Long Shadows: Tales of Scotland's North East

by Duncan Harley

In early 2014 I was commissioned by Leopard Magazine to research and write a series of articles featuring the towns, the people and the history of the North East of Scotland. The magazine was at the time owned by the University of Aberdeen and the brief was wide. The ‘Our Town’ series was the result and over the succeeding two years some twenty full length feature articles made the magazine’s pages, alongside several other historical pieces which took shape along the way. The featured communities varied widely in nature, and included fisher towns, whisky towns and also places such as Braemar, Portsoy and Tomintoul which although small in size, are big in stature. This, my third book about the North East of Scotland comprises the bones of these original articles brought up to date and completely rewritten and with many important additions.
When choosing the original topics for the series I was acutely aware that many more towns and indeed villages deserved to be featured, but that various constraints made that impossible at that time. I have, I hope, made at least partial amends for these omissions and have included a chosen few within this volume. Fochabers, Cove, Maggieknockater and Lenabo are just some of those and, since Aberdeen was not part of the original brief, I have included a chapter featuring some of the lesser-known tales about the Granite City.
In my two previous books, I exposed readers to a mix of history and mythology. The intention of this new book is to expand on these themes in an entertaining and hopefully informative way. Please enjoy these wee snippets of Scottish history and smile gently at the past.

274 pages, Paperback

Published July 8, 2021