Gordon Highlanders' Celtic Cross Memorial, Duthie Park

Heritage listing

Category C Group Category Details 100000020 - see notes Date Added 29/02/2000 Local Authority Aberdeen Planning Authority Aberdeen Burgh Aberdeen NGR NJ 93873 04534 Coordinates 393873, 804534 — Dated 1882. Grey granite Celtic cross memorial to Gordon Highlanders. Large roughly cut granite blocks form plinth, surmounted by cross, with inscription, Gordon Highlanders crest bearing motto "BYDAND", and decorative Celtic motifs to S side; inscription to N side. — B-Group with Duthie Park Bandstand, Bowling Pavilion, East Lodge, Gates, Gatepiers and Boundary Walls, Footbridge over Upper Lake, Fountain, Fountainhall Cistern House, Gordon Highlanders Obelisk Memorial, Hygeia Statue, McGrigor Obelisk, Taylor Well, and Temperance Drinking Fountain (see separate listings). The site of the Duthie Park was originally a marshy piece of land covered in gorse (or whin, hence the nearby "Whinhill Road), it was known as Pulmoor, now "Polmuir". In 1850 Arthurseat (the villa on the site) and its surrounding land was intended to be developed as a Royal Garden to view the trains crossing the new viaduct to and from London via Ferryhill. However, in 1881 Miss Charlotte Duthie of Ruthrieston purchased the site and gifted it to the City of Aberdeen for a public park. It was decided it should be "available for all classes of citizens, that it should have a broad expanse of grassy sward upon which the young might indulge in innocent frolic and play..." (Duthie Park, p37). The park was designed by William R McKelvie of Dundee, and the first sod, of the 47 acres of land, was cut on the 27th of August 1881, the park being officially opened in 1883. The Gordon Highlanders Monument is one of two in the Duthie Park. This memorial was built in memory of those who died serving in Egypt and Sudan.

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.