DOON AT THE MAINS
The term 'Mains' in the Scottish idiom signifies land in cultivation round the 'Big Hoose' or residence of the heritor and sometimes referred to the Home Farm but sometimes the main farm of the area. The latter was the case at Kemnay. The estate map of 1792 shows the area that is now the site of the central part of the village as 'MAINS'. There is a reference to the Mains in the Kirk Session records of 1745: the Minr informed that there having been a young child exposed and laid down at James Moir's door in the Mains on widnesday's night last, and he hearing likeas the weeping of a child and some noise about his door, and thereon arising from his bed to see the matter found the child in his door, and looking towards the Mains Seed two men riding sharply off that way. The child was baptised 'James Mains' and the Kirk had to pay a 'milk woman' to look after the child.
The accompanying picture shows the area round the present day square with a line of buildings along the side of the road where the chemist's shop now is. A building is also shown where the co-op shop is situated. The next building was the school, just off the bottom right of the picture and the road passed by the school and met up with the present day road to Leschangie near to the entrance to Greenkirtles. This was the road to Aberdeen, skirting Sunnyside and the Horner and on to the Cottown of Kintore.
As agricultural practices improved and land came under the control of one tenant rather than each individual area having a separate piece of land, new buildings were required to accommodate the extra crops the ground produced and to house the extra stock that could now be overwintered. Considerable changes took place in the area over the next sixty or so years. First, the land was improved and steadings built along with a dwelling house at the Mains. The whole character of the area had changed by the mid 19th century andwith the arrival of the railway came visions of improved prosperity in the area. The laird, Alexander George Burnett, commissioned Aberdeen architect James Henderson to prepare a development plan covering the area enclosed by Grove Road, Station Road as far as Church Lane, but this fanciful scheme never came to fruition. James Henderson, however, prepared plans for a replacement to the farmhouse at the Mains in 1860. It is believed that this was rather a small four roomed cottage not unlike the four to be found on the left hand side of Paradise Road today, from Alma to Meus Cottage.