Building record MAB26399 - NOVARA, CHARLESTON

Consumption dyke, 1.6m wide and 1.2 m high on the west side.

Consumption dyke, 1.6m wide and 1.2 m high on the west side. This dyke is located on what was the estate of North Loirston and is now adjacent to Loirston Country Park. This estate had been feued to Robert Smith, mason, at the close of the 18th century. He was described as 'inclosing part of the farm with substantial stone dykes.and in a little time four or five thousand ells of stone fence.where one was not before.' (Old Statistical Account,). In the 19th century this process was continuing. Dr Alexander Crombie owned the farm of North Loirston, but it was farmed by Mr Lewis Crombie, who had 'improved, by trenching, draining, enclosing, and manuring, at a very great expense, thirty acres of the most barren untowardly ground that can well be supposed' (New Statistical Account). The dyke that we see today is probably a legacy of the later work undertaken by Crombie, but it may well be the work of Smith. 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.

BABTIE GROUP, 2004, ABERDEEN WESTERN PERIPHERAL ROUTE: ARCHAEOLOGICAL DESK-BASED STUDY & WALKOVER SURVEY. VOL 1: TEXT, VOL 2 GAZETTEER, Site 10 (Bibliographic reference). SAB3745.

CROLY, C, 2004, CONSUMPTION DYKES ON THE ESTATE OF CHARLESTON (Bibliographic reference). SAB7077.

Record last edited

May 30 2025 2:20PM