring corrie. "Corrie of the fork" exactly describes the place, which is a sort of double corrie. From the west side comes the burn, misnamed in the O.S. map, Allt Coire Tholl, and from the east side a branch called Little Gairn. These small burns (streams) form the "fork" of the name.

Above: Burnside of Corryhoul looking into the fork. The Corryhoul Burn is joined by the Little Gairn coming from the right.

At p229. CORRIEHOUL, Corgarff. Variously interpreted from shabhail, barn, thol, hole, ghobhail (fork). The last may be prefered, in view of the fork in the streams here. For the burn which comes off the hill here O.S. has Allt Coire Tholl, which I do not find confirmed, the name Corriehoul now applying only to the farm. Parts of hill ground called Allan More and Esk More drain into the burn; the branch which joins from the east is called Little Gairn.

Right: Looking south over the ruined byre at Burnside. The white cottage to the left is Easter Corryhoul.

When in the 13th and 14th Centuries the ancient Celtic province of Mar emerges as a feudal earldom, we find that it was composed of five great lordships; the lordship of Braemar, the capital messuage of which was the Castle Kindrochit; the lordship of Cromar, centred on Migvie; the lordship of Strathdee, based on the castle of Aboyne; the lordship of Midmar, with castle of the same name; the lordship of Strathdon, the capital messuage of which was the Doune of Invernochty. All these five pivital castles, together with the main seat of the Earldom at Kildrummy, are known to have been in existence during the 13th and 14th centuries. Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Antiquaries of Scotland, Vol. LXXX (Vol X, Sixth Series), Session 1935-36 (pages 170 to 181).

Apud Stiriling, 27 Jul AD 1550 Regina & C., confirmavit Roberto Domino Elphingstoun, et Margarete Drummon ejus conjugi, - terras de Corgarff, Skellater, Invernyte, Fynnelost, Boquham, New, Culquhary, Invernochty, Culquhany, Bellobeg com molendino, Corriehowlis, Pettynelie, Cukismolendino, Tulliskuiche, Glencoy, Torrebrek et Tullochil, Quyltis, Summeill, Argeith, in domino de Kildrymmy, vic. Abirdene; quas idem Rob, cum consensu Roberti Drummond de Carnock et Jacobi Kynros de Kippenros curatorum suorum, personaliter resignavit:- Tennend. dictus Roberto dom. E. et Marg. et eorum alteri diutius viventi in conjucta infeodatione, et heredibus inter ipsos legitime procreatis, quibis deficientibus, heredibus dicti dom. quibuscunque:- Test. ut in aliis certis & C. xxx. 501

At p123. (Corgarff Castle). Tradition says that it was built by the Earl of Mar as a hunting seat. Among other portions of this Earldom, James IV granted the "Foresta de Corgarff" to Alexander Elphinstone. By the end of the 16th century, the most, if not all, of the lands of Corgarff had been aquired from the Lords Elphinstone by the Forbeses of Towie. On the 13th Jan., 1595, in an Inquest before the Sheriff of Aberdeen, for the service of Elizabeth Forbes, widow of Alexander Forbes of Towie, for her terce, the jury found that the said Alexander Forbes died "last vest and seized as of fee", not only in the barony of Towie, but also in the lands of Easter and Wester Corriehoul, the Forest of Corgarff lying adjacent thereto, and in the "lands called Aulgarff". On the strength of the above , certain authorities, have assumed that Corgarff Castle had been occupied in 1571 by John Forbes of Towie, father of the above Alexander Forbes.

At p.122. Corriehoul has, in addition to the site of S. Machar's Chapel, a grave-yard which, as an old writer says, "is still used for burying many of the people in Corgarff, and all the soldiers who die at the Castle are interred there with all the ceremonies that are used in the army, but its appearance is very odd like, as there is no dyke about the graves, and from its lying remote from any house, in an open field".

At p121. Anciently there had been two places of worship in Corgarff - the nameless chapel at Ord, and St. Machar Chapel at Corriehoul, on the east bank of Allt Corr Tholl, at the 51st milestone (from Aberdeen), the latter unquestionably the more important. A legend connected with the well still known as Tobar Machar, or Machar's Well, in its immediate neighbourhood is rather interesting. Corgarff was on a certain occasion suffering a famine, doubtless no uncommon occurence in old times in that district. The people were in great distress from lack of food; even the priest's larder was absolutely empty. His troubled housekeeper, at her wits end, could only report the circumstances to his reverence, as she knew his flock were in equally dire straits. The priest, after listening quietly to Martha's wail, stepped across to the well, where he knelt and prayed to St. Machar for food, not only for himself, but for his starving parishoners. Returning to the house he told his housekeeper to go to the well at sunrise and, without looking into it, walk three times round in the name of the Trinity, and thereafter draw a draught of water. Carefully carrying her instructions she dipped in her pail and brought up three salmon ! The operation was repeated as often as necessary till relief came in the ordinary course to the famine-stricken people.

