County in Scotland
Angus
The Stone of Destiny was stolen from Westminster Abbey in 1950 and turned up at Arbroath Abbey. Angus has a habit of being where Scotland's big moments happen.
Key information
- County
- Angus
- Nation
- Scotland
- Population
- about 116,000 (2011 Census)
- Area
- about 2,200 square kilometres
- Known for
- Arbroath smokies, the Declaration of Arbroath, Glamis Castle, Peter Pan's creator, Carnoustie golf, Aberdeen-Angus cattle
- What locals are called
- Angus folk (Arbroath's football fans are the Red Lichties)
- Famous people
- J. M. Barrie, Bon Scott, Hugh Watson
- Football clubs
- Arbroath, Brechin City, Forfar Athletic, Montrose
About Angus
The night the Stone of Destiny came to Arbroath
On Christmas Day 1950, four Scottish students took the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey. The stone is the ancient coronation seat of Scottish kings. The theft was one of the great capers of the century, and the stone ended up in Angus. In April 1951 it was left at the high altar of Arbroath Abbey, wrapped in a Saltire, and handed back to the authorities. The place was chosen because of what the abbey stands for. In 1320 a letter was sent to the Pope from here, or in the name of the abbey's circle. This is the Declaration of Arbroath. It argued that Scotland was an independent kingdom and that a king who gave up its freedom could be replaced. Its best-known line says that as long as a hundred of the Scots remain alive, they will never submit to English rule. Every April, Tartan Day events in North America nod to it. The abbey itself was founded in 1178 by William the Lion and dedicated to Thomas Becket, who had been murdered only eight years earlier. Its red sandstone ruins, with a great round window, still dominate the town.
A smoky pair of haddock and a very Angus pie
The Arbroath smokie is a haddock, salted and tied in pairs, then hung over a hardwood fire in half-barrels until the skin turns coppery and the flesh turns tender. The method is said to come from the fishing village of Auchmithie, just up the coast, before it moved into Arbroath itself. The name has had European Protected Geographical Indication status since 2004, so a real smokie has to be made around Arbroath. Then there is the Forfar bridie, a semicircle of pastry wrapped around seasoned minced beef and onion. It is eaten hot, in the hand, and it looks like a Cornish pasty's more sensible Scottish cousin. Forfar bakers take it seriously, and the town's football fans are called the Loons. Cattle have a place on the menu too. The Aberdeen-Angus breed was developed from the native hornless black cattle of this area and Aberdeenshire. Hugh Watson of Keillor, near Newtyle, is remembered as one of its great early improvers in the early 1800s. His herd helped spread the breed around the world.
Castles, ghosts and a very famous birth
Glamis Castle sits in the fertile Strathmore valley. It was the childhood home of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, later the Queen Mother, and in 1930 her daughter Princess Margaret was born here. Shakespeare made Macbeth the Thane of Glamis, though the real castle has little to do with the real Macbeth. It has plenty of ghost stories, including a tale of a secret room, which have kept visitors and writers speculating for generations. A little further north, Edzell Castle has a walled garden of 1604 with carved panels and a pattern of heraldic recesses in which flowers were once planted. It is among the most unusual gardens in Scotland. Then there are the Pictish stones. At Aberlemno, a carved cross slab stands beside the road, and nearby a stone shows a battle scene. Many link it to the Battle of Dunnichen in 685, when the Picts defeated the Northumbrians.
The man who would not grow up came from Kirriemuir
J. M. Barrie was born in Kirriemuir in 1860, in a small weaver's cottage that is now a museum. He went on to create Peter Pan, and the town has not forgotten it. Locals call it Kirrie, and the red sandstone town has a Peter Pan statue to match. Another Kirriemuir name travelled just as far. Bon Scott, the AC/DC singer, was born in Forfar in 1946 and spent his early childhood in Kirriemuir before the family emigrated to Australia. A statue in his honour stands in the town, and fans still visit it. Brechin has its own oddity. Beside its cathedral stands a round tower from about the year 1000. It is one of only two of its kind surviving in Scotland, the other being at Abernethy. Brechin City's nickname, the Hedgemen, comes from the hedge that runs along one side of Glebe Park.
Golf, goals and a lighthouse in the sea
Carnoustie is among the toughest links in the world. Ben Hogan won his only Open Championship here in 1953. In 1999 Jean van de Velde needed only a double bogey on the last hole and instead took a triple bogey, then lost a playoff to Paul Lawrie. The course is nicknamed Carnasty. Arbroath FC hold a world record, a 36-0 win over Bon Accord in 1885. On the same day, Dundee Harp beat Aberdeen Rovers 35-0. Gayfield Park stands so close to the North Sea that sea spray can blow across the pitch in a storm. Out at sea, 11 miles off Arbroath, stands the Bell Rock Lighthouse. Robert Stevenson built it between 1807 and 1810 on a reef that is covered at high tide. It is the oldest surviving sea-washed lighthouse in the world. Arbroath's Signal Tower museum tells its story. Montrose adds its own claims: its tidal basin is a haven for geese and swans, and in 1913 the town's air station became one of the first military airfields in Britain.
Where the glens begin
Inland, the county rises into the Angus Glens: Clova, Prosen, Isla, Lethnot and Esk. They cut deep into the southern Cairngorms. This is red deer and golden eagle country, and walkers heading for the Munros of Glen Clova will often have the hills to themselves. The county's name has changed with time. For centuries it was Forfarshire, and it was officially renamed Angus in 1928, reviving an older name. The Angus Folk Museum at Glamis once displayed everyday country life, from kitchens to farm tools, but it has permanently closed.