Tarland – Making Picture-Perfect Memories for life

Day 5: 15 August 2019 – Tarland

Our next stop was not a planned one. Somewhere along the road I missed a turnoff or took the wrong turnoff. I am not complaining it was a beautiful road and the scenery was also breathtaking. Google maps also could not tell us where we are. We were on a unknown road. The first village we came across was Tarland.

For two days now I have been looking for information on Tarland and even the website don’t really give you any information on the history of the village.

Tarland (Gaelic: Turlann) is a village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland and is located 5 miles (8 km) northwest of Aboyne, and 30 miles (50 km) west of Aberdeen.

Tarland War Memorial

The Tarland war memorial stands in the village square looking east. It commemorates the dead from both World War I and II. It is a solid rectangular rough hewn block of granite sitting upright with names for World War II on a smooth face on the front. Below that is a later small angled plaque with the names for World War II. It sits on a two-step base. The monument is surmounted by the figure of a kilted soldier in battle dress, head bent holding an inverted rifle. It is surrounded by a low iron railing. It was sculpted in 1920 by Robert Morrison of E Morren, Aberdeen. The column is inscribed at the top, ‘WE GRATEFULLY REMEMBER ALL THE MEN OF THIS PARISH WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR KING AND COUNTRY IN THE GREAT WAR’.

MacRobert Memorial Hall

The Tarland Welfare Trust was formed in 1951 for the purpose of building, equipping and maintaining a new village hall in Tarland. The land and money to build the Hall were gifted to the community by Lady MacRobert and hence its name. The Trustees of the Tarland Welfare Trust own and manage the Hall on behalf of the community under a ‘Declaration of Trust’. This states that the Memorial Hall be built ‘with a view to providing improved amenities and facilities for the public, so that the Hall may be run in the manner most beneficial to the Community’.