Inverurie is in the strath of the River Don at the centre of Aberdeenshire and is known locally as the Heart of the Garioch. It sits between the River Don and the River Ury and is only 10 miles (16 km) from the imposing hill of Bennachie. The town centre is triangular and is dominated by Inverurie Town Hall built in 1863.[5] In the middle of the 'square' (as it is known locally) is the Inverurie and District War Memorial, capped by a lone Gordon Highlander looking out over the town. The main shopping areas include the Market Place and West High Street which branches off from the centre towards the more residential part of the town. South of the River Don is the village of Port Elphinstone, which is part of the Royal Burgh of Inverurie and is so called due to the proximity of the former Aberdeenshire Canal which ran from Inverurie to Aberdeen.[6]
Etymology
The word "Inverurie" comes from the Scottish GaelicInbhir Uraidh meaning 'confluence of the Ury' after the river which joins the Don just south of the town.[2] In the 19th century, with the increased use of the postal service, many letters addressed to "Inverury" were being sent to "Inverary" in Argyll, on the west coast of Scotland. The town council ordained that the name to be used for council business should be "Inverurie" which they also regarded as being the "ancient spelling". They asked the public to use this spelling in future and said that the Postmaster General had accepted the change. The town clerk made the official announcement on 20 April 1866.[7]
Prehistory
Excavations by archaeologists in the summer of 2018 at the Thainstone Business Park, discovered the remains of: a Scottish Middle Bronze Age (1550–1150 BC) roundhouse and a urned cremation cemetery; Scottish Late Bronze Age (1150–800 BC) cremation practices; and an Iron Age roundhouse and souterrain from the 1st/2nd century AD, indicating human occupation in the area for thousands of years.[8] An excavation in 2002 uncovered the remains of another Iron Age roundhouse.[9]
History
Logie House – now rebuilt – situated 7 miles to the west of Inverurie
The Bass of Inverurie is said to have been founded by David, Earl of Huntingdon, brother of Malcolm IV, in the late 12th century.[10] The religious foundation pre-dates this by five centuries with the establishment of the Kirk of Inverurie now known as St Andrew's Parish Church.[11] However, the town's earliest known charter dates from 1558, with its modern development taking place after the building of the Aberdeenshire Canal linking Port Elphinstone with Aberdeen Harbour in 1806.[12]
The House of Aquahorthies is at Burnhervie on the edge of Inverurie, built around 1797. The house served as a clandestine major seminary until after Catholic Emancipation in 1829, and since then it has been a private family home.[17]
The Inverurie Locomotive Works, which closed in 1969, led to a modest increase in size and prosperity, but much of the growth came from the "Oil boom" in 1970s.[22]
Inverurie is a market town, now with a monthly Farmer's Market, with many small shops, businesses and services. Its main industries other than service and commerce are agriculture, oil and, until International Paper closed the mill at Thainstone in March 2009, paper manufacture. The Great North of Scotland Railway constructed its locomotive construction and repair works on a 15-acre (61,000 m2) site at Inverurie.[24] Coombes, a small sweet shop, was famed as being the oldest family-owned business in Scotland until the death of Colin Coombes in 1957 whereupon the business closed.[25] The bakery chain JG Ross is headquartered in the town.[26]
Agriculture continues to be a mainstay of Inverurie's economy, as it has done since the town's inception. The Thainstone Centre, to the south east of the town, is a large livestock market, which rents out commercial units to various agricultural support services, oil industry storage yards and vehicle hire companies.[27]
A 98,000 sq ft (9,100 m2) retail park opened in June 2009.[28]
Some Inverurie natives speak the Aberdeenshire Doric dialect of Scots, as well as Scottish English.
Other notable ethnicities include English, Polish and American. The council's 2016 population survey estimated a population of 13,480 of which 90.0% spoke primarily English at home, 4.9% Scots and 1.5% Polish. However, 51% of residents reported being proficient in the Scots language.[30]
Historically, Pictish is the ancient language of the area, which can be found in many place names. It appears to have been a Brythonic language, but its classification remains uncertain. Pictish was eventually replaced by Scottish Gaelic in the area, and evidence of the language is found both in words in the Doric and in place names, such as Inverurie itself. The Book of Deer originates from the village of Old Deer, a few miles to the north east.[31]
Religion
The oldest church in Inverurie is St Andrew's Parish Church, part of The Church of Scotland which was founded as the "Kirk of Rocharl" by the Culdee monks in the 9th century.[32]
Inverurie Boxing Club, an amateur boxing club located in Kintore. The club was started in 2017 and has since then acquired its own premises and has had multiple Scottish novice and district champions
Colony Park F.C. are the town's juvenile team, founded by Dod Reid MBE in 1978.[34]
