Building record MAB21275 - ROB ROY STATUE

Statue of Rob Roy on a ledge above the Culter Burn.

Statue of Rob Roy on a ledge above the Culter Burn. A statue was first erected in the mid 19th century. Legend would have you believe that Rob Roy McGregor had, during the 1715 Jacobite rebellion, leapt across the Leuchar burn with English forces close behind. There may be an element of truth to this story: Rob Roy had relatives at Dalmaik, near Peterculter. It was here that Rob Roy paid a visit to his clansman James Gregory towards the end of 1714, to rally support for the Jacobite cause. Rob continued on his mission, to rally McGregors to the Stuart cause, and gathered a force to fight for the Jacobite cause in 1715. He died at Balquhidder in Perthshire on 28th December 1734. The Jacobites mounted two significant rebellions in 1715 and in 1745 against the dominant Hanoverian government of the day. The rebellion was in part about politics and in part about religion, as well as many other factors. Around 1850, John Anderson, a local Peterculter man, had a brother on board the whaling ship 'Rob Roy' and from him he got the redundant ship's figurehead. Two logs of wood were stuck on for legs, a pair of lead boots were fashioned and a piece of canvas served as a kilt. The manager of the nearby mill, Robert Arbuthnott, gave permission to place the commanding figure up on the craggy rocks of the Culter Burn. This lasted until about 1865 when a replacement was commissioned by public subscription. The statue was then used for target practice by the Territorial Army before the First World War. In 1926, a third version of the Rob Roy statue was created, which was unveiled on 3rd July 1926. This version was carved from a log of Yellow pine by an Aberdonian woodcarver. A fourth statue was commissioned in 1991 and unveiled on 28th June. The previous Rob Roy (the third version) was then removed from its site and taken into the nearby St Peter's Heritage Trust (of which it was made a Life Member).

Period Notes
Present statue is the fourth on the site: the first erected around 1850, replaced 1865, 1926 and 1991.

Author unknown, , PRESS & JOURNAL, 14/03/1987 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1416.

Record last edited

Jan 14 2021 9:01AM