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Crimond Crith Mhonadh
Coordinates: 57.598721° N 1.90797° W
Population	793 (2001)[1]
OS grid reference	NK0556
Council area	Aberdeenshire
Constituent country	Scotland
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	ABERDEEN
Postcode district	AB43
Dial code	01346 (Fraserburgh)
Vehicle code	SU-SW (Aberdeen)
Police	Grampian
Fire	Grampian
Ambulance	Scottish
UK Parliament	Banff and Buchan
Scottish Parliament	Banff and Buchan
European Parliament	Scotland
Website: aberdeenshire.gov.uk
List of places: UK • Scotland

Crimond (Gaelic: Crith Mhonadh) is a village in the northeast of Scotland, located seven miles northwest of the port of Peterhead and approximately two miles from the coast.

The 2001 UK census records Crimond's population as 793 people. It is in the Aberdeenshire council area, Banff and Buchan political constituency, has the AB43 postcode prefix and uses the Fraserburgh 01346 telephone dialing code^[2].

The main A90 road runs through Crimond itself and is lined by Crimond Church with village hall, Crimond Primary School [1], Crimond Medical Practice, Crimond Shop and Post Office, Crimond Care Home for the elderly and Crimond Motors garage [2]. The oldest houses in the village run alongside the main road with a modern estate to the west side.

When standing with a clear view of the surrounding countryside you can easily see the masts at the nearby Crimond Aerodrome to the east and the telecommunications satellites on the top of Mormond Hill to the North West.

Crimond is the home of the Prince of Wales's Own Regiment Bagpipers.

The nearby Loch of Strathbeg is a RSPB owned and protected nature reserve. Around the loch there are 3 hides from which you can watch the birds and other wildlife. They are accessible through the airfield and there is a car park. There is also the Starnafin Center where you can watch the birds from and find out more information about which birds and animals are locally present.

There is a shelter belt wood that runs parallel to the main A90 about 200 metres to the east which used to belong to the Crimonmogate estates. It is mainly beech wood and is used as a walk by the locals.

There is a large grain dryer owned by Allied Grain to the east of the village.

There are the remains of an old camp where the workers who built the St. Fergus Gas Plant lived whilst it was being constructed to the east of the village.

Contents 1 Stockcars 2 Aerodrome 3 Religion 4 Famous residents 5 External links 6 References

Crimond is home to the famous Crimond Raceway stock car track [3] which is the most northerly in the United Kingdom. It is here that former Formula 1 world champion driver Jim Clark began his career.

The stock cars began in the 1950's with the original tracks on the runways on the nearby Crimond Aerodrome. However the Ministry of Defence reclaimed the land to build radio masts and so the track was moved three times before settling for its current situation in 1973/1974.

The track is an oval with two stands and a large tire wall around the outside to protect the spectators.

Today the track hosts Scottish Hot Rod, Saloonstox, Formula Two and other local formula championships.

During World War II, a Royal Navy Air Station, RNAS Merganser was built at NK070580, close to Rattray. The site of the base is about a mile from the village itself and remains in Ministry of Defence hands as a wireless station and is home to masts of some 900 feet and many other small ones. It was used during the cold war to track enemy soviet submarines. The base is still manned by a small staff.

There is an airfield with three runways which are now in some state of disrepair and during the war the 714 Naval Air Squadron was based there.

The remnants of the World War Two camp can still be seen around the aerodrome and west of the airfield, over the A90, on Mosstown Road there is the ruins of a further camp from the war.

Further information on the aerodrome can be found in the external links at the bottom of this page.

The 23rd Psalm ("The Lord is my Shepherd") is traditionally sung to the tune 'Crimond' [4] written by a 19th century ministers daughter, Jessie Irvine in 1871.

Crimond Church has an extra minute between the eleven and twelve making for 61 minutes in the hour. The clock is electric but the original movement is kept in the church as a display in memory of the late councillor Norman Cowie OBE who raised the funds for the new electric clock.

The church has a wind vane in the shape of a fish that was lost for many years but found recently and put back on top of the spire. The wind vane has been the target of vandalism in previous years, sporting bullet holes from an air rifle.

• Baron Robert John Graham Boothby (1900-1986). MP for East-Aberdeenshire
• Robert Burnet, Lord Crimond (1592-1661). Judge of the Court of Session and owner of the Crimond Estate.

• WWII base information
• Web Historian's site for Rattray
• Map sources for Crimond