IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
North Pringle Street, BUCKIE, AB56 1HN

The 1902 25-inch Ordnance Survey map marks this little church as a Baptist chapel. It was superseded by Image] in 1912. It is now one of only two Church of Christ churches in Scotland, the other being just a few miles away in Portknockie.

The Banffshire Advertiser reported the opening of the new Methodist Church on the corner of North Pringle Street and Titness Street on 27 March 1907. It was designed by John Fowlie, who was master of works for Seafield Estates. It seated 500 in the body of the kirk and 200 in the gallery.

Despite its vaguely ecclesiastical look, this was originally Buckie Public School. It was built by Rathven School Board after the 1872 Education (Scotland) Act made education from the age of 5 to 13 compulsory and free. Over the next century the school expanded to take in older children and pupils from surrounding areas, then contracted as it was replaced by new buildings, leaving only a few subjects still being taught in the old one. In 1983 it finally became surplus to edcuational requirements and has been converted into flats.

The broad car parking area is on the trackbed of the Great North of Scotland Railway, which has been filled in and partlly landscaped. No doubt it is a more peaceful place to live than in the heyday of the railways.

This was for a time Buckie's one and only Tandoori restaurant, but it has been a Chinese for many years now.

I am told that this Gospel Hall is Brethren. (Open Brethren not the Exclusive or Close Brethren). Brethren do not self-identify as a denomination which is why they would not use a label of themselves. I have note been able to find out when it was built, or by whom. It is on the north side of West Church Street. See http://www.scottishchurches.org.uk/sites/site/id/3106/name/Gospel+Hall%2C+Buckie+Buckie+Grampian

This is the largest hall in Buckie, and well used for meetings and functions. It was designed by local architect James Perry and first opened in 1886. Later alterations were undertaken by Robert McFie Fulton, and it was extended as recently as 1982. It is frequently, and erroneously, referred to as the Fisherman's Hall, but happily the wording on the façade makes it clear that its use is not restricted to a single fisherman.

The wide open space in front of the houses was the route of the Great North of Scotland Railway, now landscaped and turned into car parking. The taller windowless building behind the houses is the Image

Hall Street is lined with solid Victorian stone villas, seen here across the garden of a house in North Pringle Street. The magnificent pink bush is a camellia.