According to the Oxford English Dictionary, paradise is the ultimate abode of the just or 2. a place or state of complete happiness. Ask any Monymusk old timer what their idea of Paradise is and the questioner would no doubt receive a description of the pleasant woods and woodland walks which lie some two miles upriver from the village.

The same question directed towards an old Kemnay resident would elicit a description of the quarries on the hill to the north east of the village which for around a hundred years provided granite for building work and street paving the length and breadth of the country and beyond.

The earliest reference found in a document of 1624 refers to 'Croft of Paradyce' and by 1734 the spelling was 'Paradyse.' According to William M Alexander in his book, The Place-Names of Aberdeenshire, published by the Third Spalding Club in 1952 Paradise was a term used in the 17th and 18th centuries for an area enclosed and planted. A map of Kemnay Estate, dated 1792, depicts the top of Paradise as 'formerly a plantation of firs'.

A report of the woods on the estate preThe description of the trees continues; 'The original extent of the plantation might have been 60 acres or more, but the greater part of it has been cut down. What remains is on the summit of the hill – the whole of the wood round the base and sides of the slopes with the exception of a few straggling trees being cleared away, so that the ground on which wood now stands does not exceed …. 22 acres. The wood has the appearance of being upwards of sixty years old and is …. in a beautiful state of maturity.'pared in 1855 describes Paradise thus; 'the situation is a knoll of considerable height rising rather abruptly from the surrounding land.' ….. 'On the south side the granite rock comes up near to the surface – an open quarry exists there - but the generality of the hillock seems to be a light fertile soil resting at a moderate depth upon a sub stratum of clay.' The quarry referred to could be the one started by John Burnett in the 1830s when he carried out extensive alterations at Kemnay House. The report was written some three years before John Fyfe started work on the hill.

The description of the trees continues; 'The original extent of the plantation might have been 60 acres or more, but the greater part of it has been cut down. What remains is on the summit of the hill – the whole of the wood round the base and sides of the slopes with the exception of a few straggling trees being cleared away, so that the ground on which wood now stands does not exceed …. 22 acres. The wood has the appearance of being upwards of sixty years old and is …. in a beautiful state of maturity.'

The writer of the report suggested that the time was right to sell the remaining trees which numbered about 136 trees to the acre and consisted of spruce, larch and Scots fir, and should attract a total price of around £616. The timber was very suitable for roofing and building work and would be much sought after in the market if put up for sale.