Auchenblae

Auchenblae (Scottish Gaelic:Achadh nam Blàth) is a village in the Kincardine and Mearns area of Aberdeenshire, formerly in Kincardineshire, Scotland. It is featured in Lewis Grassic Gibbon's novel, Sunset Song. The name is a derivation from the Gaelic for "Field of Flowers" possibly due to the growing of flax in bygone times. The village was known for its weavers, a distillery and the annual Paldie's Fair horse market. The parish church on the opposite side of the Luther Water was built as Fordoun Parish Church on a site known as Kirkton of Fordoun, a religious site since the 7th century. St Palladius died and was reputedly buried here. There is a Pictish cross slab, the Fordoun Stone, in the kirk's vestibule. In the graveyard is the ancient ruin of St Palladius' Chapel and there is a memorial to Scotland's first Protestant martyr George Wishart, born at Mains of Pittarrow in the old parish of Fordoun and burnt at the stake by Cardinal Beaton in St Andrews.