Hopeman (Scottish Gaelic: Hudaman) is a seaside village in Moray, Scotland, on the coast of the Moray Firth, founded in 1805 to house and re-employ people displaced during the Highland clearances. The population is around 1 000 people in approximately 670 households.
Contents |
Having been founded quickly at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the old part of Hopeman has a fairly straightforward gridlock street layout. The main part of the village is set back from the beach, with the village green (a large bowl in the ground with a playground and skate park) splitting the two. The B9012 passes west to east to the south of the village. The main street, Harbour Street, runs north to south from the harbour to its junction with the B9012, and is home to most of the important shops and eateries in Hopeman (such as the butcher's, Miele's the ice-cream-centred restaurant and the fish and chip shop. Hopeman Lodge is on the east side of the village. The largest house in Hopeman, it was once used by nearby Gordonstoun school but is now a hotel. Hopeman Golf Course is to the east of the Lodge.
Hopeman has two large sandy beaches split by the manmade harbour. Both are very popular with the town residents, especially dog walkers. The West Beach is the smaller of the two. The East Beach is larger, surrounded by large, grassy sand dunes, and has colourful beach huts and large rocky areas with excellent rockpools (the one at the eastern edge is known as Daisy Rock). Just to the east of it is a far smaller hidden beach made up of stones and large rock formations rather than sand. There are quite a few birds to be found on the beach, such as the herring gull, the great black-backed gull, the black-headed gull, the curlew and the oystercatcher. The areas of gorse heathland surrounding the eastern beaches are home to the whitethroat, the robin and the yellowhammer. Now and then bottlenose dolphins turn up in the Moray Firth off the coast of Hopeman, from where they can easily be seen. Hopeman Harbour is in the middle of East Beach and West Beach. It is small and now mainly houses pleasure vessels. In the past it was operational for landing fish caught by fisherman from the village.
Hopeman Primary School is located in the centre of the village and educates around 250 students. The catchment area is Hopeman and surrounding villages of Duffus and Cummingston. The head teacher is Davina Farquhar, assigned the job in June 2006. There are nine classes in the school. It splits into three houses in the summer months for an inter-house competition; the houses are Duff, Cameron and Gordon.
BBC presenter Fiona Bruce traced her family back to the Bruces of Hopeman during an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? in February 2009.
Coordinates: 57°42′30″N 3°26′17″W / 57.70833°N 3.43806°W
|
|||||||
|
|
Wikis
Map
Search
