Stonehaven War Memorial - Black Hill, Aberdeenshire. - World War I Memorials and Monuments on Waymarking.com

The town of Stonehaven on the east coast of Scotland, first considered erecting a war memorial to the men of the town lost during World War I, at the end of the war, and a War Memorial Committee was set up. Stonehaven architect John Ellis as commissioned to design the memorial in 1921 and a public vote decided on placing it on Black Hill overlooking the town to the south, over a site in the Market Square. Lady Cowdray, who owned the land around the town, donated the site on Black Hill and work began.

The memorial was completed in 1922, and officially unveiled on Sunday 20th May 1923. A procession left the town centre and headed up Bervie Braes to the hill, which included ex-servicemen, territorials, provost magistrates from the town council, church councils, and the War Memorial Committee. A pipe band also came from Aberdeen. Lady Cowdray did the unveiling.

The memorial resembles a ruined Greek temple, signifying the shortened and ruined lives caused by the conflict. Constructed of local sandstone, it is octagonal in plan with doric columns supporting a lintel inscribed with the names of the following battles: Mons, Jutland, Gallipoli, Zeebruge, Marne, Somme, Vimy, and Ypres. Eleven steps lead up a raised dais to a wrought iron gate where, inside the temple is a stone inscribed with the names of the men from Stonehaven. Around the inner face of the temple are tablets inscribed with names from World War II.

The memorial can be reached on foot from the town up Bervie Braes, and then along a path which follows the coastline. The memorial is around three-quarters of a mile south-east of the town centre and is visible from most of the town and also from miles away to the north where it is prominent above the coast.