A trip to Maud

Some days ago an ominous yellow warning light came on in our car and the engine began to run as smoothly as a sack full of rats. This morning I set off in some trepidation to the car dealer in Maud, a few miles from home. I was expecting an eye watering bill but it turned out to be an easily fixed broken wire. Thank you to whoever or whatever runs the Universe.

Whilst the car was being resuscitated I had a wander around the village. These days, Maud is an attractive, sleepy little place, but not so long ago it was a busy and important railway town. Maud Junction station was where the single track line north from Aberdeen split into two routes, to the coastal town stations of Peterhead and Fraserburgh. The auction mart in the village was the source of Aberdeenshire beef cattle for transport to all parts of Great Britain and Maud Junction was the major railhead for N. E. Scotland cattle transport.

I was rather taken with the decaying sign over the old and abandoned hairdressers. Not a great advertisment for the quality of the haircuts on offer, indeed positively scary!

The "extra" is an echo of the railway history of the town, an old shed made from an ancient railway wagon of some kind.