We stopped at Ellon both on the way up to Peterhead and on the way back down.

A scenic river passes just to the west of the town, the River Ythan.

It’s crossed by two bridges, the old one:-

And the newer:-

If you look closely at the above photo you’ll spot a single swan. Here it is in a closer shot:-

Laurencekirk is a small town in the former Kincardineshire in north-east Scotland, now administratively part of Aberdeenshire. We dropped by there on our way up to the cup tie at Peterhead last year (which sadly was postponed so I missed one of our few wins last season.)

Kincardineshire lies in the Mearns, so splendidly delineated in the fiction of Lewis Grassic Gibbon who lived in nearby Arbuthnot.

I was quite surprised to see a minor example of Art Deco there, Hantons Garage:-

Frontage. Stepped roofline, rule of three in central first floor windows:-

Clearly no longer in use as a garage but the Clydesdale Bank sign marks the presence of a cashpoint so it seems it still serves the town:-

Stonehaven was once the county town of Kincardineshire but that county has since been incorporated into Aberdeenshire.

Corner site; typical north-eastern granite construction:-

Round the corner. Good detailing and glazing around the entrance to that middle shop :-

The Deco theme continues for the next three shops. Again note the glazing. The leftmost shop here is the street entrance to the Carron Restaurant. In the link I say it’s the rightmost shop but I hadn’t visited Stonehaven when I made that post. Sadly when I was there the restaurant was closed again due to the retirement of its owners. I understand it has since been reopened once more:-

Rightmost shop; good stonework detail above door:-

Very minor deco, up a side street:-