At p150. "Properly used, the name Corgarff applies to the wide district of the ancient forests, as granted by James IV to Lord Elphinstone in 1507. The castle was the capital messuage of the demense lands of Corriehoul."

1571, November - Captain Kerr under order of Adam Gordon of Auchindoun burns Corgarff Castle murdering Margaret Campbell, wife of the laird of Towie, having demanded she surrenderd the 'place of Carrigill' to him.

p109 Footnote to Edom o' Gordon.

The above is the first printed version of Edom o' Gordon, issued by R. and A. Foulis, Glasgow 1755, taken froma copy supplied by Sir David Dalrymple "who gave it as preserved in the memory of a lady." Two earlier texts are printed in Child's "English and Scottish Popular Ballads," but they are English versions, one contained in a manuscript in the British Museum, written very shortly after the event [about 1580], the other contained in the Percy folio MS. [about 1650]. Every copy recorded by Professor Child gives a different locality as the scene of the tragic event. When Percy published the text given above in his "Reliqu es", a writer in the "Gentleman's Magazine," 1755, pointed out that the locality of the ballad was not "the house of Rhodes," but "the House of Towie", and referred him to the incident as given by Spottiswood in his "History of the Church of Scotland." The incident occured, November 1571, during the conflict between the partisans of Queen Mary and the supporters of the Regency or King's party - the Gordons adhering to the Queen's, and the Forbeses to the King's side. After the home of the ballad got firmly fixed in Aberdeenshire, it was discovered that among contemporary authorities, while the majority located the incident at "the house of Towie", one, and that a local writer, gave it as having taken place at the Castle of Corgarff. The strictly contemporary documents (one of them written by a strong partisan of the Queen's or Gordon party) which gave the "Castle," or "house of Towie" as the scene of the burning are :

The Diurnall of Occurents 1575 (p255), where it is recorded that "Adam Gordon sent Captain Ker to the house of Toway, requesting the lady to surrender the place of Carrigill to him in the Queen's name," - which being refused - he burned the house with the lady and some 27 inmates therein. Whatever may be meant by "Carigill, it was Towie which the writer says was burned. It possibly stands for Corriehoul, the largest and most valuable of various places on upper Donside held by the Forbes of Towie as vassal of Lord Elphinstone, and which was in due time , recovered from the Forbeses after the legitimate proprietor Lord Erskine had been restored to the Earldom of Mar by Queen Mary.

The History of James the Sext 1596 (p.95), says Gordon "directed his soldiers to the Castle of Towie and the lady thereof, refusing submission to his demands, -'he put fire to the house' and burned herself and some 27, or thereby, inmates.

Richard Bannantyne's Journal 1573 (p.302), mentions similar circumstances, how the Gordons "went to the house of Towie" - and being refused - "laid the corns, hathe and timber about it and set all on fire." All these are recognised works of high authority on the history of the period with which they deal.

Lumsden's Geneology of the Family of Forbes 1580. The strictly contemporary authority which places the incident at the Castle of Corgarff, is a manuscript geneology, 1580, of the House of Forbes, by Mathew Lumsden, which was edited and brought up to date by William Forbes in 1667. It was printed in Inverness in 1819, and reprinted there in 1883. In enumerating the decendants of John Forbes of Towie (p54-55) by his wife Margaret Campbell - the writer says "the rest of ye sd Margaret Campbells bairns, with herself, were unmercifully murdered in the castle at Corgarffe." We have now no means however for determining the nature and extent of Forbes' editorial work on Lumsden's text; and as professor Child says, "we may owe Corgarff to the reviser of 1667, although he professes not to have altered the substance of his predecessor's work." In the whole circumstances we think the balance of evidence from contemporary writers is decidedly in favour of Towie , as the scene of the burning so graphically embodied in the ballad of Edom o' Gordom. - Music : "Chappell Music of Olden Time," P.226; "Christie's Ballad Airs," I. p.56.

p350/351. Bothy Songs and Ballads. The Emigrants Farewell - "This song was sung at a social gathering at Corriehoul, Corgarff, Aberdeenshire 1836, by a Mr. Charles Michie, prior to his emigrating to America. His friends long beleived it to be composed by himself, but Mr. Jonathan Gault, Edinburgh, who sent it to me by special request, informs me that he has discovered it is much older than Michie's time, and that he simply altered some of the verses to suite his own case".