Building record MAB26397 - SOUTH LOIRSTON

Consumption dyke depicted on the OS 2nd edition map.

Consumption dyke depicted on the OS 2nd edition map. This dyke is on what was the estate of South Loirston and Cove. The estate of South Loirston and Cove was feued by the City Council to Dr Alexander Kilgour in the mid 1850s. The estate papers of this estate reveal a concern for improvements. It was noted that improvements had been ongoing on South Loirston in the second half of the 19th century (New Statistical Account of Scotland). Indeed this dyke would seem to date to the period between 1867 and 1901 and resulted from clearing a wooded area in order to bring more land under the plough (this can be seen by comparing the 1866-9 and 1901-3 Ordnance Survey maps). From Kilgour's estate papers it does seem that most dykes were erected in the 1870s and 1880s which fits well with the map evidence. Although consumption dykes are not entirely unique to the north east of Scotland they are not found in any substantial numbers elsewhere in the world. They are dykes which result from the very rocky nature of the ground in the north east of Scotland and are associated with the period of agricultural improvements from the 18th century. Part of this movement involved clearing new ground of stones to create new fields. The excessive number of rocks and boulders in Aberdeen made this particularly arduous. The cleared rocks could be put to a number of different uses: if it was economical they could be sold off and shipped elsewhere. Many of the boulders and stones cleared in the north east were made into paving slabs in London. But where there were too many or where the distance to move them to the coast for transportation was too high they were often formed into consumption dykes. These dykes 'consumed' the stones cleared from the land. Technically these dykes may be defined as ones which are broader than they are tall. Historically they have also been known as Aberdeenshire Dykes and Consuming Dykes. They perform two functions: firstly to delineate a field boundary as all dykes do and secondly to use up the excess of stones. In some cases they also perform a third aesthetic function. In certain cases they have paths laid out along the top of them and are very much monuments to the taste of the estate landowner who had them created. Photographic recording of the dyke was recorded by Cameron Archaeology in 2012 during archaeological work (see NJ90SW0959) ahead of proposed development in the area to the north of the dyke.

CAMERON ARCHAEOLOGY, 2012, LAND AT WELLINGTON ROAD, ABERDEEN: ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVALUATION REPORT (Bibliographic reference). SAB6831.

Record last edited

Jan 14 2021 11:25AM