Sell or Rent Property in Aberdeenshire Free
History
Old Deer situated in Aberdeenshire and although smaller than new
deer some 6 miles to its west may be regarded as the 'capital'
of this area, for it was indeed the administrative centre
through the Cistercian Abbey of Deer until the very large parish
was split into New and Old Deer at the Reformation.
To a spot near the present Old Deer in its central position
in the fertile and finely wooded valley of the South Water of
Ugie came St Drostan about the year a.d. 520 and founded what
became the Celtic monastery of Deer.
Its actual size is not known, but it was not where the ruins
of the later Cistercian abbey now stand. St Drostan was a Pict,
but his disciples were followed in the course of time by the
Celtic monks of the united Scottish kingdom. They occupied the
ancient monastery and wrote the Gaelic portions of that
remarkable manuscript the Book of Deer, which came to light in
the library of Cambridge University in 1857.By the end of the
12th cent, the monastery had fallen into ruin, but its memory
was still green; and so in 1218 William Comyn, Great Justiciar
of Scotland, who, eight years before, had married Marjorie, only
child and heiress of Fergus, the last Celtic Earl of Buchan,
founded the Cistercian Abbey of St Mary in the Vale of Deer,
about J m. from the old Celtic monastery, and on the opposite
bank of the Ugie.
The existing ruins and foundations, which were acquired by
the Roman Catholic Church and are cared for by the Department of
the Environment, are open to the public from March to September.
They include the church with its nave, choir, and presbytery,
and N. and S. transepts, this last with its night stair to the
dortour in which the monks slept. Separated from the church by
the cloister are the kitchen, refectory, and warming-room, the
abbot's lodging and the infirmary.
One of the monks of Deer, Gilbert Chisholm. became the first
post-Reformation minister of the parish of Deer. The present
parish church was built in 1788, but behind it are the ruins of
the pre-Reformation parish church. For 150 years Old Deer was
the scene of intense conflict between Presbyterian and
Episcopalian factions, and this reached a violent climax in 1711
in the incident known as the Rabbling of Deer. Encouraged by the
Keiths and other Episcopalian and Jacobite heritors of the
parish, a mob attacked the reverend gentlemen of the presbytery,
who had come to ordain and install John Gordon as the new
minister, and forced them to retire. Today the beautiful little
Episcopal Church of St Drostan stands in the main street
opposite the parish kirk. | 
