What is "fordoun"

Fordoun (Pronounced "For-Dun") is a parish and village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Fothirdun (possibly "the lower place"), as it was historically known, was an important area in the Howe of the Mearns. Fordoun and Auchenblae, together with their immediate districts form the Parish of Fordoun with the Parish Church in the vicinity of the original settlement, now absorbed by Auchenblae.

In the 19th Century a railway station was opened approximately 3 miles to the South East of Fordoun Church and the original settlement. A village grew at the site of the railway named Fordoun Station (opened in November 1849 and closed in June 1956) where there were also a number of shops, but only a pub and a seasonal farm shop remain. In the time since the founding of the railway station the village formerly known as Fordoun Station has come to be known simply as Fordoun and the site of original settlement has been absorbed by Auchenblae.

• John of Fordun (d. c. 1384), Scottish Chronicler was born in the Parish of Fordoun.
• James Burnett, Lord Monboddo (1714–99), judge on the Court of Session lived at Monboddo House, a 17th-century house in the parish. He was author of The Origin and Progress of Man and Language, a study of evolution that predated the work of Charles Darwin.
• James Beattie (1735–1803), Scottish scholar and writer was born in Laurencekirk and first worked as schoolmaster in Fordoun. He became Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logic at Marischal College and is noted for his Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth (1770) and poem The Minstrel.