Welcome to the Virtual Museum
The Virtual Museum tells the history of Foggieloan and the Parish of Marnoch in words, pictures and audio, and as new discoveries are made and contributions received, it will continue to evolve.
For all communities it is vital to preserve local heritage, but for small ones like ours this is not an easy task, as so many of the written records are not held locally. Much of the history of daily life is held in people’s memories and passes away with them.
Our aim is to conserve many of the records and ‘experiences’, and make them accessible. With this in mind, the Association originated the idea of a Virtual Museum to enable Foggieloaners, and those with connections all around the world, to explore their heritage.
Government
Today Aberchirder has a system of local government that many people feel is remote. Learn here how its residents had their own Town Council and Provost for eighty-six years before local government became centralised in the 1970s.
Housing & Utilities
For over 150 years after Foggie was founded, housing conditions were primitive by today’s standards. Learn how Aberchirder’s water and sewage problems were finally solved, improving quality of life, and allowing boundaries to expand.
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Education
Education has always played an important part in the lives of the children of the Parish of Marnoch. Learn here of the many changes that took place both in Aberchirder and the rest of the Parish of Marnoch over the centuries.
Religion
St Marnan, a 7th Century Celtic missionary, gave his name to Marnoch. Learn how Marnoch is famous for an event which led to a religious dispute and split the Church of Scotland, and why today Foggie has four buildings that were once churches.
Commerce
Foggieloan got off to a slow start in terms of industry but eventually became a thriving settlement with a wide range of shops and services. In this section you can learn how most of the shops have now gone but many of the services have survived.
Transport
Alexander Gordon sited his planned village in a rather isolated spot, so Aberchirder has always depended on transport. Learn how various forms of public and private transport have come and gone, leaving the lorry and motor car supreme.
Sports & Leisure
Aberchirder folk have always enjoyed a range of indoor and outdoor leisure activities,. Here you will learn about these, as well as the craze around 1900 for founding sports clubs and public celebrations which have played an important part in village life.
Health & Welfare
People’s health and welfare today are looked after very differently from how they were in earlier times. Here you will learn about Foggie’s doctors and its hospital, as well as how poor people were dealt with before the advent of the welfare state.
Wartime
The three memorials in the Parish of Marnoch testify to the sacrifices made by local people in two world wars. However this section is largely devoted to memories of how World War Two affected the civilians and how they contributed to the war effort.
Picture Gallery
This is where we store the hundreds of photographs in our collection which have not yet been used to illustrate stories. Old school photographs are very popular with our visitors. You will also find such information as we have gathered about them.
Picture Postcards
For a village of its size, Foggie features on a remarkable number of picture postcards. Here you can find hundreds of cards – some with interesting messages – along with information about their publishers, including some little-known local ones.
Print & Sound
In this section of the Museum we have stored a very varied selection of items, including newspaper cuttings, adverts, a list of books with local connections and some local poetry, as well as some audio material. Old maps will also be added.
As you will see as you browse through the contents of the Virtual Museum, much of the content has been contributed by people both local and far flung. We hope this will encourage many more of our visitors to send us stories and pictures to add to the collection. Please use the Contact Us page of the Foggieloan website to get in touch.
This section of a map shows the fermtoun of Foggy Loan and the House of Auchintoul. It was drawn around 1750, more than a decade before Alexander Gordon decided to found his planned village.