Mackie Place - A Hidden Gem

Mackie Place, just off Skene Street, perhaps the least-known street in Aberdeen, which hides an architectural gem - an 18th century ogee-gabled house, 4-5 Mackie Place. Its original companion, no. 6, was demolished, but was known as the 'White House' or 'The Galleries' - hence 'Whitehouse Street' just up the road from where the house had been extremely prominent. (Whitehouse Street has been curtailed by Skene St, and probably did stretch right back to Mackie Place once upon a time)

I have long been fascinated with this little secret den - for indeed, it is one of the few places left where the Denburn, Aberdeen's original river, flows in the open! When these houses were built they were in the countryside practically, just up from Jack's Brae and the Hardweird, two communities that have now disappeared under the modern Denburn Health Centre. The houses here even had a little bridge over the river, so it was practically an island.

The folk who lived in the Galleries were a bit kooky and eccentric - the Forbes family and their friends - they even had their own magazine called 'The Castle Spectre' after a Gothic play of the same name written by a Matthew Lewis. They were fond of dressing up on dark nights as ghosts and reinforcing the area's reputation for being haunted!

The landowner, Robert Mackie, who owned most of the feus (parcels of land) along this upper bank of the river, was also friends with John Jack, the manufacturer, after whom Jack's Brae was named.

Now Mackie Place is a forgotten secret garden of sorts, and if you walk along Skene Street past a big 19th century block called 'Skene Place', you'll come to what looks like a little alleyway - that is the entry to this hidden hollow - indeed, its Gaelic name was believed to mean 'the hollow of the flowing water'. Walk down and stand on the little bridge where you'll see the Denburn - usually a trickle in summer, but when in spate it's a regular cataract.

History is under your feet, and on your doorstep, you just need to keep your eyes open!!

(for more on Mackie Place, see this blog entry!)