Fettercairn:Glensaugh No 2, DCNN 1303 – an unfortunate disappointment.

56.89270 -2.54219 Met Office CIMO Assessed Class 4. Originally installed 1857 – Modern Temperature records from 1948.

On first inspection I was optimistic that Fettercairn could be a useful site as part of the long term temperature construction for the UK. Rather oddly, the Met Office appears to be inclined to consistently mark down rural sites for reasons of shading that seem unjust such as the likes of Levens Hall ranked a lowly Class 5. From my own perspective, I do not feel the pursuit of excellence should rule out the good and, in location terms, Fettercairn seems much better than that Met Office Class 4 rating. Is the Met office really claiming this relatively open and flat site is worse than Class 3 Chertsey set inside a solar farm?

Fettercairn is a small but historic village lying 12 miles from the North Sea coast in southern Aberdeenshire. The village name is allegedly derived from the old Pict word for “slope by the thicket” however, the actual weather station is located at the Jame Hutton Institute (JHI) site of Glensaugh and is by no means a steep incline at the “Climate Positive Farming initiative”.

To put any other possible problems in context I have delineated 100 metre and 30 metre radius circles on this Google aerial image.

The JHI website offers this contour mapping showing a slope of 15 metres over 220 metres to the “Glen Burn.”

I find it difficult to understand why this site is not, at worst, Class 3 and is probably a worthy Class 2. There may be unseen issues regarding the fencing though I find that difficult to accept. The tree line is 80 metres distant to the west ruling out Class 1 but surely not a problem for the 30 metre exclusion zone. The college buildings to the north are 45 metres distant and again should not be a problem. I suggest a reliable agricultural research centre such as the James Hutton Institute would go to great lengths to ensure the weather station, a critical function for them, would be a good one.

In historic terms, Fettercairn has hosted a weather station since 1857. I have not been able to identify its specific location but it is very unlikely to be this Glensaugh site, nonetheless there was every indication this location had run since 1948. A 77 year run from what I believed was a good enough site to represent this section of north east Scotland.

So far so good until the adverse factors became apparent.

1974-01-01

1995-01-01

SITE INFORMATION

RESITE SINCE 1974. NO RECORDS 1975-95

Wherever the site was before 1974 is now uncertain as this note is insufficient to locate it.

1996-11-20

Current

IDENTIFIERS

EARLY SITE (DCNN=1303;GAUGE=854144) 1948-1974 AT (37)669782

So all that can now be sure is that the site has records from 1996 which really means they are of limited use. And then it gets worse, the ongoing records have so many very serious gaps that really should not happen at an agricultural college, but so often does as has been noted at sites like Hartpury. For example at Fettercairn just 3 readings were actually taken for the entirety of 2015 – really not what should be expected, indeed totally unacceptable for any site.

The irony though continues, whilst already having an operational Met Office weather station, the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (funded by the self same Department of Science, Innovation and Technology that funds the Met Office) also decided to install its own unit nearby. Whilst the UKCEH may have different site requirements, surely their additional instruments could have been included within the Met Office enclosure rather than an entire duplication of most equipment. The UKCEH site nearby looks like this and seems very poorly located for basic temperature and wind recording. Being automated at least nobody can fail to take observations.

Whilst the Fettercairn site did seem to have some promise for an historic temperature record, the reality under the surface is one totally unsuitability through multiple re-locations and dubious historic data. For once though, the Met Office did not include this site in its long term location specific climate averages listings.

In lieu the Met Office has chosen to refer those readers studying its pages (budding climate scientists perhaps?) to “Undead Zombie” sites such as Forfar No 3 and Arbroath which were both officially closed in 1994. Inverbervie No 2 and Aboyne No 2 both only came into being in 1992. Quite how the actual averages are calculated from sites not even recording is an endless enigma. However, finally, that classic aviation site at Aberdeen Airport that really must go down in climatological folklore for fairly obvious reasons – lest we forget…………

Economics used to be described as the most inexact of sciences, I suggest climate science leaves that way behind for inaccuracy.

Source: https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2025/10/29/fettercairnglensaugh-no-2-dcnn-1303-an-unfortunate-disappointment/