IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Mid Street, KEITH, AB55 5AA

130/132 Mid Street, Keith.

No longer a full-blown Post Office, the building still houses the sorting office. It is Category B Listed and dates from 1911. Above the initials GR over the door is a small square panel with the letter M in it, thought to be the initials of the architect Duncan MacMillan. See https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/LB35654 for more information.

Mid Street is Keith's main shopping street, easily missed by passing traffic because the main A96 road uses Moss Street, which is parallel to Mid Street. Most shops are still independent and locally owned, but the range and variety of shops is less than it was 40 years ago, partly thanks to the building of a large supermarket in the town.

This is in fact taken from the next but one lane from the Institute, whose clock tower is visible from much of the town. The lower buildings in the foreground are separated from the Institute by another lane, but the higher roofs are all part of the Institute.

Several of the empty shops in Mid Street have been decorated with posters of Scots words, part of the town's self-promotion as a stronghold of the Scots language. For the edification of the bewildered, a tatterwallop is a woman whose clothes are in need of mending; a puddock is a frog; to plowter is to wade though mud; dubs means mud; dumfoonert means amazed; couthie means pleasant, kind, affable etc. Fu (more often spelled fou) is drunk, a kirn is a mess or a muddle, a loun has a variety of meanings, but usually means a boy or young man; glaikit means stupid and dreich is used to describe dull, damp, drizzly weather. Anyone who can decipher any of the other words, or would like to know how to pronounce them, is welcome to ask me.

This can be found on a building in Mid Street. For more detail see : http://www.bench-marks.org.uk/bm45877

A wet afternoon on Mid Street.

The yard behind Image still sports Royal Mail red. Interestingly, the left-hand door bears a notice saying 'Bicycle Shed', harking back to the days of postmen on bicycles.

The Institute is the building with the clock tower standing on Mid Street, which is Keith's main shopping street. The tower was designed by Francis D Robertson and built in 1885-1889. The building now houses the council offices and the Scottish Tartans Museum. This view is from one of the numerous narrow lanes which cross the main streets at right angles.

With a prominent clock tower, on Mid Street.