Maud, Aberdeenshire
town in the Buchan area of the Scottish county of Aberdeenshire
Maud (Scottish Gaelic: Am Mòd) is a village in the Buchan area of the Scottish county of Aberdeenshire. Located 13 miles (21 km) west of Peterhead on the South Ugie Water, Maud rose to prosperity in the 19th century as a railway junction of the Formartine and Buchan Railway that ran through Maud to Fraserburgh and Peterhead, but has always been the meeting place of six roads. It has had a variety of names:
Bank of Behitch
Brucklay
New Maud, the New having since fallen out of use, leading to the village's current name
The village
Maud features an old railway station, which closed to passengers in 1965. When the railway was active, Maud was where the railway line from Aberdeen split before heading to Fraserburgh and Peterhead. Walks can be taken along the old railway lines which now form part of the Formartine and Buchan Way; the railway tracks were removed following the ending of freight trains in 1979. There was a mart or livestock market until recently, selling local livestock. There is also a hospital for the elderly, which was formerly a poorhouse that opened in 1866, designed by Alexander Ellis.
A modern complex in the centre of the village houses a café, community centre, gym and other facilities; the old town hall, a few minutes walk from the new complex, is also still in regular use by community groups. The village also has a small parade of shops.
The hamlet of Kirkhill Pendicle to the south of Maud has a weather station which features prominently in Met Office weather maps for Aberdeenshire.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Maud, Aberdeenshire” is town in the Buchan area of the Scottish county of Aberdeenshire. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Maud, Aberdeenshire and town, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “town in the Buchan area of the Scottish county of Aberdeenshire” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6792195. Authority coordinates are 57.522, -2.127. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1965, 1979 and 1866.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Maud, Aberdeenshire”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Maud, Aberdeenshire primary sources, Maud, Aberdeenshire archive and Maud research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Maud, Aberdeenshire”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Maud, Aberdeenshire” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.