Newmacher, United Kingdom
Newmacher is a town of 2,510 people in Scotland, United Kingdom.
Why visit Newmacher
Townapedia lists 2 museums and landmarks, 1 park or trail and 4 places to eat in and around town.
Highlights include Newmachar War Memorial and CWGC Cross of Sacrifice.
Weather in Newmacher
Forecast from MET Norway (CC BY 4.0). Full forecast
About Newmacher
Newmachar (Scots pronunciation: [njuˈmaxər]) is a village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, about 10 miles (16 km) to the north-west of Aberdeen.
From the Wikipedia article Newmachar (this version), under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photos of Newmacher
Museums and landmarks2
Parks, trails and playgrounds1
Restaurants and cafes4
Churches and places of worship1
History
The parish of New Machar (or "Newmachar") was formerly Monycabock (Misc. of the New Spalding Club, vol i, pp vii, 1850)). On 16 April 1343, the barony of "Monycabbok, Tullimaddin, and Craig" is granted by King David II to Donald Strathechin (Strachan), and Annabell (Crawford) his wife (RI, 48-34). This is the earliest known record referring to these lands.
The name originates from the original parish created in 1609, from part of the parish of St Machar's Cathedral. The name refers specifically to the village, originally known as Summerhill, with the surrounding parish being correctly known as New Machar.
In 1928, the name Summerhill was changed to Newmachar, which was also the name of the railway station serving the village.
The Newmachar railway station, on the Formartine and Buchan Railway, closed in 1965.
During World War II Winston Churchill initiated the forming of a British resistance force called Auxiliary Units. These units were put together in top secret, and were selected from areas that could be used to benefit from guerilla warfare. Typically, these units (called patrols) were made up from farmers, gamekeepers and estate workers. Newmachar had one of these patrols that were tasked with destroying the main railways to Inverness, and the Buchan line to Fraserburgh and Peterhead, also RAF Dyce and bridges over the River Don.
Read more of the history
Research by C.A.R.T [9] has revealed the patrol members and also the location of the Operational Base. The Operational Base was built underground to house up to 8 patrol members who, when the Invasion came would go into hiding for 7–14 days before coming out at night to attack "targets of opportunity", including assassinations of key individuals (both local and enemy personnel). Aux unit members had a life expectancy of up to 2 weeks after an invasion. All the members had to sign the official secrets act, and were trained at Blairmore House near Huntly. Auxiliary units were well armed with the latest weapons and conventional and booby trap explosives.
From the History section of Newmachar on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.
More about Newmacher
Geography
Newmachar is situated on the A947 between Dyce and Old Meldrum, 10 miles (16 km) NW of Aberdeen and 100 miles (160 km) NNE of Edinburgh. The main road (A947) bisects the village with most amenities (school, church, park, pub & hotel) to the East side of the road, the Aberdeenshire Local Development Plan currently proposes adding a distributor road to bypass the village to the north relieve traffic through the town centre.
Roughly 1 mile (1.6 km) to the east of Newmachar is the old Kingseat Hospital a former mental health facility with a village type layout, opened in May 1904 and closing in April 1994. The site has been designated a conversation area and many of the hospitals building have been redeveloped for residential use. The village of Kingseat is connected to Newmachar by the B979 and a separate walking path.
The village is on fairly level terrain at an elevation of 100 m, an elevation which proved challenging for the design of the old Formartine and Buchan Railway running to the Village. There are a number of springs and burns around the village notably Pinkie Burn to the SE and the longer Burn of Straloch to the SW, these both run south in to Goval Burn which joins the River Don at Dyce.
Arts and culture
Currently there is only one food shop in Newmachar, a Co-op Food. The Co-op also contains a Post Office branch.
Towards the south end of the village is the Newmachar Scout and Guide Hall. This hall is used regularly by various groups including the Scouts, Guides, Playgroup, and many others.
There is a large play park near the center of Newmachar including a small grass basketball/football pitch. Adjacent to the play park are fenced tennis courts.
Ingram's Neuk Community Wildlife Garden is small area of land which runs adjacent to path running between Kingseat and Newmachar. Started in 2010 it is currently mostly overgrown but the corner of the garden has been well maintained as shown.
The garden contains a willow tree "tunnel", larger snaking arrangement of small boulders, a number of fruit trees, raised beds and wild flowers.
Education
New Machar School is a non-denominational primary school. It has a current role of 370 P1-P7 pupils and 55 pupils in the Early Learning and Childcare Centre. The catchment area is the village of Newmachar and the surrounding rural area.
For secondary education most pupils transfer to Dyce Academy, an Aberdeen City school.
*Not fully confirmed as yet * Recently there was a change in the catchment area for the academy, as now children in Newmachar and Kingseat will now mainly get transferred to Inverurie Academy due to Dyce's secondary school nearing its capacity of students while Bucksburn Academy is already beyond capacity. This should free up space in Bucksburn and Dyce's education system. This is currently looking to take effect from 27/28 S1 intake. Current pupils at Dyce aren't being moved and the S1 intake dfor 26/27 will be headed to Dyce.
Located across the road from the primary school is Newmachar Library part of "Live Life Aberdeenshire Library Services".
From the Wikipedia article Newmachar, under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Shopping1
Schools, colleges and libraries2
Healthcare1
Map of Newmacher
12 places. The map loads OpenStreetMap tiles when you open it.
Getting there and nearby towns
Aberdeen International Airport (ABZ) is the nearest airport with scheduled flights listed in OpenStreetMap, 4 miles away.
- Pitmedden 5 mi north, about 8 min by car
- Dubford 5 mi southeast, about 8 min by car
- Inverurie 7 mi west, about 12 min by car
- Oldmeldrum 7 mi northwest, about 11 min by car
- Ellon 8 mi northeast, about 13 min by car
- Aberdeen 9 mi south, about 15 min by car
- Westhill 9 mi southwest, about 14 min by car
- Peterculter 12 mi south, about 19 min by car
- Portlethen 14 mi south, about 22 min by car
- Newtonhill 16 mi south, about 26 min by car
Drive times are estimates from straight-line distance, not routes.
Towns near Newmacher
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Sources and licences
- GeoNames (CC BY 4.0): population, coordinates, regions and time zone
- OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0): places, airports, map data
- Wikidata (CC0 1.0): elevation, founding date, time zone, website
- Wikimedia Commons (see each image): photos
- Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0): overview and history text
Photo credits
- New Machar Church, Gavin Barnett, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Newmachar Cemetery, Gavin Barnett, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Newmachar Bowling Club, Gavin Barnett, CC BY-SA 4.0
- The Pathway Centre, Gavin Barnett, CC BY-SA 4.0
- New Machar School, Gavin Barnett, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Newmachar Library, Gavin Barnett, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Newmachar Axis Centre, Gavin Barnett, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Newmachar Church, Stuart Reid, CC BY-SA 2.0
- Newmachar Scout and Guide Hall, Gavin Barnett, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Newmachar Play Park, Gavin Barnett, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Newmachar War Memorial - Side3, Gavin Barnett, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Ingrams Neuk, Gavin Barnett, CC BY-SA 4.0
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